Staurolite (unusually UN-twinned crystal) (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

Here we have a rarely seen Staurolite specimen only labeled as coming from Brittany, France. I'm not an expert on French Staurolite localities, so it's difficult to say exactly where it was found. With that said, if anybody out there can give us some insight as to a more specific locality, please reach out and let us know. This piece is a well-formed, fairly sharp, doubly-terminated, dark reddish-brown colored single crystal, but what really makes it unique and different is the fact that it's UN-twinned. Most Staurolites you'll see are often twinned (often cruciform twins or rarely "sixlings"), so to find a single un-twinned crystal is rare in my experience. Good quality all around, and a nice representative specimen 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 #2166CL, and the catalogue entry for the piece states that it was exported from China and imported into the United States by The Rocksmiths, and was purchased by Chet on in February 2001 (TGMS 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.