Andradite Garnet

Item Description

PLEASE NOTE: This specimen is labeled as coming from Stanley Butte, and while Andradite is well-known from this area, the matrix leads me to think that it's not specifically from Stanley Butte, but rather, somewhere else in the Stanley Mining District. This is due to the fact that the Garnets have formed on some kind of Pyroxene, which appears to be Hedenbergite to my eye, and while Hedenbergite is reported from the Stanley District, I can't find a specific report of it from Stanley Butte. With that said, this is an attractive display specimen of these well-known Garnets featuring several sharp, well-formed, dark reddish-brown colored, textbook dodecahedra measuring up to about 6 mm across, sitting on grey-green colored "fan"-shaped groups of Hedenbergite, creating a very showy overall piece. The Garnets are quite attractive with backlighting, as they have a lovely internal translucency, and you can see the outermost exterior edges are virtually colorless, which is unusual for this material. A cool, esoteric specimen for any fan of Garnets or someone looking to add an oddball specimen to their Arizona mineral collection.
Originally in the collection of Larry Bull.
Ex George Loud Collection No. 51.4.3b.1 AZ.2; 5371. George (born August 16, 1942) is a well-known mineral collector from Washington, DC and South Carolina respectively, and was a patent lawyer by trade for over 50 years. He assembled one of the great mineral collections in the U.S., comprising worldwide specimens, and in later years he sold the worldwide specimens to focus on minerals of the United States, specifically locality suites with an emphasis on amazing representation of species while still maintaining fine quality. The specimens remarkably range from micros to all the way up to large cabinets in size. We recently acquired most of his impressive 9000+ piece collection, and the VAST majority of these pieces will be offered here in the auctions, as we feel that everyone deserves and equal opportunity at acquiring these important, well-documented and fine quality specimens for their collections.
See: https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/george-loud for more information