Elbaite (Tourmaline) with Muscovite

Oh Wow!  What an amazing Tourmaline and a specimen unlike any I have ever seen before because of its colour, texture, and mineral association.  From Barra de Salinas in Minas Gerais, Brazil, three ex-matrix, Elbaite Tourmaline crystals sit at approximately 45 degrees to the horizontal, all leaning to the left and of watermelon zonation, having a reddish-pink core and outer green skin.  One 4.5 x 1.0 x 0.8 cm semi-transparent crystal, with a delicate green and blue tinted pinacoid termination, leans over the other two larger and partly flattened crystals which are coated in a micro-crystalline layer of fine-grained sucrosic milky Quartz, possibly mixed with sub-micro crystalline Lepidolite mica (the crystal shape is beyond the resolution of the microscope).  Beneath this translucent layer the highly etched Elbaites adopt a beautiful lilac surface layer which imparts a similar tint to the Quartz.  The texture of these areas is that of silk, with the Tourmaline appearing like silver-lilac fibreoptic cables.  This most unusual specimen is clearly a floater, for where it has in geological history been cleaved from in-situ across its base, these areas have since been coated with the same sucrosic granulated mineral.  A 2.0 x 1.0 x 0.7 cm cluster of silvery-cream Muscovite crystals sit at the front, just beneath the more gemmy crystal.  An amazing Elbaite and a specimen which will contribute something quite different to your collection.