Prehnite (rare locality specimen)

Item Description

A notably hard to find specimen from this lesser-known Tomasso Quarry (sometimes referred to as the Farmington Quarry or the Arborio Quarry) in Connecticut. This is the ONLY Prehnite specimen we've ever had to offer from this locality, which lies on Route 6 on Rattlesnake Mountain. This piece is an impressive big cabinet display piece featuring dozens of "clamshell"-shaped aggregates of translucent "water"-green colored Prehnite measuring to about 8 mm across, in a vug on basalt matrix. The Prehnites look beautiful up close and the color/quality is very nice in person. Minor Quartz is present, and there are some attractive "casts" on the side of the specimen where Anhydrite crystals once existed, but have been dissolved away, leaving blocky impressions behind. If you collect worldwide Prehnites, minerals from the Connecticut trap rock quarries, or you simply like oddball/rare locality specimens, this is a wonderful big display piece to add to your collection.
From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #18801CL. 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.