Aegirine (ex Francesco Bedogne Collection)

Item Description

Some of the world's finest Aegirine crystals are found at Mount Malosa. This particular piece features a fine, sharp, highly lustrous, deep greenish-black prismatic crystal of Aegirine with minor accenting crystals plus a few gemmy, slightly smoky colored crystals of Quartz on matrix. The largest Aegirine measures 8.6 cm long (it's partially covered by matrix in the back, but it runs through the length of the specimen). For a Pyroxene, you can't ask for much sharper or lustrous crystals. Oddly this piece was labeled as Parisite-(Ce), and the number on the specimen matches the label, so I'm not sure how the mistake was made, but neither species could ever be confused for the other. From the worldwide collection of famed Italian mineral collector, field collector and author, Francesco Bedogne of Sondrio, Italy (Collection #1920). 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.