ROSE QUARTZ ON QUARTZ & MICROCLINE

ABOUT THE SPECIMEN A fine display of highly transparent rose quartz crystals perched on a handsome matrix of intergrown microcline and clear quartz. Several crystals are doubly terminated, with the centerpiece of the specimen being an impressive inch-long crystal – exceptional for the species – beautifully framed by a natural rosette formation. It's worth clarifying that although this specimen was previously labeled as being from Sapucaia, it originated from the adjacent Berilo Branco pegmatite, not the true Sapucaia phosphate mine a few kilometers away - a locality confusion that has persisted in the trade since the first finds due to its proximity to the town of Sapucaia do Norte. This area is the source of the famous "Madona Rosa" and widely considered the premier locality for crystallized rose quartz worldwide. Although the term 'rose quartz' is used interchangeably for all pink quartz, these euhedral crystals vary from the more common cryptocrystalline form that used in lapidary work (cryptocrystalline rose quartz gets its color from inclusions of minerals like rutile, whereas these get their color from irradiated impurities of aluminum and phosphorus). Unlike the massive, anhedral variety, this 'euhedral rose quartz' is very susceptible to bleaching from UV light, even more so than amethyst, and is best kept away from any sunlight.   VIDEO   MORE INFO Miners working the Berilo Branco for mica in early 1959 broke into a vug running over five meters long containing rose quartz crystals overgrowing blocky smoky quartz, and the material reached dealers in Governador Valadares within weeks. Crystallized rose quartz is genuinely anomalous - massive pink quartz is colored by microscopic borosilicate fiber inclusions related to dumortierite, but the euhedral crystals from Berilo Branco derive their pink from aluminum- and phosphorus-based irradiation color centers, a distinct mechanism. Berilo Branco crystals are recognizable by their vitreous, almost greasy luster and distinctively terraced rhombohedral faces with swirling step patterns. The mine was abandoned and caved by 1991, making all known material old-stock; the original 1959–1960 pocket material is considered the finest crystallized rose quartz ever recovered, and specimens traceable to those first finds - some of which reached the Smithsonian - are treated accordingly by collectors.