Rubellite Tourmaline on Quartz

Item Description

This is an impressive, glassy, bubble-gum pink Elbaite Tourmaline crystal from the famous gem pegmatites of Paprok, Afghanistan perched on and wrapped around a Quartz crystal as a companion. True bubblegum pink tourmaline is a rarity here, classic in color but really only found in a few discoveries in the last 3 decades. From the Kurt Hefendehl collection, this should date to the 1990s era when such crystals first stunned us, but few on matrix came out. The whole thing is a floater complete and terminated all around for both species of crystals! This glassy stout, striated pair of crystals is a lovely and bright pastel pink, bubblegum color and they are translucent to locally gemmy in places. Thin whitish pink bands are found within the crystals about one-third of the way up. Both are capped by flat, pinacoid terminations. The larger crystal has a slightly flaring termination and the smaller sidecar crystal gives them both a larger presence on a shelf than their size would otherwise indicate. The Tourmaline pair sit crossways on a milky, slightly smoky Quartz crystal. The Quartz is terminated and translucent underneath, a floater. Also, the pink Tourmaline (Rubellite) crystals taper, and grade progressively upward into a complex termination. As you turn this around in your hand, you can see it is indeed complete all around, and, surprisingly, without any repairs. Valued $15,000 in the collection when we purchased it, and Donated by The Arkenstone/irocks.com

This specimen is part of the 2023 Dallas Mineral Collecting Symposium benefit auction, with proceeds benefiting Mineralogical Record, Rocks & Minerals, Tucson Gem and Mineral Society, and mindat.org. Thanks to all of our participants!

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