Tourmaline

Tourmaline / Microlite / Lepidolite (10cm x 5,1cm) Mario Pauwels collection , Joaquim Callén photo. Gorgeous, glassy, transparent, rich pink 'bubblegum' Tourmaline. Note also the flat marbled termination and the pretty large dark Microlite octahedron on the left side below. Several soft-pink Lepidolite crystals are spread all over the ...

© Mario Pauwels

A truly impressive tourmaline specimen, with peach colored lepidolite crystals embracing them. 2.0 x 1 1/4 x 1.0 inches. Crystal-Odyssey specimen. gemcrystals@aol.com

© 2006 Joseph A. Freilich, LLC. All Rights Reserved

Tourmaline / Hydroxylherderite / Cleavelandite / Schorl (7,0cm x 5,6cm x 5,0cm) Mario Pauwels collection , Joaquim Callén photo. A very well balanced specimen of a multicolored Tourmaline who is grown in the center of a fine crystallised Cleavelandite matrix. Some small Schorl crystals and one single Hydroxylherderite crystal makes this ...

© Mario Pauwels

A superb doubly-terminated crystal, complete and undamaged all around! 4.6 x 1.2 x 0.9 cm

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

An unusually fine bubblegum-pink cluster of tourmaline, complete all around , and phenomenally 3-dimensional and aesthetic! Seldom do you see clusters for some reason - they tend to form up as singles, or as big matrix pieces. I cannot say as I have ever seen one of this style as a miniature size that i like as much as this one. 4.2 x 2.8 x 1.7 ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

A gorgeous tourmaline, complete all around except for the most trivial of dings on a few edges, with incredibly rich indicolite blue hue and a very sharp purple cap atop it. This piece shows off its great color even with minimal backlighting, despite its thickness, and is thus most unusual. 4 x 3.5 x 2.8 cm

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

Tourmaline and Albite. Specimen is from the collection of David Wilber (1984). Scale at bottom of image is an inch with a rule at one cm.

© Rock Currier

Tourmaline floater (17,6cm x 3,7cm x 3cm) Mario Pauwels collection , Joaquim Callén photo. Glassy, pink/green multi-colored Tourmaline floater with two different types of termination. This specimen was mined in September 2006.

© Mario Pauwels

Tourmaline and cleavelandite (5.3 x 4.3 x 3.3 cm). Mario Pauwels collection, Joaquim Callén photo. A highly aesthetic cluster of eight double terminated tourmalines, who are all parallel attached to each other. A ninth shorter tourmaline on the backside is not visible on the photo. All nine tourmalines show a good lustre, and are at both ends ...

© Mario Pauwels

A classic 4.9 x 2 cm main tourmaline crystal attached to quartz with a smaller companion crystal on the side.

© A&M

With the mine now closed, fine elbaite crystals, whether or not on matrix, are going to get scarce and even more expensive than they are today. Already, I haven't seen many good matrix specimens on the market and this one remarkably has NO repairs at all! Nearly all large Himalaya tourmies do have some repairs, as the mine is quite tectonically ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

An outstanding, gemmy, brilliantly lustrous tourmaline nestled within and against a quartz! This aesthetic piece is really special, because they just do not often come like this, from Mogok. Usually you get matte-finish or opaque crystals....very rarely lustrous and gemmy as of Brazilian calibre! The tourmaline and its termination are complete. 3 ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

Unimaginable color XL tourmaline crystal from Paprok, Kamdesh District, Nuristan Province, Afghanistan Size 83 x 78 x 73 mm

© Oleg Lopatkin

This is a striking cluster of Pederneira multicolored tourmalines, with NO REPAIR AT ALL despite the size! Usually crystals of this length havem ultiple repairs. The pics are otherwise pretty self-explanatory - great color, good size, fair price i think. 10.3 x 2.3 x 1.2 cm

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

From the new find in the late Fall of 2005 in Pakistan. This is a very impressive specimen from the most famous Tourmaline locality in Pakistan. I have seen many Tourmaline specimens from Stak Nala for many years and the one characteristic of that many of them lacked was decent color. This crystal features several colors ranging from a beautiful ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

In addition to the pink scepter, rich green color, superb luster, transparency and termination, this specimen exhibits incredible, parallel etching or growth on its largest pyramidal face. Steve Smale obviously cherry picked all the miniature size scepters from this find. 4.3 x 1.1 x 0.5 cm

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

Size of tourmaline 4 cm.... Blue cap, i like it !

Tourmaline on Cleavelandite (17,5cm x 10cm x 7,5cm) Mario Pauwels collection , Joaquim Callen photo. A perfectly balanced and outstanding polychrome Tourmaline on a contrasting Cleavelandite matrix. The specimen was collected in 2001 and came out of the 'Afghan Pocket' in the Pederneira Mine.

