Silver (''Spinel'' twins)

Item Description

A wonderful toenail / large thumbnail sized Native Silver specimen from the classic locality at Batopilas. It features excellent, sharp, Spinel-law twinned, "Herringbone"-style crystals with a beautiful patina forming a "fan" or "sail"-shape, free of matrix. The wonderful form is part of what makes Batopilas such a great locality, as you almost never see this type of crystallized Silver from anywhere else. They are immediately distinguished from all other Silver specimens around the world. Overall, this is a highly attractive classic Silver specimen from this important Mexican locality. 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.