Sphalerite (fine gemmy crystals) on Quartz (ex Chet Lemanski Collection)

Item Description

The Shuikoushan Mine was one of the early producers of excellent mineral specimens from China in the 1990s. I remember seeing attractive Sphalerites from this mine when they first hit the market, and they still are as impressive as the first time I saw them. This piece is a wonderful display quality cabinet specimen featuring excellent, razor-sharp, highly lustrous, complex intergrown groups of Sphalerite with a deep red-orange hue (best seen when backlit) sitting on a thin plate of matrix coated by drusy crystallized Quartz. The largest group of Sphalerite crystals measures 3.8 cm across, but it really depends on where you decide that one cluster starts and ends. What's most interesting to me is that this piece is nearly a complete "floater", as it's fully crystallized on both sides, and there are only a few tiny points of attachment keeping it from being complete all around. A wonderful specimen of this now classic material. Valued between $1,500-$2,000. From the collection of Chester ("Chet") S. Lemanski Jr. of Browns Mills, New Jersey (https://www.mindat.org/user-461.html). Collection #20850CL. 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.