Vesuvianite (var: Manganoan Vesuvianite) (rare reddish color)

Item Description

The rich purple (and sometimes red) colored Vesuvianite specimens from the famous Jeffrey Mine are incredibly beautiful and distinctive due to their unique and amazing color. Most people are familiar with the purple / lavender colored Vesuvianites from this mine, but this toenail sized specimen is special as it shows a combination of the strong purple color which is accented in areas by a rarely seen intense reddish color. This piece is a solid group of Vesuvianite with no associated species or matrix, and both sides features fine quality, very sharp, highly lustrous, gemmy to translucent prisms with a strong purple along the prism, but most of them actually show a reddish to nearly true red color on the terminations. The largest crystal measures 1.3 cm long, which is good sized for the material. The piece needs a bit of backlighting to see the color, but it's really eye-catching in person! One simply does not see this color (or specifically this color combination) in Vesuvianite, or virtually any other species !! As I said, the piece is all Vesuvianite, so it's not complete all the way around, but many of the crystals are undamaged. Now that the Jeffrey Mine is completely finished, it is remarkably difficult to obtain pieces like this on the market, and if you collect Canadian minerals, pieces from Jeffrey or really attractive colorful minerals, you can't pass up a piece like this, as they will most likely never be found again. Valued at $800 in the inventory.