Schorl Tourmaline (RARE locality specimen) (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

At first glance, you might think this specimen of Schorl is from somewhere like Erongo, Namibia, but according to Chet's collection catalogue, it's actually from the Vitosha Mountain locality in BULGARIA ! It's certainly the first one that we've had to offer in the auctions. For comparison, we found a similar piece that almost looks like it could have been from the same pocket (https://www.mindat.org/photo-211382.html) which states the piece was mined in 1993, so this piece could date back just as far. The specimen is a wonderfully aesthetic full-sized miniature featuring a fine quality, sharp, lustrous, jet-black 2.3 cm, trigonal crystal of Schorl Tourmaline sitting elegantly atop pinkish-beige colored Feldspar matrix. No damage to the front of the Tourmaline crystal, but it's incomplete on the back where it was attached to the pocket wall. If you collect worldwide Tourmalines, unusual locality pieces or minerals of Bulgaria, do NOT miss out on this incredibly hard to find locality specimen dating back a few decades. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #18499CL. 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.