“A polished slab of ricolite with a bit of history. Child image is the reverse side. S417-220 N1951N This was in the Joe Cilen collection, and bears his collection label no. 1, suggesting that this is the first of over 23,000 specimen that Joe accumulated over a life time of collecting - but there is no guarentee that Joe number his specimen sequentially. Although there is no documentary evidence, Joe obtained this, along with a number of other serpentine specimens, from mineral dealer Shortmann, in the 1940's. This specimen is originally attributed to James Manchester, best known for his seminal work "The Minerals of New York City and Its Environs" published in 1931. As most of Cilen's older labels are hand written, I suspect that at some point he probably replaced his original label with this typed version. ”

“A polished slab of ricolite with a bit of history. Child image is the reverse side. S417-221 N1951N This was in the Joe Cilen collection, and bears his collection label no. 1, indicating this is the first of over 23,000 specimen that Joe accumulated over a life time of collecting. Although there is no documentary evidence, Joe obtained this, along with a number of other serpentine specimens, from mineral dealer Shortmann, in the 1940's. This specimen is originally attributed to James Manchester, best known for his seminal work ”