Tourmaline (Rubellite)

Item Description

A classic example of the famous Rubellite Tourmaline crystals from the Stewart Lithia Mine in Pala, California. This specimen shows a lovely saturated pink hue throughout, with good internal translucency and bright reflective luster on the striated prism faces. The basal termination has more of a matte luster. There is one small chip on the termination, but overall the piece is in very good shape, and that color is just beautiful in person. A very alluring example of these now hard to find Tourmaline crystals from one of the great gem crystal mines in all of Pala. This piece comes to us from the legendary Ron Romanella (February 28, 1932 - October 24, 2022), a well-known gem and mineral dealer from New York City. He studied mineralogy at Columbia School of Mines, and he was mentored by Dr. Frederick Pough of the American Museum of Natural History, and learned about the business side from well-known mineral dealers Hugh Ford and Maurice Hammoneau. Ron himself was a mentor to other successful East Coast mineral dealers such as Larry Conklin, Herb Obodda and even employed Dave Wilber for a time. He largely transitioned out of selling minerals as his business focused more on gems for the last few decades, and his sons Michael and Jerry have been running the family business in Scottsdale for many years now. With that said, Ron was one of the great powerhouse mineral dealers in the US for many years, offering fine quality specimens and gem crystals from classic and contemporary localities. Among his top achievements, is that Ron is credited with importing the first known crystals of Tanzanite into the US in the 1960s.