Description

Detailed Description

A beautiful miniature “grape amethyst” from the John White quartz collection.  The balls of crystallized amethyst have a nice silky lustre, and the piece has beautiful proportions. In excellent condition – a gorgeous specimen.

About These Indonesian “Grape Amethyst” Specimens

Originally referred to as “grape agate”, specimens were first found in the Mamuju area in 2015. These specimens are recovered from clay, in the spaces between the “pillows” in pillow lava.  Although they were first known as “grape agate”, they are not cryptocrystalline (and therefore are not agate) – they are balls of radiating crystalline quartz. When the find first came to market, there was a large amount of material, much of which was poor quality. With the passage of time, the diggers began to produce higher quality specimens. The article on this material in the Mineralogical Record (Nov-Dec. 2018) signalled that the production of fine specimens was beginning to decline at that time and was expected to largely cease within a relatively short time. Accordingly fewer of these specimens are  available these days.