Epidote (rare locality - gemmy crystal)

Item Description

A very rare seen, and notably good-sized crystal of Epidote from the Seven Devils Mountains in Idaho, which is part of the Coeur d'Alene Mountain Range. This piece is one of the very few I can remember seeing, and I'm fairly certain it's the only one we've had to offer in the auctions. This sharp, lustrous, well-formed prismatic crystal has a dark greenish-brown hue on the surface. The termination is a bit crude (George refers to it as "corroded" on his label), but the piece is still in very good condition, as it's complete all around, with only a few small separation marks where additional Epidote crystals once grew. The crystal might look opaque, but I took a STRONG focused light source, and I was able to backlight it, and the crystal is actually translucent or dare I say, gemmy inside. The pleochroism is quite evident as the piece shows a deep amber hue internally along the "b" axis when backlit, and a strong green shade along the "a" axis. A really cool oddball locality specimen that would make a nice addition to any Idaho mineral suite.
The piece was purchased from Lanny Allen, and was originally part of the dealer stock of the Toll Mountain Rock Shop (Del & Marifoy Hart).
Ex George Loud Collection No. 8518; 407 MT.1. George (born August 16, 1942) is a well-known mineral collector from Washington, DC and South Carolina respectively, and was a patent lawyer by trade for over 50 years. He assembled one of the great mineral collections in the U.S., comprising worldwide specimens, and in later years he sold the worldwide specimens to focus on minerals of the United States, specifically locality suites with an emphasis on amazing representation of species while still maintaining fine quality. The specimens remarkably range from micros to all the way up to large cabinets in size. We recently acquired most of his impressive 9000+ piece collection, and the VAST majority of these pieces will be offered here in the auctions, as we feel that everyone deserves and equal opportunity at acquiring these important, well-documented and fine quality specimens for their collections.
See: https://mineralogicalrecord.com/biographies_labels/george-loud for more information