Amethyst, Quartz. Goboboseb Mountains, Brandberg area, Brandberg District, Erongo Region, Namibia. 17.0 x 9.8 x 5.9 cm (6.69...

Description

Amethyst, Quartz
Goboboseb Mountains, Brandberg area, Brandberg District, Erongo Region, Namibia
17.0 x 9.8 x 5.9 cm (6.69 x 3.86 x 2.32 in)

The Gobobos Mountains of Namibia present very different faces to the people who come there. To the outsider more familiar with forests and rivers and snow; this area seems blighted and cursed, barren of all traces of normal life. To the tribal peoples whose land this is, it is a place of beauty and potential wealth. The same forbidding layers of dark volcanic rock that bake in the noonday sun also harbor the Amethyst crystals that the foreigners will sometimes pay huge sums of money for. This dark jewel is the result of just such a transaction. Most Amethysts recovered here are smaller and often flawed; this one is much larger than normal and has a couple of secondary crystals at the base. In transmitted light the color is a deep, saturated purple with blue overtones that seem to be unique to this locality. There are patches of a colorless druzy Quartz layered on parts of the back and sides. Iron underneath some of this layer produces golden tones in a few localized areas. Luster varies from glassy over most of the specimen to sparkling in the druzy zones. There is one small restoration on a termination edge, and the specimen is otherwise in pristine condition.

From The Edgehill Collection.
Ex. Charles Key collection.
Ex. Marshall Sussman collection.

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