Corundum var: Sapphire on marble

Item Description

A beautiful matrix display specimen from the lesser-known Aliabad (Ali Abad) marble locality in the Hunza Valley of Pakistan. This locality lies in the Pakistani Kashmir region, which is well-known for its fine Ruby and Sapphires. Good specimens mostly came out in the 1990s, and I honestly don't remember seeing anything new coming out for many years at this point. This showy specimen features very sharp, well-formed, rich pinkish-purple colored trigonal crystals of Sapphire measuring up to 1.2 cm, sitting on stark white marble matrix. The crystals have good luster, better than most I've seen from the locality. The piece is UN-repaired and looks great from the display side. The back of the larger Sapphire crystal is contacted, but I can't see any damage from the front of the specimen. When backlit, the crystals show good internal translucency, but to be honest, if they were more transparent, they likely would have been faceted into gemstone, similar to the Ruby crystals from Mogok, Myanmar, the gem transparent crystals are virtually unseen as they are cut into stone. A good piece of this beautiful classic material. Valued $950.
From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #18845CL. Chet's collection catalogue states that he acquired this piece in May of 1986 from a "hippy dealer" at the Hackensack Show. 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.