Aquamarine (unusual crystal habit) with Tantalite-(Mn) inclusions

Item Description

This wonderful small cabinet display specimen is not your typical Aquamarine from Pakistan. First off, the habit of the crystal is quite different from what we're used to seeing, as most Pakistani Aquas are long slender prisms, but THIS piece features a stout, thick, tabular crystal, which is rarely seen from anywhere in Pakistan. The Aqua itself is a fantastic, sharp, highly lustrous, well-formed, GEM/gemmy, light blue color hexagonal crystal measuring 5.6 cm and it's aesthetically perched atop snow-white aggregates of Albite (var: Cleavelandite) matrix. If you look near the center of the Aqua, you can see a tiny "star"-like crystal group of Tantalite-(Mn) completely frozen inside, which actually glows a deep red color with backlit. No damage on the front face of the Aqua, but it's not complete on the back where it was removed from the pocket wall. Excellent quality, and a wonderful rarely seen crystal habit for the locality. Priced at $1,800 in our inventory. This specimen was collected circa 1992-1993.