© Mario Pauwels

This is a gorgeous tourmie with vivid hues, quite fat and colorful. It has almost a purplish color to the tip and the main body is also unusually purpley-red in color, but is probably more accurately described as having a very unique maroon hue: much richer in color than anything I have seen from the locality before in this regard. It is hard to ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

20 x 25mm reddish tourmaline cluster with minor light purple lepidolites. RFC T1728.

© 2007 Michael C. Roarke

Tourmaline Scepter (9cm x 1,5cm) Mario Pauwels collection , Joaquim Callén photo. A very fine and sharp bi-colored Tourmaline scepter. The different colors are strong defined and range from the best pink to the best green with a very unusual yellow-green termination at the top. The crystal is also for the most part gemmy, is very nicely ...

© Mario Pauwels

"bubble-gum" style tourmaline on matrix. KARP minerals specimen. Tucson 2008

© J.Ralph 2008

An incredibly BRIGHT and GEMMY crystal with unusual colors, grading from red through bluish-green and back to red again at the tip. Weight about 22 grams. 6.4 x 2.5 x 1.2 cm

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

This Santa Rosa elbaite exhibits some of the best color changes I have see in a tourmaline. At the base is a combo of pink and green, grading to light green in the center, to very light pink and then a 2 mm thick rasberry red rim. A basal pinacoid termination, great luster and transparency, complete this super elbaite crystal. There are a few ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

WOW! This doubly-terminated crystal diverges at its "shoulders" into a myriad of slender, gemmy, elongated red tourmaline points. It has green-red-yellow-green zoning up to that point, and then goes red-pink. The pics pretty much pale in comparison - its a VERY elegant and unusual specimen! Entirely translucent to transparent! 7.5 x 1.9 x 1.9 cm ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

This gemmy and lustrous elbaite crystal is equally divided between the lower blue-green and the upper rich pink termination. Sharp and colorful! 3 x 1.4 x 1.2 cm

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

Super combo - stilbite only rarely occurs ON tourmaline from anywhere, especially here! Colorful contrast! 2.8 x 2.2 x 1.8 cm

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

Classic multicolored green-red-green xl form the "rainbow pocket" 3.7 x 1.3 x 1.1 cm

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

Tourmaline, Quartz and Lepidolite on Albite. An image of this specimen appeared on a postage stamp in the United States. Specimen is from the collection of the Smithsonian Institute, Museum of Natural History #122529 (1974). Scale at bottom of image is an inch with a rule at one cm.

© Rock Currier

Here is the incredible tourmaline specimen from Afghanistan displayed by Rocksaholics - already sold by the time I went to see them. Approx 20cm tall

© J.Ralph 2012

3 x 0.75 x 0.75 inches (89 x 19 x 19 mm). Gemmy, terminated, bi-colored, red - clear xl. Cruziero, Mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil

© Mike Haritos

An outstanding specimen from this important locality, the crystal measures 3 1/2 x 1.0 inches. Three smaller, sharply terminated crystals lie nestled in white albite, creating what is, in my opinion, the ideal composition for a tourmaline specimen. 7 x 4 1/2 x 3.0 inches. Crystal-Odyssey specimen. gemcrystals@aol.com

© 2006 Joseph A. Freilich, LLC. All Rights Reserved

A super display specimen, complete all around, showing a LOT of blue gem tourmaline for the money! The crystals have a vibrant rich blue color that is transmitted through the gemmy crystals , clearly visible without any kind of fancy backlighting - the best style of indicolite as far as the collector is concerned. Repaired just one time, cleanly, ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

Very rare specimen featuring a multi-colored Tourmaline crystal inside Quartz! Tourmaline crystals inside a Quartz point are almost unheard of from the Himalaya Mine in Mesa Grande, California. As a matter of fact, I believe this is the only one I've ever seen and there can't be more than a handful in existance. The Tourmaline above ...

© Kevin Ward & exceptionalminerals.com

This is a large, pristine, unrepaired, perfectly terminated and wonderfully gemmy tourmaline crystal! It leans at a attractive angle against a smaller crystal (also terminated), with a perfect patch of lavender lepidolite accenting them at the bottom. The color is a bottle-green, with a hint of pink at the center. This wonderful tourmaline comes ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

This is a doubly terminated elbaite with minor albite, that shows clearly the multicolored character of this famous find of the late 1980s. It is the single most interesting tourmaline from this locality I have yet seen in this size range - most are bigger, so actually finding a miniature ain't easy, too! The pink end has a pyramidal termination ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

A fat and sizeable (81-gram) Himalaya tourmaline,transparent-to-translucent, with pretty lepidolite crystals on its sides. The crystal has a fine, glassy termination. The sides are quite lustrous, all the way around. There are a couple of unobtrusive contacts in back faces lower on down, but the crystal offers several good display faces. Fine pink ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

Tourmaline bicolore on quartz Field of view 5 cm Collection and photo : Frédéic Hède From Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines 2009

A pair of multi-hued tourmaline crystals. Specimen size 2.6 x 2 cm.

