Stilbite (fine color and quality) (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

Stilbite specimens from Loudon County, Virginia are not terribly easy to find in today's market, and the most sought after specimens are those with the rarely seen yellow or orange hues. This piece is simply entered in the collection catalogue as coming from Loudon County, Virginia, and I can't say if it's from Goose Creek or something more unspecified. This small cabinet features several excellent quality, lustrous radiating groups or "balls" of wonderfully eye-catching orange colored Stilbite measuring up to 8 mm across sitting atop basalt matrix. Nearly every single "ball" is damage free, and they are set beautifully on the central top portion of the specimen. The piece also sits on its own without the aid of a base or clay. A very attractive, colorful and hard to find display specimen from Virginia. Valued at $500-$700. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #2781CL. 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.