Spessartine Garnet on Albite (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

This is a very attractive specimen from Shengus featuring a sharp, highly lustrous, rich orange-red colored, trapezohedral Spessartine crystal measuring 1.3 cm sitting on white Albite. For Garnet collectors, this is a great association specimen, and a worthwhile piece of this well-known material. The piece does sit on its own without the aid of a base or clay, but it could be mounted for a more pleasing display. Despite the fact that these pieces are fairly well-known on the market, they are some of the very few red Spessartines available these days from any locality. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). 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.