Purple Spinel

Item Description

A wonderful older Spinel from Mogok featuring a near "floater" group of sharp, well-formed beautiful purple colored octahedral crystals, with a very minor amount of attached Phlogopite and no matrix. The main octahedron is beautifully accented by several smaller Spinel crystals, creating a gorgeous three-dimensional form. The surface luster is better than most you'll see in this size range as they can get a bit dull when they're larger, and the crystals are well-formed and complete, which is also not as common, as they can get somewhat distorted when they reach this size. When strongly backlit, the crystals show a bit of translucency on the edges, but overall they are mostly opaque. It is virtually impossible to obtain fine quality Spinel specimens from Mogok these days due to political upheaval in Myanmar. No mining is taking place, the mineral market is completely closed down, and what little makes it way out of the country is incredibly expensive based upon reports we're getting. Don't miss out on this older specimen from the 1990s era of mining.
This piece comes to us from the legendary Ron Romanella (February 28, 1932 - October 24, 2022), a well-known gem and mineral dealer from New York City. He studied mineralogy at Columbia School of Mines, and he was mentored by Dr. Frederick Pough of the American Museum of Natural History, and learned about the business side from well-known mineral dealers Hugh Ford and Maurice Hammoneau. Ron himself was a mentor to other successful East Coast mineral dealers such as Larry Conklin, Herb Obodda and even employed Dave Wilber for a time. He largely transitioned out of selling minerals as his business focused more on gems for the last few decades, and his sons Michael and Jerry have been running the family business in Scottsdale for many years now. With that said, Ron was one of the great powerhouse mineral dealers in the US for many years, offering fine quality specimens and gem crystals from classic and contemporary localities. Among his top achievements, is that Ron is credited with importing the first known crystals of Tanzanite into the US in the 1960s.