‘Blue Cap’ From Tourmaline Queen Mine Shines In Heritage’s Fine Minerals Auction

Wulfenite, Topaz, Native Silver also among March 27 event highlights DOWNLOAD DIGITAL PRESS KIT DALLAS, Texas (March 6, 2024) — The demand for minerals can be significantly affected by the specific mines or locations that produced them. One such locale is the Tourmaline Queen Mine on the eastern side of Pala Mountain in Northern San Diego County, California. Among the treasures pried from the mine is a “Blue Cap” Tourmaline (Elbaite) that will be offered March 27 in Heritage’s Fine Minerals Signature® Auction. This magnificent specimen is one of just 36 known from the important pocket that was discovered in 1972 by Ed Swoboda and Bill Larson, whose discovery was later called the “find of the century” by Dr. Vincent Manson, the then-curator of the Museum of Natural History. “This is an extraordinary specimen from the 1972 Blue Cap Pocket of the historic Tourmaline Queen Mine,” says Nic Valenzuela, Heritage’s Director of Fine Minerals. “Of all of the tourmaline specimens in the world, only a tiny fraction have this classic coloration: there are fewer than 40 true Blue Cap ‘shiny top’ examples in the entire world. This is the first time that a piece from this find has ever been offered at Heritage Auctions, and presents a fantastic opportunity for a collector to acquire a world-class specimen that is sure to become the crown jewel of any collection.” The “Blue Cap” moniker is not applied to every tourmaline that happens to have a blue termination. It is given only to specimens from this historic find from 1972, each of which features a deep indigo fading into gem pink, encased in a lustrous crystal. This example, from Mark Miterman’s collection (after previous stops in the collections of Chuck Houser, Gerry Clark and Jesse Fisher), is of the substantial “beer can” style and measures more than 10 centimeters / 4 inches tall and more than 5 centimeters / 2 inches wide. The single crystal is accented on both sides, with a shimmering crust of Lepidolite on top and another accent of Cleavlandite and more Lepidolite on the bottom. The specimen is offered along with a custom acrylic base. Another highlight in the auction is a Wulfenite, Mimetite from the San Francisco Mine (Cerro Prieto Mine) in Sonora, Mexico from a locality that had sat dormant for most of the 20th century. In the 1980s, it started producing specimens — including the one offered here — that were dramatic in both size and quality. San Francisco Wulfenite came in a number of styles, including the dramatic orange crystals found on this specimen, which comes from the Thomas Everitt collection. Along the sides are bountiful botryoides of golden Mimetite, a highly desirable association from this locality, and the matrix is coated in Mimetite, under that dark brown gossan. A stunning Topaz from the Erongo Region in Namibia is a very large (nearly 3 inches / more than 7 centimeters long) single crystal that meets every criteria of desirability, including size, the coveted sharp wedge shape and absolutely manificent color. It features highly reflective faces and attractive striations all around the prism, including additional modified faces around the corners. Such a Topaz specimen, especially of Namibian origin, is a rarity. The auction features four lots of Native Silver in the auction, including a spectacular specimen from the Himmelsfürst Mine in Saxony, Germany. From a locality that produced more than 600,000 tons of Silver between the early 1700s and late 1800s, it features elegant furling and unfurling wires that reach upward into intricate, metallic coils, the longest of which reaches 5.8 centimeters above the center of the display. Many of the wires are accented by a natural patina ranging from brassy yellow to tinges of metallic green, blue and red. It has a 360-degree display and can stand without the need of a base. Among the items in the auction that demand immediate attention is a Rhodochrosite from the Sweet Home Mine in Park County, Colorado. Few Rhodochrosite rhombohedrons offer as sharp a crystal with color as rich as that found in the offered specimen. This stunner offers intense cherry red color, complemented by a translucence that gives it an appealing gem-like quality just below the crystal surface. From the Barton Friedman “Old Stock Fluorite” collection comes a magnificent Fluorite from the Elmwood Mine in Carthage, Smith County, Tennessee. The Featuring spectacular color saturation and sharpness, it is crowned by sharp, angular faces that are still covered by the Fluorite’s layer of dark violet zoning; the peak of the specimen is glassy-clear, offering a unique scope of colorless Fluorite when looking directly down the tip. What makes this specimen command immediate attention is its unique mushroom-like appearance. A Rhodochrosite (Wheatsheaf Habit) from the N’Chwaning I Mine in Northern Cape, South Africa came from one of a few small pockets during the groundbreaking South African Rhodochrosite finds of the late 1970s and early ’80s — the likes of have not been seen since these came out. This habit is characterized by doubly-terminated crystals with bright, gemmy, "wheatsheaf" like terminations (hence the nickname) with contrasting cloudy centers, similar to a Faden quartz. Wheatsheaf Rhodochrosite is exceedingly rare on the market, in part because those collectors fortunate enough to own them simply do not let them go. This superlative cabinet-sized specimen is full of these candy-like wheatsheaf crystals, so much so that much of the deep black Manganite matrix is almost totally coated in it. Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world's largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Geneva, Amsterdam and Hong Kong. Heritage also enjoys the highest Online traffic and dollar volume of any auction house on earth (source: SimilarWeb and Hiscox Report). The Internet's most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has more than 1,750,000 registered bidder-members and searchable free archives of 6,000,000 past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos. Reproduction rights routinely granted to media for photo credit. For breaking stories, follow us: HA.com/Facebook and HA.com/Twitter . Link to this release or view prior press releases . Hi-Res images available: ac Steve Lansdale, Public Relations Specialist 214-409-1699 or SteveL@HA.com