fibrous Tourmaline on Tourmaline

Item Description

RARE, bizarre, old-time tourmaline on tourmaline specimen from the renowned Cruzeiro Mine. A 9.4 cm, lustrous, striated, olive-green tourmaline is fantastically overgrown and partially enveloped by a stunning large "ball" of fibrous tourmaline, that includes a few smaller embedded tourmaline crystals. Some of the fibrous needles are soft to the touch, adding an additional surreal element to the otherworldly specimen. How these strange things form and why they do not glom together like normal tourmaline, ew have no idea - but seldom do you see both styles in association. Unique tourmaline from 1970s finds at the Cruzeiro. Ex Michel Jactat Collection, a retired (we should say semiretired, at age 80) French dealer who specialized in Brazil minerals.