Description

This is a beautiful light-sea-green aquamarine from the famous 2005 pocket at the Itatiaia Mine. It is associated with sharp crystals of albite and muscovite. The aquamarine crystals from this pocket exhibit evidence of their less-than-gentle history. Sometime after they formed, there was a jarring event that broke many of the crystals, or separated them from neighbouring crystals, and there was also a stage of etching and recrystallization. This crystal is intergrown with the albite and muscovite, but is doubly-terminated (where the back termination is able to poke through, one can see it’s there). Areas at the bottom and left (as displayed in the first photo) that seem incomplete are all recrystallized surfaces, not damaged. The termination faces are glassy and lustrous, while the prism faces and corner modifications show some patterning on very slight etching and recrystallization surfaces. This is an aesthetic piece, with the muscovite and albite really adding to it – a fine display specimen of Brazilian aquamarine!

Please Note: the colour representation in the still photographs has been carefully calibrated and adjusted to show an accurate rendition of this specimen in daylight (shade). The colours in the video are not similarly adjusted.