GEMMY and lustrous, these grass-green demantoid garnets form a beautifully-displayed cluster that resides on a granular matrix composed of smaller, mm-size andradites. Same species, wonderful contrast. The main crystals are modified dodecahedrons ranging up to 1.1 cm. World-class demantoids such as these were briefly recovered in 2008-2010 from an obscure area in northern Madagascar (still producing material in limited quantity and quality - but this is the classic older find). The deposit lies in a mangrove swamp that is flooded every day by rising tide, making specimen recovery difficult, to say the least. Very little new material has come out since then. See the 2010 Mineralogical Record articles in Vol. 41, No. 3 for more information on the finds and locality. The best pieces certainly hold their own against the classic examples from Russia or the Italian Alps.
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