Large polished Spessartine Garnet

Item Description

A HUGE polished spessartine garnet from what we believe is Pakistan. The highly lustrous reddish-brown crystal is an extremely complex trapezohedron. Bright light reveals pretty translucent areas of cherry-red color and gemminess. Spessartines of this size are VERY RARE from Pakistan and it is probably from either the Shigar Valley or Shengus. The former dealer label says Karnataka, India, source of large violet-red rubies and dark green mavinite, a brittle mica. It was probably polished there. MINDAT lists spessartine for Karnataka, but no photos are shown in MINDAT photo gallery for the locale. It would be EXTREMELY RARE from here.