Red Beryl (superb display specimen)

Item Description

Red Beryls from the Wah Wah Mountains of Utah, the only location of significant production, have become another one of those 'holy grail' species for mineral collectors. The best came out in the 1990s and early 2000s and really nothing of the same quality has come out in nearly 20 years now. This is a signifciant and dramatic display specimen collected by John Seibel, (label) the well known field colelctor and friend of claim owner Rex Harris, through whom most were sold at the heyday here. This fine miniature features a 1.5 cm Red Beryl playing king of the mountain with its siblings, stacked one atop another for dramatic effect! This crystal is doubly-terminated, and it has a lovely, cherry-red color that is enhanced by the gemmy to translucent nature of this fine Red Beryl. The crystal is perched like a balancing rock atop the lower crystal, and is certainly repaired (we did not take it apart to check, but it should be repaired, given the delicacy of appearance). In such cases as this, when the aesthetics are high and the rarity is so extreme, a clean repair is of course acceptable. The 3-dimensionality of this one is striking, and different than nearlya ll others which feature flattish crystals embedded in matrix instead of standing stacked above it. These are unique in the Beryl world, and more are not being mined now. This location was once, a few years ago, even mined by Tiffanys looking unsuccessfully for commercial quantities of Red Beryl gem rough for jewelry - but it was too rare to do economically. Red beryls have become ridiculously hard to get at a reasonable price as the supply has drained from the market (and they were never cheap to start with). This was recently deaccessed from the extensive collection of Bob Reynolds, who cherished both minerals and fossils as he collected. Bob is a prolific author and has had several curating positions in museums.  Valued $6000-7500