Beryl var: Aquamarine with Albite (''floater'' specimen)

Item Description

Several decades ago, it was fairly difficult to get good gem quality crystals of Aquamarine. If you go back about 40 years, there was very little available on the market in terms of good crystals of Aquamarine for collectors. Prior to Pakistan, most of the Aquamarine crystals in the world from places like Brazil or Russia were loose singles off matrix. Today there are many places in the world where you can get a good quality Aqua. This beautiful and showy small cabinet display specimen features a predominant, sharp, lustrous, GEMMY, hexagonal crystal of gorgeous Aquamarine with attached white Albite and minor black prisms of Schorl. At first you might dismiss the Aqua as being broken on the base, but if you look closely on the underside of the specimen, you'll see that it's completely recrystallized ("re-healed") and the piece is a "floater" with no point of attachment. Originally it was connected to the pocket wall, but was likely shaken loose due to tectonic activity, and the piece finished crystallizing at the spot where it was detached. I can't find any major damage anywhere on the piece. No etching, just incredibly smooth, well-formed faces (including very thin second order prism faces, so this is a 12-sided crystal, not just 6 sides). A great example of this classic material from this storied part of Pakistan. Priced in the inventory at $2,000. Specimen weight is 24.50 grams.