© A&M

This elbaite was recently deaccessioned from the world class collection of Steve Smale. It exhibits the finest luster and transparency as well as displaying the classical color changes within a single crystal. In this case a rich green extends 2/3 up the crystal, culminating in a deep pinkish-orange at the glassy, pyramidal termination. This is a ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

Fabulous bi-colored tourmaline SCEPTER with excellent luster, good clarity, deep color, and a pyrimidal termination. This would be a great addition to any top thumbnail collection! BdS scepters tend to be larger - finding such a perfect rocketship-like thumber is VERY hard to do! Old Ken Roberts specimens. 2.8 x 1 x 1 cm

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

A fine, complete-all-around cluster with high lustre and a touch more green/yellow than indicated, in person. Very good multifacted termination - just a fine tourmaline. 3.4 x 2.7 x 2.2 cm.

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

We call these "bubblegum pinks" for obvious reason, and today they have become one of the few truly, instantly recognizable "styles" of tourmaline from the Afghani pegmatites that stand out from the vast majority of, call them, "random nice and pretty tourmaline pockets." This one is exceptional for several reasons aside from pedigree of being in ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

An interesting and showy specimen with a cluster of quartz crystals hanging off the back of this tourmaline! Not only is the tourmaline unusually blue for this locality, but it is of excellent translucency for the size and has a sharpness you do not often see at the CG. Word has it that the mine is now pinching out after just a few years of ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

This 3-Dimensional group of elbaite crystals are bi-colored, with the prisms being lustrous and translucent, and the terminations, a lustrous cranberry color. The terminations are just super! 4.8 x 2.5 x 2.4 cm

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

As you can see from the front-and-back pics, this is COMPLETE all around! The qualrtz is complete, the tourmaline cluster is complete, its all there! The tourmaline is 9.5 cm long and about 1 cm thick. It has a perfect termination and the freestanding nature of the crystal, perched against the quartz cluster, makes for striking aesthetics! It is ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

Dimensions: 3.57 x 2.52 x 2.09cm

© Dr. Perry Silver

A classic, multihued, fat crystal of tourmaline from this now-closed classic US locality. It is remarkably in good shape for a specimen of this size, with just a repair, but no nasty damage per se. This crystal is notable for its many zones, fat width, and the fact that it is complete all around with no point of attachment marked off on teh ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

Deepest green coloure tourmaline (var. Verdelite, main crystal size 62 x 30 x 22 mm) crystal, that sitting on quartz crystal, from Pederneira claim, Sao Jose da Safira, Doce valley, Minas Gerais, Southeast Region, Brazil Size 62 x 45 x 51 mm

© Oleg Lopatkin

Size of crystal is 10 mm

Bi-colored Tourmaline. Specimen is from the collection of Richard Gaines (1972). Scale at bottom of image is an inch with a rule at one cm.

© Rock Currier

A beautiful little Tourmaline crystal, gemmy and rich raspberry red in colour, becoming greenish-blue at the base. The Tourmaline is lustrous with a sharp termination. Small purple Lepidolite crystals are clustered around the base of the Tourmaline, adding an extra splash of colour. Size: 5mm x 30mm x 5mm

© Kristalle and Crys

The locality of Konar, in all of its splendor, is represented here with this magnificent combination specimen of tourmaline, topaz, albite and orthoclase, positioned as if an artist sat and created a layout of maximum aesthetics. I am repeatedly impressed by these combinations: this one especially dramatic. The tourmaline measures 1 3/4 x .90 ...

© 2006 Joseph A. Freilich, LLC. All Rights Reserved

A gemmy, brilliantly-colored crystal that, because of its thickness and extremely steep termination, stands out like a light among nearly all the other Pederneiras I have seen in this size from this now-infamous pocket mined back in 2002. Despite its thickness, it glows and is transparent even with minimal backlighting. This pocket has produced ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

45 x 34 x 18 mm., A tourmaline crystal group of various sizes, shapes and thicknesses. Most are terminated and, in this confused "jumble" of color is great beauty.

