Garnet Var. Spessartine With Albite

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A special San Diego rarity, these beautiful garnets generally date to the Louis Spalding collecting era of the mid 1960s-1970s and are hard as heck to obtain today. Much gemmier in person, this is a well balanced and attractive combo piece from the mine! These are rare specimens indeed, as I know from living nearby for almost a decade. Few collectors, even in San Diego County, own a crystal as large and sharp as this one - most large crystals of this size have crackling in them, rendering them ugly. It is also exceedingly gemmy, much brighter and more lustrous in person than the photo appears. The garnet measures over 2 cm across at widest and 3 cm tall, and is complete and well-formed all around its termination. It is not complete on the rear-left side only, out of sight. This is a MAJOR spessartine miniature for the locality! Most large garnets of this size are cracked and hackly because the pegmatite was so disrupted by movement and by acidic solutions that liked to eat garnets away and leave semi-crystallized messes behind. Ex. Irv Brown Collection. Joe Budd Photos.