Tourmaline on Quartz (from the late 1800s!)

Item Description

Mount Mica is one of the most important and well-known pegmatite localities in Maine. Historically, it is one of the great early gem localities in United States, dating back to the early 1800s. It is because of places like Mount Mica that Tourmaline was selected as the state mineral, and collectors are always on the hunt for fine display specimens, ESPECIALLY those on matrix, which are rare from this historic quarry. This showy cabinet specimen features a 9.1 cm prismatic crystal of bright green Tourmaline with good luster and fairly decent internal translucency when backlit, sitting on massive slightly smoky colored Quartz matrix. The color really stands out on this one, as a lot of the green Tourmalines from this locality can be either a bit darker or even duller, and require backlighting to see their hue more properly, but this one has a brightness that is easy to see even in reflected light. Now the Tourmaline is not terminated, and the back is contacted where the piece was separated from the pocket, but the front of the crystal is in superb shaped, and the piece is still very eye-catching as the Tourmaline is aesthetically flaring out of the Quartz matrix. Perhaps the greatest point of value / interest in this specimen is that it is well over 100 years old, as it was collected in the late 1800s. Pieces of this age / provenance are exceedingly rare on the market, you can only find them typically in old museum collections, so this is a rare opportunity to acquire a big, colorful, antique MATRIX specimen from what might be the most important Tourmaline locality on the entire East Coast of the United States. Valued $3,500
From the collection of George Elling, a prominent East Coast collector, with a label from William G. Petronis stating it was once in the Howard Irish collection.