Beautiful emerald with smoky quartz and gray quartz in matrix

An emerald specimen in matrix, with a bundle of parallel-grown emerald prisms in vibrant May green on a grey quartz matrix.

Emerald is the chromium-bearing variety of beryl. The intense green color results from traces of chromium or vanadium in the beryllium-aluminum-silicate lattice.

The parallel-grown prisms are a typical growth pattern when emerald crystallizes in a pegmatitic fissure from a uniform hydrothermal solution. Here, the crystals are arranged in a fan, an optically particularly appealing growth habit.

Significant emerald deposits are located in Colombia, Zambia, Brazil, and Sandawana (Zimbabwe). Pieces with such clearly defined prisms on intact matrix are rare because emerald easily splinters when blasted apart.

The specimen is accompanied by smoky quartz and grey quartz, as well as traces of pyrite. The associated minerals provide information about the genesis of the deposit: hydrothermal, with a beryllium source from pegmatite veins.

A collector's item of the highest class, suitable as the centerpiece of a beryl collection or a premium display case.