Almandine (ex Franceso Bedogne Collection)

Kamiaba, Katanga, Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire)
Small Cabinet, 6.3 x 5.3 x 3.8 cm
Start Time: 07/06/2017 6:30:00 pm (CDT)
End Time: 07/13/2017 6:45:16 pm (CDT)
Auction Closed

Item Description

A classic and now hard to find specimen of the attractive deep red Almandine crystals from the little known location at Kamiaba in DR Congo. This locality is not part of the Katanga Copper Belt / Crescent and produced some attractive specimens back in the 1980s. They are distinctive for their notably striated trapezohedral crystals and dark color. This piece is a great example of this material featuring an undamged, sharp, solitary 1.6 cm trapezohedron with the aforementioned striations on every face sitting on yellowish Calcite and host rock matrix. There is a secondary smaller sidecar crystal on the piece as well, but it's the main crystal that is the focus here. It's not easy to find pieces with a single isolated crystal aesthetically sitting on matrix like this from Kamiaba, as most pieces features plates of crystals,sometimes heavily intergrown, so it's nice to see such a fine singular example of the material like this. When the crystal is backlit, you can see a deep wine red hue, but you need a strong light to see it. We wanted to prove that it wasn't opaque or black, so we were able to get a good photograph with the color coming through. Valued at $750. From the worldwide collection of famed Italian mineral collector, field collector and author, Francesco Bedogne of Sondrio, Italy (Collection #231). Bedogne wrote dozens of articles and several books about the mineralogy of Italian Alpine localities such as Val Bregaglia, Val Masino, Val Codera, Val Spluga, Valtellina and the famous Val Malenco. He was also the founder of the Valtellinese Mineralogical Institute.

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