Tourmaline

Item Description

This specimen comes with a label from Scott Williams who has it as a Schorl, but the label from Bill and Anne Cook have Schorl (?) on their label. With that said, it's probably safer to simply leave it as "Tourmaline" because we've seen in recent years that even the crystals that appear to be completely black and opaque are not always Schorl, as there can be multiple species within a single crystal. With that said, this is a very nice example from an obscure locality in Connecticut. While the given locality is "Bethel", I can't find a listing for any Tourmalines specifically from this town, and even a search on mindat.org for Tourmalines from Fairfield County, Connecticut didn't produce any images, so this is certainly a rare piece in terms of its origin. The crystal is doubly-terminated with lovely pyramidal terminations and smooth, lustrous prism faces. It's nearly a complete "floater" with only a few small points of contact, but no major damage. A cool New England specimen for any fan of pegmatite minerals or worldwide Tourmalines. From the collection of William ("Bill") (1927-2006) and Anne (1928-2021) Cook of Cleveland, Ohio (#7322). This husband and wife duo were actively involved in the mineral world for many decades. Bill was a PhD geologist, and Anne was a mathematician, and they both were very serious mineral collectors. Bill served for many years as adjunct curator of mineralogy at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Anne was inducted into the Micromounters' Hall of Fame on October 12, 2019. Both Bill and Anne, at various times, served as president both of the Mineralogical Society of Cleveland and of the Micromineral Society of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, and Anne was inducted into the mi The rare barium lithium beryllium phosphate Wilancookite was named in their honor in 2015.