Almandine - Bodø, Nordland, Norway

Almandine

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Although Norway is well-known for garnets they are surprisingly uncommon in really nice richly coloured, or gemmy crystals. This great small cabinet specimen comes from Bodø, a municipality just inside the Arctic Circle. Although the exact locality is not recorded the quality of these crystals is extremely good compared with those from the Chlorite-schist localities in that region, and this specimen appears to be hosted by a brittle mica, perhaps Biotite. The Almandine crystals are not only a rich wine-red, to burgundy colour, but display excellent crystal faces and reach 1.5 cm across. The specimen bears an old typed number label, and two old collection labels (one from Prof. H. Siegmund in Vienna and one watermarked) which are believed to date to the 1950s and earlier.