Lavendulan (ex Franceso Bedogne Collection)

Item Description

A very rare specimen of the hydrated sodium calcium copper arsenate, Lavendulan from the obscure Meskani Mine in Iran. As a matter of fact, I don't know if I've seen any other minerals from this mine besides Lavendulan. Mineralogically speaking, this mineral is monoclinic and is a dimorph of tetragonal Lemanskiite, plus it's also the Ca analogue of Zdenekite and the arsenate analogue of Sampleite for what it's worth. The brilliant blue color is what makes this material so desirable, and under the microscope, you can see some interesting detail. From the worldwide collection of famed Italian mineral collector, field collector and author, Francesco Bedogne of Sondrio, Italy (Collection #699). 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.