Rhodonite

Unknown Owner

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This is a near-floater cluster of two intergrown crystals of a vibrant cherry red color, with artful manganese dendrites sprinkled within. It is hard to decide which side could be the better front face. The major crystal is complete all around and nearly transparent. It is the best miniature of my lot, in outright quality of form, perfection, and transparency. ANY of the four sides could be the top face, really. I just picked for the photo the side with the most complexity to show off, but if you turn it upside down because you prefer the sharper junction of planes on top, that is fine as well...there's no "wrong" way to display this piece. The backside is also complete on the floater crystal, but there is a small, slender attached crystal that has a slight contact or shallow cleave, facing out. That smaller crystal is, however, also gemmy and doubly-terminated, and the contact or cleave is shallow and frankly not a visual distraction (lower row showing normal lighting and backlit a little more strongly). If from Broken Hill, this would be off the charts in price. As one of the best miniatures yet seen come up from Brazil, to my knowledge, it is priced fairly in the realm where you can get a MAJOR piece for the species at a price for which its hard to find greatness nowadays in anything this colorful and rare.