Description
Here we have a wonderful and contrastful Austrian Almandine-on-matrix piece from Zillertal in Tyrol. Aesthetically perched on a gray-green schist-pedestal, this dramatic, textbook-sharp Almandine garnet cluster displays perfect dodecahedral form. Although opaque, these dark reddish-brown crystals exhibit surface colouration of a wine-red hue. This is a classic and important locality for garnet dating back hundreds of years. Since they have to be physically picked out of the surrounding matrix, the surfaces are usually dull and are often given a very slight buffing to improve the luster. This one surely was lightly rubbed, again as nearly all are; but here it was only very minimally done as opposed to the outright polishing we have sometimes seen. Nature of the beast...to get them out, and make them pretty, they just need a little help afterwards. The cluster is freestanding on its pedestal of matrix, and measures approx 3,9 cm across at widest tip-to-tip measurement.