Spessartine Garnet

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A beautiful and complex crystal of these now-famous Brazilian Spessartine Garnets from the Navegadora Mine in Minas Gerais state. The combination of superb luster, wine-red color, gemminess, multiplex faces with intricate, geometric, angular forms culminates in a sublime Spessartine garnet crystal that is just better than most of the material out there. The interior of this piece glows due to its rich red color, transparency and and abundant internal reflections! The intricate growth features are mesmerizing and make it difficult to determine if this gorgeous piece is one sophisticated crystal or not, but the continuity of parallel faces in different orientations leads us to interpret it as a relatively large single crystal (essentially, a floater, complete all around with no attachment point). A few tiny white Albite crystals and a Muscovite or two are placed strategically on one side, the back and bottom. The piece sits on its own for display and looks amazing and perfect on 3 of 4 side views. From one perspective only (on the back side), there are two small, conchoidal fractures visible on close examination although mostly actually hidden and hard to see at first due to the angles as well as the deep color and bright luster all around. So, it has 3 totally different display views, and can go both horizontally or vertically in fact. Great specimens such as this are very difficult to obtain, largely due to the fact that they are some of the most unique and distinctive Garnet crystals extant. The combination of unique form, lustrous faces, and intense color make these specimens a must-have for any collector specializing in Garnet or world-wide minerals! This piece is undoubtedly from the best ever pockets of the material from the late 1990s and early 2000's. This piece has a mass of 42 grams. It is a very special piece, even amongst thousands that came out, for the exceptional quality of luster, shape, color saturation and even tone, and overall sculptural appearance. We cannot praise it enough. The video should well convey the impact.