Tourmaline with Albite

Item Description

A beautiful, colorful specimen of the now lesser-seen Tourmalines from Madagascar. For a time, these pieces were labeled only as Liddicoatite, but extensive testing has showed that they typically do not contain a single species, and there are often multiple Tourmaline species contained within the same crystals. Further analysis keeps showing us how complex Tourmaline crystals truly are in terms of their chemistry. This piece is a wonderful example of this iconic material featuring what some might call a "Rubellite" color in reflected light on the surface, but when it's backlit, you can see a mixture of colors with warm peach, pink, and yellowish-green hues. There are actually multiple crystals on the piece, as several smaller crystals are growing off of the main crystal in multiple directions. The lower portion of the piece hosts a few thick tabular white crystals of Albite (var: Cleavelandite) for a nice touch. The piece is complete all around with glistening luster on the prism faces. The only imperfections are a few areas of interrupted growth (not broken) on the lower end of the piece, where presumably it was intergrown with either additional Albite or Tourmaline crystals. A very good quality example of these now hard to find specimens from Madagascar, which have dried up in recent years. Specimen weight is 69.7 grams. Valued $4,500.