Tourmaline with Quartz (ex David Burgess Collection)

Item Description

A showy and three-dimensional display specimen featuring a large, thick, prismatic, heavily striated crystal of very dark greenish-black Tourmaline which is associated with a handful of sharp, lustrous, well-formed, gemmy, Smoky Quartz crystals measuring up to 6.0 cm long along with minor bladed white Albite (var: Cleavelandite). Some of the Smoky Quartz crystals are actually doubly-terminated. The top and back of the Tourmaline crystal were at one point contacted, where it was presumably detached from the pocket wall, but if you look closely (especially on the back), you can see that it's completely recrystallized ("re-healed") with hundreds of tiny shimmering crystal faces that show a reflective / chatoyant directional luster when the piece is rotated in the light. I had to look at the back of the piece with a loupe, because I thought at first it was a tiny coverage of Mica crystals, but it's actually tiny golden striated Tourmaline faces. I won't go as far to say the piece is a complete "floater", but it's crystallized nearly all the way around. It's a showy big cabinet piece and would make a great addition to any collection of worldwide Tourmalines or minerals from Pakistan. Priced in the inventory at $1,200. PLEASE NOTE: This specimen is labeled as coming from "Gilgit", but according to the listing on mindat.org, "No mineral localities of note occur in or around Gilgit, but the town is a local center of trade in minerals and gems from the region. Mineral specimens labeled 'Gilgit' are usually from elsewhere in the area". From the worldwide collection of David Burgess (1951-2016). David was a prolific species collector from Newington, Connecticut, and the namesake for the extremely rare cobalt arsenate species Burgessite, which he discovered.