Tourmaline (3 crystal set)

Item Description

The famous Himalaya Mine in San Diego County, California has produced some of the most iconic Tourmaline crystals from any US locality. The fine color and quality of the crystals has made them iconic, and they often show multiple hues within the same crystal. Here we have a lovely 3-crystal set featuring distinctly different pieces, the first is nearly 100% pink (there is a very pale greenish hue on the terminations), while the second shows a combination of rich pink on the termination, and a classic green hue on the base, and the last crystal has a blue-green "cap", which grades into a soft pink shade with a wonderful dark green color at the base. All of the crystals are very gemmy, with high luster and beautiful thin striations on the prism faces. A fine quality gem crystal set from this historic locality. The specimens range from 3.2 x 0.6 x 0.6 cm to 2.1 x 1.0 x 0.8 cm Valued at $1,200-$1,500 together.
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.