Detailed Description

This dravite crystal has a neat three-tiered termination and has nice brown internal glinting (only a little more than a hint…). This shows under decent lighting if the crystal is displayed horizontally. The prism faces are bright, sharp and clean. If the specimen is displayed standing up rather than horizontally, it stands up nicely and can be rotated so that the minor chipping at the termination tier-edges are at the rear of the piece. Excellent large crystal from this find.

About These Dravite Tourmalines

These dravite tourmalines from Serra Branca, Brazil, are sharp crystals!

All of the crystals are doubly-terminated. The prism faces have a bright lustre, like black opaque glass. Under bright lights (such as the photography lighting), a few subsurface glints of internal brown are visible in some, but under normal lighting, to the eye the crystals look essentially black and opaque. The termination faces vary, with many showing a slightly silky lustre and delicate texture. Most of these are crisp, simple crystals (they really look like idealized crystal models!) and some have a bit more complexity to them. None of these crystals are perfect all-around – they have a little edge wear or minor nicking in some place or another – however, these are high quality specimens and they are the best of the lot.

These specimens were collected in the 1990s and they were squirrelled away in Brazil. Frank Melanson had analysis done to confirm that they should be labeled dravite.