Spessartine (good-sized crystals for the locality)

Item Description

Spessartine is a well-known manganese-dominant Garnet species, found in a large number of world localities. When it comes to display quality specimens of Spessartine, the famous Wushan Mine in China is renowned for producing world-class examples. The crystals are not only fine quality, but they are found on matrix with wonderful associations, creating beautiful specimens. These are some of the most attractive and highly displayable pieces to come out of any Chinese 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 small cabinet specimen featuring a coverage of very sharp, highly lustrous, rich orange colored crystals of Spessartine Garnet measuring up to a whopping 1.1 cm across, sitting on matrix. Most of the crystals from this locality are under 1 cm, so these are definitely large for Wushan. The crystals show excellent trapezohedral faces. The piece is in very good condition with no major damage that I can find. I love the fact that the Garnets are sharp and smooth - no pitting or dull faces anywhere. Garnet is a well known mineral (technically a group of minerals), but you have to keep in mind that it's quite rare to find such fine quality orange Spessartines from any locality in the world, let alone such excellent crystals on matrix like this.