In the 1990\'s, my friend Joel Sweet was selling minerals in a sewing shop in Connecticut. Someone walked in with a box of rocks that turned out to be garnets from Russell, Massachusetts mined in the 1880\'s! Some of them were fabulous specimens, which Joel sold long ago. My friend Joel died last year and I bought his collection. I had no idea he still had a few Russell garnets. No major pieces, but some nice thumbnails, miniatures, and even a cabinet specimen or two. This is one of those garnets.
<BR><BR>It is a single loose garnet, or should I say half garnet. The back clearly shows how it formed on top of a book of mica. The front is nearly perfect and measures 3.5 x 3.5 x 2.1 cm. The crystal is wonderfully aesthetic, dark black in color, and sits as shown. It would be worth much, much, much more on matrix. I will probably never have Russell, Massachusetts garnets again.