Spessartine Garnet on Sphalerite (RARE COMBO!!)

Item Description

The Spessartine crystals from Broken Hill, Australia are well-known for their excellent form and color. They are classics to be sure, and found in old collections around the world. The vast majority of the Spessartines I've seen from this area are associated with Galena, but THIS piece features a remarkably rare Sphalerite association, which is the first of its kind that we've had to offer from the locality. As a matter of fact, if you do a search on mindat.org for images of Spessartine and you enter "Sphalerite" into the keyword field, there are ZERO photos of Spessartine on Sphalerite. I did a reverse search as well for Sphalerite images, and I entered "Spessartine" into the keyword field and there are no pieces of the two minerals together. For common species, it's remarkable to think that there isn't another piece with two minerals together anywhere to be seen on mindat. I've seen Bustamite and Rhodonite (two of the staples species from Broken Hill) with Sphalerite, but never Spessartine. With all this said, if anybody out there is a Broken Hill expert, perhaps you can let us know if this material has been reported, it just seems so strange that I can't find another example of it anywhere, not just from Broken Hill but ANY locality. This toenail specimen hosts a few sharp, lustrous, well-formed, rich red colored trapezohedral crystals measuring up to 2.0 cm, sitting smartly atop black Sphalerite matrix. If you look closely, you can see the crystal faces are modified by hexoctahedral faces, which is also quite rare for the material. No damage on the front/display side of the piece, and it's rather showy. A must-have specimen for any fan of worldwide Garnets or minerals from Broken Hill. It's impossible to put a fair market value on the piece, and it truly stands out as something unique in all my years of looking at minerals. From the collection of Colin Manlove.