Aquamarine, Feldspar ex. Soltau Coll

Item Description

Resting against a doubly-terminated, twinned, ivory-colored feldspar crystal is a large, 10 cm-tall, intensely bicolored aquamarine. It is glassy and partly translucent. A secondary overgrowth of mica on both the feldspar and the back side of the aqua has formed a natural arch, giving the specimen incredible architecture and a bit of an accent. The feldspar twin is about 6 cm across. Also very unusual is that the termination of the aqua is nearly pristine, rare in a specimen of this size from the Erongos, where most aquas tend to be smallish in size... In fact, this is a monster crystal for the district. This specimen is from a small lot deal of part of the Heini Soltau collections (he is a well-known Namibian collector), and was valued wholesale at about 1600 euro by my consignor (about $2300). I believe that to be more than fair given the significance of the size and that it is not repaired, for this district.