Andalusite

Item Description

Andalusite gets its name from the Andalusia Region in Southern Spain, but the actual crystals that were first discovered have been traced to El Cardoso a town in Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. Apparently the mineralogists of the late 1700s- early 1800s, were not quite familiar with Spanish geography, but the name still remains. Most Andalusite crystals are not gem quality, so to find transparent material in nature is rare, and good stones are always appreciated by dealers and collectors. Here we have a beautiful, fairly saturated, trichroic red, orange and green "Emerald" cut gemstone of Andalusite from Bahia, Brazil. The pleochroism of Andalusite is distinctive and extremely attractive, and is exemplified in this attractive stone, as you can see multiple colors at one. It is difficult to find gems such as this with great saturation and multi-color display, and this particular stone dates back to the 1980s, and is a good representation of this beautiful material, though it does have some visible inclusions.