Spherical Amethyst (''grapes'')

Item Description

Quartz is arguably the most diversified species in the world. It is found in wide variety of styles, habits and colors. Here we have a beautiful example of these unique specimens from Indonesia which are commonly referred to as "Grape Agate" or "Grape Chalcedony" for obvious reasons. They are fairly new to the market, and they are singular as they do not resemble any other Quartz specimens we've seen. They are not Agate or Chalcedony, but in fact they are micro-crystallized on the surface, so this is not a cryptocrystalline variety of Quartz, this is truly purple crystallized Quartz = Amethyst. The pieces were analyzed by Dr. George Rossman at CalTech and determined to be Amethyst due to the microcrystallization. More info on page 101-102 of the Journal of Gemmology https://gem-a.com/jog-volume-36-issue-2 . As you can see, these specimens got their nickname due to the fact that they are purple and genuinely resemble bunches of grapes. Very little of this material seems to be out there now, and perhaps it is drying up. If you missed out on these when they first came out, this is a great opportunity to pick up a really attractive specimen for a great piece. This piece is filled with excellent, translucent, sparkling "balls" or spheroids measuring up to about 4 mm which are tightly intergrown and are visible literally on every side of the specimen. The color is a consistent medium purple hue throughout. The piece is crystallized all over, but there are some contacted points of attachment where it was separated from the pocket wall. There is a lot of Quartz in the world, but these pieces are truly unique and would make a superb addition to any Quartz suite.