Detailed information
Dimensions
67 x 58 x 52
mm
Locality
Cruzeiro mine São José da Safira, Doce valley Minas Gerais, Brazil
Condition
No recorded repairs
This small cabinet sized Cruzeiro mine tourmaline-Quartz combination piece is perfectly balanced aesthetically. With almost equal sized Quartz and Elbaite crystals, juxtaposed with bright colours and white, and a narrow, flat-topped prism as opposed to a pyramidally terminated prism, the contrasts are everywhere and work perfectly. The Elbaite crystal, at 5.5 cm in length is strikingly beautiful with an extremely glassy lustre and rich colour-zoning from raspberry-red prism body through to a short teal-blue tip. Its termination although glassy and flat, also presents very slight sloping corners, representing the slightest development of pyramidal faces. The very base of the Elbaite crystal is missing, as shown by the short cast left behind in the Quartz and, despite two noticeable zones of thin greyish green passing though the lower part of the tourmaline crystal it has no recorded repairs, just natural healed fractures. The Quartz crystal is also remarkably glassy and extremely shapely. Combined, the Quartz and tourmaline produce a dazzling small cabinet specimen that sits perfectly for display.