Tourmaline (classic material)

Item Description

A wonderful full-sized cabinet display specimen of the classic Tourmalines from Power's Farm (also called Bower Powers Farm or the old Ryland Crary Farm) in the town of Pierrepont in upstate New York, about 30 miles from the Canadian border. This locality is best known for its iconic Tourmaline crystals, which were originally classified as Schorl, and then later Uvite (iron-bearing), but now further analysis has shown that some crystals are Dravite, while others are part of the Fluor-uvite-Uvite Series. It should be noted that some of the crystals contain both Dravite and Uvite, so it's essentially impossible identify them visually, and they can only be accurately identified by the distinctions in their chemistry. With that said, we're leaving this one labeled simply as "Tourmaline". You don't see a lot of robust and showy cabinet specimens like this for sale on the market today. This piece is filled with excellent, very sharp, rather lustrous, trigonal black crystals measuring up to 2.1 cm, sitting on a matrix composed of light smoky colored Quartz crystals, along with tan and beige Microcline and Albite feldspar. Overall the piece is in fine shape, with no major damage that I can see, though there are minor imperfections. Perhaps my favorite aspect of the piece is that it's nearly a complete "floater", as it's crystallized all over, including all the Quartz crystals on the back, but I can see some very small areas of attachment, so I have to say that it's not quite 100% crystallized on all sides. A very impressive piece of what are some of the most well-known Tourmalines from any East Coast locality. From the collection of Dick Hauck. Dick is an avid collector of minerals, books, and mining memorabilia, along with being an accomplished author in the mineral world. Arguably, his greatest claim to fame is being the co-founder of the Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg, NJ. Dick purchased the land on which the Sterling Hill Mine resides in 1988, and the museum has been running strong since.