Spessartine Garnet on Smoky Quartz (near ''floater'' specimen)

Item Description

The Wushan Mine is one of China's premier localities for producing world-class Spessartine Garnets. These beautiful and fine quality crystals are often found on matrix, creating dazzling specimens. These pieces are certainly some of the most attractive and highly displayable pieces to come out in China in the last 20+ years. They are truly iconic and genuinely some of the most beautiful matrix Garnets from anywhere. This is a fine quality cabinet specimen featuring dozens of very sharp, gemmy, highly lustrous, rich orange colored crystals of Spessartine Garnet measuring up to 5 mm which are sitting on crystallized Smoky Quartz matrix with a tiny bit of attached cream colored Microcline. The piece is crystallized on all sides, including the underside, making it nearly a complete "floater" were it not for the small bit of Microcline where I presume it was attached to the pocket wall. The piece is in very good condition with no major damage that I can find. The Garnets show excellent trapezohedral faces. I love the fact that they are so are sharp and smooth - no pitting or dull faces anywhere. Garnet is a well known mineral, but you have to keep in mind that it's quite rare to find brilliant orange Spessartines from any locality in the world, let alone on good sized crystals on matrix like this. Valued $2,000.