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Lot 8224
Exceptional Watermelon Tourmaline
4 December 2005, 11:00 PST
Los AngelesUS$12,000 - US$15,000
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Find your local specialistExceptional Watermelon Tourmaline
Santa Rosa Mine, Itambacuri, Minas Gerais, Brazil
First discovered in 1938, the famous Santa Rose Mine in south eastern Brazil produced good quantities of watermelon tourmaline (with green exteriors surrounding a red core) the best of which made their way into the most significant international museums by the mid-20th Century. A later strike, in 1968, proved to be the most important one in Santa Rosa’s history, when a number of green tourmaline prisms with red centers were retrieved. It was during this second period of productivity, in 1969, that this magnificent crystal was discovered. When possibilities for further finds were exhausted, the mine was closed in 1972 and now even its dumps have been picked through.
The present specimen is as classic a watermelon tourmaline from this region as they come—it would be difficult to find a larger and more notable example better illustrating that sought-after gradation of blue-green hues. Defined by a trigonal outline, this dramatic cluster of tapering parallel crystals comes to a pyramidal termination. The base exhibits a deep rubellite pink to its watermelon interior.
To our knowledge there has not been another tourmaline offered at public auction from the Santa Rosa Mine in the last decade and this is surely the largest and finest to be seen in years. Measuring 10 ½ x 4 x 3 in.
First discovered in 1938, the famous Santa Rose Mine in south eastern Brazil produced good quantities of watermelon tourmaline (with green exteriors surrounding a red core) the best of which made their way into the most significant international museums by the mid-20th Century. A later strike, in 1968, proved to be the most important one in Santa Rosa’s history, when a number of green tourmaline prisms with red centers were retrieved. It was during this second period of productivity, in 1969, that this magnificent crystal was discovered. When possibilities for further finds were exhausted, the mine was closed in 1972 and now even its dumps have been picked through.
The present specimen is as classic a watermelon tourmaline from this region as they come—it would be difficult to find a larger and more notable example better illustrating that sought-after gradation of blue-green hues. Defined by a trigonal outline, this dramatic cluster of tapering parallel crystals comes to a pyramidal termination. The base exhibits a deep rubellite pink to its watermelon interior.
To our knowledge there has not been another tourmaline offered at public auction from the Santa Rosa Mine in the last decade and this is surely the largest and finest to be seen in years. Measuring 10 ½ x 4 x 3 in.