Tourmaline with Quartz on Albite (ex Burnett Collection)

Item Description

A classic three-dimensional display specimen from one of the most celebrated pegmatite localities in the United States, and especially in San Diego County. The Little Three Mine is famous for it's fantastic natural blue Topaz crystals, which are arguably the finest from any locality in North America, along with several other traditional granitic pegmatite minerals like Tourmaline. This particular specimen features a 3.5 cm long, sharp, lustrous, prismatic trigonal crystal of Tourmaline associated with a few Smoky Quartz crystals sitting on a bed of bladed cream colored Albite (var: Cleavelandite). At first, I thought the Tourmaline was simply an opaque black Schorl, but with strong backlighting, you can see there is a rich golden hue that comes through. The piece is in very good shape, with no major damage, outside of the periphery where the piece was removed from the pocket wall. Overall, it's a showy and good quality example from many years ago (presumably the 1970s) and would make a great addition to any gem crystal collection or a suite of San Diego County minerals. Priced at $1,800 in the inventory. From the collection of Lee B. Burnett of Morrison, Colorado (#LB 352).