© 2006 Joseph A. Freilich, LLC. All Rights Reserved

This gorgeous and unrepaired, 3-dimensional, complete-all-around cluster is a historic example of classic multicolored tourmaline from the famous Santa Rosa Mine. It is noted for the gradation of blue-green hues. It looks a bit dark in the pics, and does need some backlighting, but not that much. it has not been shot with any special tricks, in ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

An extremely bright green and gemmy crystal, with an excellent termination, with a parallel growth crystal. Amazing that it avoided the cutters wheel. 2.0 x 3/4 inches. Crystal-Odyssey specimen. gemcrystals@aol.com

© 2006 Joseph A. Freilich, LLC. All Rights Reserved

A GORGEOUS tourmaline with naturally wet lustre of the highest calibre, backed up by a rich wreath of sparkling purple lepidolite crystals that adds dimensiona nd character to what otherwise would be "just" a fine single crystal. That actual crystal, which tapers slightly towards the base in an elegant manner, measures 8 cm long and about 2.5 cm ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

Dimensions: single crystal 3 cm x 4 cm x 7 cm Very unusual purple tourmaline split with a darker grey blue color at base of crystal. in the collection of Len Pisciotta

© Len Pisciotta 2008

A double-terminated polychrome tourmaline crystal, 6.5 cm long on muscovite. [Originally uploaded as elbaite-liddicoatite series. Single xl XRD and WDS analysis are needed to confirm which members of the tourmaline group that are present in the crystal]

© 2007 Jesse Fisher. Reproduction prohibited without prior permission.

An exceptionally gemmy, glassy, elongated tourmaline "pencil" with color grading from pink to yellow and back to pink again at the splayed termination. This is UNREPAIRED, despite its size, and is pristine. 12 x 1 x 1 cm

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks. com

Also displaying extreme color gradation is this beautiful elbaite crystal from the "lipstick pocket" found in the late 1980s, of which Steve had the pleasure to own many of them and highgrade the whole lot down in Brazil. The steep termination is EXCEPTIONAL for the find, and the extent of the best color is also unusually large. The bottom 2/3 of ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

An aesthetic, watermelon tourmaline cluster from the famed Santa Rosa Mine of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Gemmy and lustrous indicolite-blue to green tourmalines are cored by cranberry-red tourmaline and have lustrous, black, pinacoid terminations. The horizontal crystal is curved, caused by pocket forces. This piece was difficult to photograph ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

A very gemmy tourmaline, with high luster, and a pink core at the bottom that was wrapped in green by a later generation of growth. Nicely terminated on top. Ex. Steve Smale Collection. 3.9 x 0.8 x 0.6cm

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

WOW! This is one of the VERY best examples I have seen from a famous pocket in the early 1980's of tourmalines in which the caps remained intact but the cores of the crystals etched away, leaving reverse cityscapes under the remaining termination. All , including this one, are floaters. Most are smallish (and in fact all I have owned before were ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

This is a fine doubly-terminated tourmaline. The color is a brilliant forest green with glassy lustre. Accents of albite and lepidolite decorate the base. 10.3 x 1 x 1 cm

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

A brilliantly lustrous, gemmy crystal with the classic Pech color combination. WEighs about 9 grams. Undamaged and pristine all around! 5.1 x 0.9 x 0.8 cm

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

A classic Himalaya mine tourmaline, with rich purple lepidolite as accents! It is complete all around, and actually DOUBLY terminated, except for a slight, hardly noticeable, very shallow conchoidal break on the back of the termination. 56 grams 5.7 x 2.9 x 2.5 cm

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

This ex Steve Smale sceptered elbaite has it all,ie great luster, rich green color, transparency and etching or growth on the principal pyramidal face. All that, plus the pink sceptered section. 4.8 x 1.1 x 1 cm

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

30 x 20 x 7 mm. Crystal-Odyssey specimen. gemcrystals@aol.com

© 2007, Joseph A. Freilich, LLC

Exquisite matrix piece tha tcould pass for an Elba tourmaline! 3.2 x 2.0 x 1.6 cm

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

A BEAUTIFUL and UNUSUAL, gemmy and lustrous Himalaya Mine tourmaline. This very showy piece is two-toned, watermelon-pink with a 3 mm thick, gemmy, green zone below the pink termination. There are a few glassy, purple lepidolite crystals scattered about, mostly on one side. The UNUSUAL notched termination has ANOTHER tourmaline crystal lying ...

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

fov 30 mm Photo and collection : Frédéric Hède

A gemmy, pink and green crystal of tourmaline, mushrooming out at the top, with a sensational multi-peaked termination. Complete all around, great luster - a really nice one! 3.0 x 2.2 x 2.1cm

© Rob Lavinsky & irocks.com

Doubly terminated cluster of tourmaline crystals with some small Lepidolite crystals growing on them. Specimen is from the collection of Philip Gregory (1972). Scale at bottom of image is an inch with a rule at one cm.

© Rock Currier