Tourmaline & Smoky Quartz on Microcline (Reynolds Coll.)

Item Description

A major large schorl/tourmaline combination specimen from this less well-known San Diego County pegmatite - the Blue Lady Mine. An impressive 9.3 cm, lustrous, striated, parallel-growth crystal with multiple terminations dramatically dominates this sculptural and rich piece. The blocky microcline matrix is richly littered with smaller jackstraw tourmalines to 3.0 cm and nicely complemented by two terminated smoky quartz crystals, to 2.8 cm. The tourmalines appear to be mostly black schorls, but bright light reveals hints of dark grayish greenish to purplish black schorl. The Blue Lady is best known for indicolite tourmaline, beryl and schorl crystals. The large tourmaline has one repair, which is certainly acceptable in the context of pegmatite species. Ex Bob Reynolds Collection, a well-known fossil and mineral expert and former Curator of the San Bernardino County Museum. He passed away in 2020. The rare phyllomanganate-chromate species Reynoldsite was named in his honor in 2011. A significant, important and aesthetic tourmaline combination from the locale dating to the 1980s and 1990s mining.