Tourmaline (bi-color)

Item Description

A classic, gemmy, bi-colored Tourmaline crystal from the famous Himalaya Mine, one of the premier Tourmaline-producing localities in the United States. This attractive, euhedral crystal features a beautiful glowing pink hue through the majority of the prism, but the termination is the main focus, as it features a rarely seen and desirable "tea" color. The piece is complete all around, with no damage I can see with the naked eye. The piece is glued to the acrylic base (which has Jack's number painted on it), so we didn't want to remove it and eliminate the integrity of the piece's pedigree, so we don't know the exact weight, but the piece and the base together weigh 38.5 grams for reference. A beautiful and fine quality gem crystal from this prestigious locality with a lovely and infrequently seen colored termination.
From the collection of Jack Halpern No. 2490. Jack was born May 18, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York, but has been a long-time resident of San Francisco. He assembled one of the great mineral collections in the world encompassing over 3,200 specimens with a specific emphasis on color, quality, and style/aesthetics, which is evident in every piece. He admired specimens of all sizes from thumbnails to large cabinets and the vast majority of them rank from fine to world-class in their quality.
Above all else, Jack is considered to be the greatest gentleman in the modern era of mineral collecting. He is beloved by all those who have met him, and he truly is one of the most iconic figures in the mineral world. We recently acquired Jack's collection, and the VAST majority of these pieces will be offered here in the auctions, as we feel that everyone deserves and equal opportunity at acquiring these important, well-documented and fine quality pieces for their collections. We are honored to have the opportunity to offer Jack's treasures to everyone on a regular basis in the auctions.
We encourage you to read our blog post at https://www.irocks.com/the-jack-halpern-collection or his profile on the Mineralogical Record website https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/halpernjack/ for more information