Tourmaline on Quartz

Item Description

This large, massive quartz specimen is a good quartz from the Himalaya Mine on its own merit, without any tourmaline additions. The Himalaya just did not produce so many large quartzes of good quality, and was heavily disrupted geologically so large specimens are rare in any case. Usually large crystals are repaired and heavily damaged - this is not repaired and has only a little damage (mostly to the top-termination facing to the right, out of sight) This is what I like to call a "pocket piece" in that it really illustrates nicely how gem crystals form in the ground. There are 3 tourmalines hanging off the quartz, that you would have expected to fall off and be loose but here they are, no repairs. The gemmier crystal, showing classic Himalaya pink color, is 2 inches plus some extra stalk below the gem area. The second crystal, totally different, is another classic style from the mine. It shows bicoloration and is doubly-terminated, snugly anchored into the quartz on one edge. It is also 2 inches long. A third, slightly shorter but fatter bicolored crystal sits on the backside. The tourmalines are undamaged. Valued $2500-4500 I think depending where you are - sometimes these go for a lot more in San Diego County, where folks really appreciate how rare the large pegmatite association pieces are from this mine