Tigrero!

摘要

This isn't much of a story really, but it is one for which I had high hopes when I started to research it. In the end it became more of a tale of frustration, as you will see if you read on. About a year ago an old friend from the early days of the Baltimore Mineral Society, Harold Levey, contacted me; we were both founding members but had not reconnected for at least 35 or more years. Subsequent to that contact I visited him and was pleased to see that he still had a very nice mineral collection, including some local specimens from localities which we had both visited many years ago. Soon after that, Harold visited me along with Jessie Pierce, the daughter of another former member of the BMS, Edward Geisler, who passed away several years ago. After looking at my minerals and chatting about old times, Harold asked me if I knew Sasha Siemel. I did not. Then Jessie pulled a package out of her purse which, upon unwrapping, turned out to be the item seen in figure 1. It is an old glass-topped specimen box in which nested in cotton is a pale blue-green, etched, but complete and gemmy aquamarine crystal from Brazil, and a small (1.65 ct) faceted stone presumably cut from rough from the same pocket that produced the crystal.