This is a rather unique elbaite. The crystal has a black appearance, although is in fact a very dark elbaite with olive green and dark blue, visible under strong light. And the prism faces are a moderate lustre (silky-glassy). So far sounds pretty average. But the key is the termination: it is capped with a […]

This hydroxylclinohumite has super deep red colour, and is particularly vivid under strong light. It is a beautiful parallel growth crystal measuring 2.0 x 1.6 cm – pretty good size for this species. The last two photos show the back side of the specimen. There is damage at the base of the crystal, both on […]

Super, sharp, lustrous, water-clear crystal of epidote. Some minor internal colour zoning. Complete at the upper side by the termination, the epidote is a bit more feathered, but this is not damage. There are some colourless micro crystals on this part of the crystal which I believe are fluorapatite, although I have not had them […]

This gorgeous aquamarine specimen is special beyond its aesthetics. I acquired it in May, 1990, which makes it an early one of these (and I’ve loved having it in my cabinet since then). In addition, it is a bit different from the specimens of muscovite which include 3-5 aquas – this is host to a […]

Sharp dark red zircon with feldspar and biotite, in a piece with nice contrast. The zircon crystal stands up at the top centre of the specimen (the piece stands perfectly for display on its own), and the exposed length of the crystal is 1.9 cm. No damage – a bit of interrupted growth around the […]

Beautiful sharp wine-coloured zircon crystal, measuring 1.3 cm tall, set in the middle of a light-coloured matrix giving great contrast to the piece. The zircon is glassy, lustrous and a bit translucent. As you can see from the one photograph, the crystal grew against the enclosing mineralization in a way that left the one side […]

This is a remarkable piece – the colours really are as photographed. The red in the small crystal is as good a red as I have ever seen in a zircon. Both crystals have some colour zoning – the larger one trends to a very pleasant pale colour at the termination. The larger crystal measures […]

This is a gem of a crystal – deep red (with some colour zoning), sharp and lustrous. In excellent condition – a tiny nick to the left hand corner as photographed in the first photo – you don’t notice it when admiring this piece. The crystal measures 1.2 cm across, by 1.8 cm long. Beautiful […]

Nice cluster of sharp calcite crystals from Daye, China. The salmon-coloured core zone of each crystal gives the rest of the colourless crystal zones a nice tint. In excellent condition – no damage at all to the two main crystals. Some cleaved tips on smaller ones – clean and not distracting. The large crystal on […]

Excellent sharp, lustrous, glassy calcite crystals from Daye, China. The large crystal measures 5.0 cm and is in excellent condition. At the one end (to the right in the photos), the large crystal terminates (complete terminations) in a way that creates almost a “mouth” from which other sharp crystals emerge. Very cool.

Beautiful, sharp, stacked calcite crystals with excellent lustre from Chenzhou. The key feature of these calcites is that they are in fact comprised of two generations of calcite – there is an internal core of a single white scalenohedral crystal, and it is overgrown by flattened calcite crystals. The flattened crystals have highly lustrous small […]

Beautiful, sharp, stacked calcite crystals with excellent lustre from Chenzhou. The key feature of these calcites is that they are in fact comprised of two generations of calcite – there is an internal core of a single white scalenohedral crystal, and it is overgrown by flattened calcite crystals. The flattened crystals have highly lustrous small […]