Schorl with Spessartine (5 piece set) (RARE locality) (ex Bill Larson Collection)

Item Description

An incredibly rare set of crystals from the little known Brian Ward Mine in Riverside County, California featuring a predominant 4.9 cm, heavily striated, lustrous, jet-black crystal of Schorl Tourmaline which plays host to a somewhat altered crystal group of Spessartine Garnet on the side. Accompanying the Schorl are 4 individual Spessartine crystals of a dark red hue, which measure up to 1.5 cm across. The little Garnets show a bit of translucency when backlit. I've never seen anything from this locality before, so it's certainly something that would make for a cool esoteric addition to any suite of minerals from Southern California. From the collection of Bill Larson of Fallbrook, California. Bill is a well-known gem and mineral dealer as well as a miner and collector. Bill is synonymous with minerals of San Diego County, and owned and operated famous mines such as the Stewart Lithia, the Tourmaline Queen, the Pala Chief and the Himalaya, producing some of the most iconic mineral specimens to come out of the area during the 1970s-1980s. You can read his biography at https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/larsonwilliam-f/