Epidote with Quartz

If on first sight you don’t exclaim Wow! to this monster Epidote, then you have become immune to the charms of such wonders of the mineralogical world!  This is indeed a monster from the aptly named Green Monster Mountain on Prince of Wales Island in Alaska, USA.  Dr Josef Clemente from whose collection this specimen has come, loved the Epidotes from this locality and although he had many fabulous pieces, this is certainly the one to smack you between the eyes in term of crystal size and delightful gradated colours.  The principal crystal measures a whopping 10 cm high, 9.2 cm wide and 5 cm deep, yet despite its size, is perfect and damage-free.  The prism has deep bottle-green faces, all vertically striated with a brilliant glassy lustre, then the colour changes up the broad bevelled terminations to a play of speckled leaf, grass and mossy green.  Around the crystal’s base the prism faces are encrusted with long terminated Quartz crystals which range from colourless to those mossy-green with included and finely disseminated Epidote.  A simply fabulous Epidote from Green Monster Mountain, a specimen which is guaranteed to please in any fine collection.