Grossular (ex Franceso Bedogne Collection)

Item Description

A beautiful specimen from the famous locality in the famous Val Malenco which has produced some of the finest Garnet specimens in the world. This piece is actually a rarely seen Grossular that was labeled as coming from "Ristoro di Campo Franscia", which is actually the name of a building at Campo Franscia. Most people are familiar with the world glass green Andradite (Demantoid) Garnets from this locale, but it's hard to get a good Grossular like this. An 8 mm, sharp, very lustrous, well-formed, peach-beige colored modified dodecahedron with a few smaller crystals sit on typical rodingite host rock matrix. Good condition all around and very attractive up close. The close is somewhat reminiscent of the famous Grossular Garnets from the Jeffrey Mine in Quebec. From the worldwide collection of famed Italian mineral collector, field collector and author, Francesco Bedogne of Sondrio, Italy (Collection #1593). 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.