Andradite (classic locality)

Item Description

Arizona is best known for its fine colorful secondary ore minerals, and most people don't think about Garnet when it comes to minerals of Arizona. With that said, the pieces from Stanley Butte are some of the most easily recognizable examples of any Garnet species from anywhere in the United States, or the world for that matter. Their characteristic and alluring brownish-green to olive-green color and semi metallic luster are a dead giveaway for the locality. This is a lovely display piece of this famous material featuring a rich coverage of fine, sharp, well-formed, olive-green dodecahedra of Andradite with very little damage on the display side. The largest crystal measures 9 mm across. Most of the crystals are pristine, but there are a few contacts that keep the piece from being 100% damage-free. This piece comes to us from the legendary Ron Romanella (February 28, 1932 - October 24, 2022), a well-known gem and mineral dealer from New York City. He studied mineralogy at Columbia School of Mines, and he was mentored by Dr. Frederick Pough of the American Museum of Natural History, and learned about the business side from well-known mineral dealers Hugh Ford and Maurice Hammoneau. Ron himself was a mentor to other successful East Coast mineral dealers such as Larry Conklin, Herb Obodda and even employed Dave Wilber for a time. He largely transitioned out of selling minerals as his business focused more on gems for the last few decades, and his sons Michael and Jerry have been running the family business in Scottsdale for many years now. With that said, Ron was one of the great powerhouse mineral dealers in the US for many years, offering fine quality specimens and gem crystals from classic and contemporary localities. Among his top achievements, is that Ron is credited with importing the first known crystals of Tanzanite into the US in the 1960s.