Aquamarine with Tantalite-(Mn) (ex Francesco Bedogne Collection)

Item Description

A cool old time specimen from Pakistan (erroneously labeled as coming from Stak Nala originally) featuring sharp, prismatic, gemmy, soft blue color hexagonal crystals of Aquamarine measuring up to 2.6 cm associated with a pair of prismatic, dark reddish-black colored crystals of Tantalite-(Mn) measuring up to 9 mm associated with Muscovite sitting on etched Feldspar matrix. Good shape all around, and this association is not common from Pakistan. This is definitely an older specimen, probably dating back around 25-30 years. From the worldwide collection of famed Italian mineral collector, field collector and author, Francesco Bedogne of Sondrio, Italy (Collection #551). Bedogne wrote dozens of articles and several books about the mineralogy of Italian Alpine localities such as Val Bregaglia, Val Masino, Val Codera, Val Spluga, Valtellina and the famous Val Malenco. He was also the founder of the Valtellinese Mineralogical Institute.