  |
|
| November 4
I have to spend a moment here to comment on the enormous size of this show. It is really just unbelievable how big it is and how much there is to see here. Two things really: I am either getting older and slower or this show has gotten larger. It is likely a combination of both as the beer hall has been moved out of Hall B3 to provide more booth space for additional dealers and, well, time does march on... It is close to overwhelming just how much there is here and how seemingly little time there is to absorb half of it left alone see all of it. Without question the Munich Show has assumed the title of the World's Best Show to my mind. It has the flare and pizzazz of all of the Tucson Show venues combined into one - well three enormous halls. Also, as an aside, Jeff Scovil was unable to make it to the show this year so Mineralogical Record roving reporter Tom Moore asked that I pitch in and take some photos to help with the "What's New" report that will appear in the MR soon. Between the two of us we found just about everything that there was new here.... we think... The large number of new things found here will fill up the next two reports... On to more of what is new here in Munich. This year Andreas Palfi and Ralf Wartha of Geo-Tours Namibia had their usual array of fine specimens from the famous locations of Namibia such as Tsumeb and Okarusu. This year they brought a large quantity of very fine gem villaumite specimens from the Aris Quarry near Windhoek, Namibia. Villaumite has been found here frequently in the past but this year's production is striking in that the crystals look just like gem spessartine (orange) set in vugs. They are quite striking! I picked out several specimens for the update next week.
French dealers Claudette and Michel Cabrol brought out the goods with a gorgeous array of bright blue fluorite specimens from the du Burg Mine, Alban, Tarn, France. They have scores of specimens from small miniature to watermelon sized. I spent at least 30 minutes scratching my head trying to decide which ones would make the trip back to Weaverville with me and found a dozen or so.
Each time I am anywhere near Laurent Thomas of Polychrome I make sure that I do not miss what he might have on hand from Madagascar. Laurent is always full of surprises. This year he had some very fine specimens of prismatic rutile crystals with epitaxial hematite on one end from Tetikana, Ambatofinandrahana (say that three times..), Madagascar. You have all seen the hematite with golden straw like rutile growing epitaxially from Brazil. These are the flip side and what is striking about these is that the hematite and rutile are equally developed. These look like little "Stop signs". Laurent had these initially at the Sainte Marie show and had 8 or 9 pieces available here in Munich. This deposit is kaput according to Laurent. I took the three that he had without any damage - all thumbnails. He also had some new liddicoatite specimens including the large yellow crystal below.
French dealer Francois Lietard had a new find of thumbnail sized specimens of fluorite with topaz from Shigar Valley, Baltistan, Pakistan. It is interesting how there is one crystal of fluorite and topaz together with these specimens. I bought two and one is pictured below. Please forgive my poor photo here. I shot these out of the top floor of my hotel room.
On a tip from Alfredo Petrov I visited Japanese dealer Hori Mineralogy and saw that they had scores of the well known "rainbow garnet" andradite from Gyoujyagaeri Mountain, Tenkawa, Nara, Japan. These have a lovely iridescence and play of colors - especially in sunlight. These were written up recently in Rocks & Minerals.
I had an opportunity to visit with Italian dealer Emanuele Marini of Milan, Italy. Emanuele works with Dr. Federico Pezzotta to make specimens from Madagascar and Malawi available. He had a fabulous specimen of chiavennite with pezzottaite and several other species from Ambatovita, Madagascar. This particular specimen is the other half of a larger specimen which is housed in the Milan Museum. It is considered to be best of the species from this locality with the one pictured below the second best.
There are, as usual, a load of minerals from China here this year. The two things that are attracting a lot of attention are the babingtonite/prehnite specimens from Qiaojia, Zhaotong Prefecture, Yunnan Province and Rhodochrosite from Guangxi Province China. In fact, the word is after a conversation I had with Bryan Lees, is that Collector's Edge is actively pursuing a deal to mine the rhodochrosite deposit for specimens. It is interesting in how similar the mineralogy of this deposit is to that of the Sweet Home mine in Colorado. The primary difference being structural and temperature according to Bryan. The rhodochrosite formed in a lower temperature environment and is not as cherry red as the Sweet Home material though there are high probabilities for pockets of cherry red rhodo from there. Babingtonite is available from many dealers here and the rhodochrosite also though not as many. The prices are high for both also but with some hunting and begging it is possible to get some good material for reasonable prices. I found some good pieces with Hunan Bafang, KARP and Fine Chinese Minerals - all in Hall B2.
The center of attraction in Hall B2 is the International Pavilion. The area is filled with a stunning array of minerals and a lot of well known characters in the mineral world are steadily streaming through it in pursuit of some new mineralogical treasure. The following are some candid shots of people and also some minerals in this sector I refer to as "Mineral Disneyland".
Another large report on new material here at the show and a page on the fine displays of minerals also to come. |
