Tourmaline and Topaz with Albite - ex Meieran

Item Description

Stak Nala is known since the 1980s for tourmaline with this distinct habit and style, usually zoned in a mix of green and black colors. This is a highly unusual, probably older specimen, featuring zones of tourmaline with no color at all (achroite) that make up the fine, gemmy terminations sitting atop the traditional interior core of dark green-black. The zoning is highly unusual! The largest vertical crystal is 7 cm tall, with 4 cm standing above the wreath of cleavelandite. In person, the style here is VERY distinctive and I cannot say we have seen another like it. The clear zones atop are gemmy, window transparent, and really dramatic, generally 1 cm thick and tall, at least. As most of these large Stak Nala pieces are repaired, we looked for repairs and there do not seem to be any (with a UV light, there is no glue showing at the one single hairline crack I see, and it seems that this is not a repair). Strangely, we found that the lone associated topaz (rare for Stak Nala!) fluoresces yellow under UV light, which is unusual. Topaz is present as one little 2 cm crystal at the base of the specimen, but a nice little bonus! Lastly, the cleavelandite crystals themselves are elegant, translucent, and gracile, quite different from the usual opaque style we see from here. The piece is simply unique. A remarkable, complete, 360 degree tourmaline from Pakistan, this is the kind of breadth and depth in the Meieran collection, as tourmaline is about more than the kind of "big color hogs" we see pictured everywhere. This is a subtle, complex specimen I have always admired. From the tourmaline suite of the Gene Meieran Collection. Valued north of $10-12k.