Amethyst (scepters and reverse scepters) (ex Dave Bergman Collection)

Item Description

Here we have a great small cabinet size piece consisting of excellent quality, sharp, gemmy, prismatic, purple Amethyst crystals that show very slight scepter habits and more pronounced "reverse" scepter habits, plus simple prisms sitting on translucent, modified rhombic Calcite on matrix. The largest Amethyst crystal measures 2.1 cm long. Normally, one would not notice the mention of such a common species like Calcite, but despite its frequency around the world, it's RARE from Bolivia. This piece is remarkable for Bolivia as it features a type of crystallization for Amethyst that is virtually unheard of for this country. This is one of the better pieces from the find for quality, aesthetics, diversity of crystal habits and overall appeal. This locality is completely finished, and VERY little is available now. A cool association specimen of this now very hard to find material. From the collection of Colorado mining legend, Dave Bergman, who received the piece as a gift from his daughter (Tresa Kosnar) in 2003. Dave is now retired, but among other things, he was the foreman and primary person in charge of recovering specimens at the famous Sweet Home Mine near Alma, Colorado during the late 1970s. He is also the maternal grandfather of Brian Kosnar. See Dave's photo mining at the Sweet Home on page 58 of Peter Bancroft's book "Gem and Crystal Treasures". The piece was given to Dave as a gift by his son-in-law, Rich Kosnar in June of 1984 and the hand-written label from Kosnar accompanies the piece.