Description
Not a winner of a beauty contest, but a specimen loaded with history. Egeran, a variety of Vesuvianite from the (Egeran, not Vesuvianite) type locality Hazlov, Cheb (formerly German Eger) District, Karlovy Vary Region (Karlsbad), Czech Republic. Lustrous, brown, striated Egeran crystals on typical matrix. This specimen was found in a skarn in granite at the historic locality where Egeran was first found; now part of a Nature Preserve with collecting prohibited! And to the historic importance of Egeran: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet, playwright, and novelist visited the locality in 1821/22 and wrote about it in his diary. The visit must have had a lasting impact, because in 1831 Goethe dedicated a poem to the species. Not many mineral species can make that claim.