Titanite (twins) (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

A cool Austrian Titanite (Sphene) specimen from the lesser known Wallhorntörl locality in the Tyrol. This piece is loaded with dozens if not hundreds of very sharp, rather lustrous, chartreuse green colored "wedge"-shaped twins of Titanite measuring up to 4 mm scattered over the underlying matrix. Nearly all of the crystals are undamaged, and they are fun to view under magnification. If you collect Alpine minerals, I'll be you don't have a Titanite from this locality in your collection. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #22706CL, and the collection catalogue states that the piece was part of the collection of H. Westenberger, Kelkheim, originally from the Stolte collection, Frankfurt. 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.