Andradite (large crystal)

Item Description

This is a fantastic Andradite from the well-known Garnet Hill Mine featuring one of the largest individual crystals we've seen from the locality. Not only is the crystal big for Garnet Hill, you rarely seen any Andradites this size from any locality, as it measures 6.6 across at its longest dimension. The sharp, well-formed, lustrous faces are predominantly dodecahedral in habit, but you can see thin trapezohedral modifications on the edges. The color is a very dark reddish-brown hue, and the crystal is sitting on massive Andradite matrix. Unfortunately there's a ding on the front corner of the crystal, so it's not pristine, but if you can forgive a little damage, it's a very worthwhile display piece featuring a notably good-sized crystal for the species. It should be noted that the accompanying dealer label mentions there is Scheelite on the specimen, and I did find a tiny white spot on the base of the piece which fluoresces a blue-white hue under SW UV light, so I can confirm a minor presence of Scheelite.
Ex George Loud Collection No. 370E CA.1; 1682 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