A Rare and Large Tourmaline Verdilite Crystal (1700 to 1900 United Kingdom)

F064

Tourmaline Verdilite Crystal

  21.50 cm high

  8.46 inches high

Provenance:
Ex Private Devon collection, bought by Gregory Botley & Lloyd

Ex John Hewitt

Ex English Private collection

The word tourmaline is derived from the Sinhalese ‘Turmali’ meaning special stones.
Precious stones have exerted a charm over mankind since prehistory. Gemstones have been used as amuletic ornaments and regarded by man as a repository of supernatural powers. In ancient Peru an emerald the size of an Ostrich egg was honoured as a god. The early astrologers linked each of the known planets with a day of the week and the alchemists connected these planets with certain minerals or metals. There was also an astrological connection made between the signs of the zodiac and certain gemstones. Birthstones soon followed which supposedly endowed the person born in a certain month with particular capabilities or could bestow on them good fortune.
Pliny the Elder realised the secret of their beauty when he said ‘In gemstones the whole majesty of nature is compressed into the smallest space and in a single stone we can perceive the masterpiece of creation’.

A Rare and Large Tourmaline Verdilite Crystal
Of translucent green, with white collection no: 839

Size: 21.5 cm long – 8½ ins long

Please email or call +44 (0)20-7413 9937 for more information or to purchase this item.

FOR SALE