Brewsterite-(Sr) (very rare)

Item Description

A rarely seen Brewsterite-(Sr) specimen from Strontian, Scotland, featuring attractive light brownish colored monoclinic prismatic crystals measuring to about 1-2 mm on matrix. Brewsterite is a rare zeolite mineral named after the Scottish physicist, Sir David Brewster, and some of the most well-known specimens are those from Strontian, which is the type locality for the species. If you look on mindat.org, Brewsterite-(Sr) is only reported from about 10 localities in the world, making it a very rare zeolite. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #2874CL. Chet's catalogue mentions that this piece was "A former Fersman Mineralogical Museum, Moscow, specimen (no label) sold at the Munich show by the Curator." Chet was born 1947 in started collecting minerals circa 1957. He worked briefly as a drill runner at the famous Sterling Mine, in Ogdensburg, New Jersey and from 1987 to 1990 he helped convert the mine into a public access mining museum. He has held the role of treasurer, vice president and president of the Franklin-Ogdensburg Mineralogical Society (FOMS), and has been a board member and vice president of the Franklin Mineral Museum. The rare copper arsenate, Lemanskiite was named in his honor in 1999.