Rochelle Salt (lab grown) (ex Bill and Anne Cook Collection)

Item Description

This is a wonderful specimen of what is referred to as "Rochelle Salt", named after Pierre Seignette, an apothecary of La Rochelle, France. The material chemically is potassium-sodium tartra tetetrahydrate, but what's special about it is that it was the first substance known to exhibit piezoelectric qualities. The brothers Pierre Curie and Jacques Curie were able to demonstrate this effect using natural crystals of species like Topaz, Tourmaline, and Quartz along with Rochelle Salt. Today the substance is used in the electroplating process, among other things. This piece is a fantastic lab grown example of this material featuring many incredibly sharp, lustrous, gemmy, beautiful greenish-blue colored bladed crystals measuring up to 2.2 cm, sitting on matrix. Nearly every crystal is pristine, and the piece is a fantastic crystallized example of this scientifically important material. From the collection of William ("Bill") (1927-2006) and Anne (1928-2021) Cook of Cleveland, Ohio. This husband and wife duo were actively involved in the mineral world for many decades. Bill was a PhD geologist, and Anne was a mathematician, and they both were very serious mineral collectors. Bill served for many years as adjunct curator of mineralogy at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Anne was inducted into the Micromounters' Hall of Fame on October 12, 2019. Both Bill and Anne, at various times, served as president both of the Mineralogical Society of Cleveland and of the Micromineral Society of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Anne was inducted into the mi The rare barium lithium beryllium phosphate Wilancookite was named in their honor in 2015.