Topaz (fine sherry colored crystal) (ex Dave Bergman Collection)

Item Description

A superb small cabinet sized specimen of gorgeous gemmy sherry colored Topaz from Pakistan. For a few decades, Dassu has produced some of the finest Topaz specimens from any locality in the world in terms of color, crystal form, quality size and gemminess. This gorgeous specimen was mined in the late 1980s and is a very sharp, highly lustrous, robust, prismatic crystal of Topaz with good internal transparency in areas. The color is a soft sherry hue, (NOT colorless), but the piece must be kept out of the light as much as possible for it to retain its color, or it will eventually turn completely colorless. The termination features superb quality, well-formed faces which are smooth, glistening and undamaged. At first glance, you might think the back of the crystal is broken, but if you look closely, you'll see that it's re-crystallized ("re-healed") as there are tiny crystal faces that can be seen reflecting all over. This means that this crystal is nearly a complete "floater", which is significant for this material, as most Topaz crystals from Dassu are broken/contacted on one end. The piece honestly looks better in person than the photos might indicate. You don't see nearly as many of these pieces from Pakistan on the market as compared to several years ago, and a showy piece like this is certainly desirable from this well-known locale in the high mountains of Pakistan. A fantastic gem crystal display specimen for any collector. Specimen weight = 331.21 grams. From the collection of Colorado mining legend, Dave Bergman. Dave is now retired, but among other things, he was the foreman and primary person in charge of recovering specimens at the famous Sweet Home Mine near Alma, Colorado during the late 1970s. He is also the maternal grandfather of Brian Kosnar. See Dave's photo mining at the Sweet Home on page 58 of Peter Bancroft's book "Gem and Crystal Treasures". Retail price on this one is $5,000.