Tourmaline (old classic)

Item Description

Bizarre form on this classic and excellent old-time polychrome tourmaline from the famous Santa Rosa Mine of MInas Gerais. The highly unusual tabular, notched terminated crystal has a striking "bench" on the base of the back. The glassy, highly lustrous prism is well-striated and has an interesting offset pyramidal termination. In normal light we see black schorl at the base grading up to teal-blue with pink and yellow-green at the termination. A thin olive-green rind encases most of the piece. BACKLIGHTING reveals a whole new color world to this fine gemmy/translucent crystal. The termination is a combination of greenish-yellow and pink. A beautiful gemmy zone of teal-blue follows above the bright grass-green gemmy area. The base with the "bench" is black schorl and the bench is covered with a second generation of HORIZONTAL olive-green tourmaline! Complete all-around. The frontal periphery wear at the base and the broken vertical flange to the notch on the back are certainly only minimal detractions to this highly unusual and colorful tourmaline. The Santa Rosa pegmatite was discovered in 1967 and was worked hard until 1973, when the unaltered primary pegmatite was encountered. The mine has been worked intermittently since then. Fascinating form and bright colors make this an outstanding old-time polychrome tourmaline from the 1960s and 70s.