Andradite

Unknown Owner

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As the name would suggest, Garnet Hill in Calaveras Co., California, USA produced some very fine garnets, of the variety Andradite. Most specimens came from the Garnet Hill mine, a tungsten-gold-copper-molybdenum prospect that ceased activity in the 1950s, but most mineral specimens were collected from the 1950s through to the 1980s. This miniature specimen from Garnet Hill is certainly in the higher levels of quality for what has been found there and had found its way to Europe where it resided in the superb systematic collection assembled by the brothers Martin and Michael Günther (1951-2007 & 1956-2021). A bed of massive brown Andradite is covered with quite large well-formed glossy crystals, those around the edges mostly having minor damage but two main crystals in the centre are really fine. The larger of the two, at 1.8 cm in length, has stunning development of the crystal faces and presents superbly, standing proud from the surrounding crystals. An extremely fine Californian Andradite.