Schorl Tourmaline

Item Description

A wonderful specimen of black Schorl Tourmaline from the famous Pala District in southern California featuring a trio of robust, sharp, lustrous, striated trigonal prisms, associated with minor pinkish-beige Feldspar on the back. Two of the Schorl crystals are doubly-terminated, and the piece is very close to being a "floater" as it's crystallized most of the way around (there is some incompleteness on the back due to either etching or interruption of growth against the pocket wall. No major damage that I can find, but there are some "rubs" in a few spots, which keeps it from being completely perfect. Overall it's a very impressive and showy example of Tourmaline from one of the most well-known Tourmaline-producing areas in the world. 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.