The 2011 East Coast Show Trinity Mineral Company |
Minerals will be posted here (when ready): East Coast Show specimens
The East Coast Show, as usual, was held at the Eastern States Exposition Center in West Springfield, Massachusetts. I got out here very early Wednesday morning taking flights from Redding, CA to San Francisco, CA to Charlotte, NC and finally to Hartford, CT. The plane landed in Hartford at around 1:15 AM and it took close to 2 hours to finally get my rental car as many people on my flight got to Dollar Car Rental before I did and there was only one insanely stressed out person behind the counter. Finally got to my hotel room around 3 AM and went straight to "La La Land". The next day I went to the National Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. As a kid growing up in the greater LA area my dad or mom would take me to see the Lakers play on many occasions at the Sports Arena and then to the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood. It was a rich trip down memory lane to see many of the old Laker greats that I remembered as a kid there at the Hall. Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, and others. There is not much I miss about living in the Los Angeles area but I will always be a Laker fan for life.
Set up day at the show on
Thursday.
I heard from many dealers that they all felt attendance was down even more than the previous year. There a few interesting new things to report on but most dealers were simply handling specimens from old collections or just general stock that they carry to shows year after year. Dudley Blauwet had three new finds to report on. Specimens of epidote included with small micro crystals of magnetite from near Kharan, Baluchistan, Pakistan. These specimens have two very odd morphologies - only looking like hexagonal, tabular shaped crystals and one looking like octahedral crystals. All are included with micro crystals of magnetite so all are attracted to magnets.
This is an 8 cm specimen of epidote showing the two
habits.
Next, Dudley had four specimens of hematite roses from a new find at Tormiq, Baltistan, Pakistan. I picked up two specimens for the update. The crystals, while sharp, appear somewhat frosted due to light etching.
A 2cm specimen of hematite
rose.
As usual there was a line up at Phil Scalisi's Studio C booth while he was setting up. Unlike previous years, though, he was not selling anything until the show opened up on Friday. Phil has lots of interesting things to consider. I found a couple of native lead specimens and an rare locality specimen of stibnite and sphalerite from France.
Here's a group
of onlookers at Phil's booth while he's setting
up.
A 6 cm specimen of stibnite
with sphalerite from Haute Loire, France.
The
booth in the wholesale area of Brazilian dealer Luiz
Menezes.
Luiz Menezes had a new find of the rare mineral fluocerite-Ce replacing bastnaesite set on hematite from Novo Horizonte, Bahia, Brazil. Rutile is commonly associated with these also. Some of the pseudomorphs are of monzanite after bastnaesite. Luiz also had some exceptional new specimens of large kosnarite from Itinga, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
A specimen of albite coated with large crystals of
kosnarite to 4 mm across.
A 4 cm specimen of epitaxial rutile on hematite with a druse
of fluocerite-Ce after
bastnaesite.
Colorado dealer Dennis Beals had some specimens of a new find of unusual calcite from the San Bartolo mine, Charcas, San Luis Potosi, Mexico. These have an odd tapering, etched bottom and a fully terminated top.
A 4.5 cm specimen of one of
the new calcites from Mexico.
Missouri dealers Dan & Diana Weinrich had a large collection of Cornwall specimens available. Quite a diverse group! I found a few pieces including this specimen of fluorite with chalcopyrite from St. Agnes, Cornwall, England.
A 6
cm specimen of pale violet fluorite with
crystals of chalcopyrite from St. Agnes.
This year the special display was that of specimens from the collection of a fairly new collector named Scott Rudolph. The specimens on display were all exceptional and quite diverse. I have seen a lot of these specimens in collections of others. It just goes to show you what a lot of money can do in a short while in terms of separating collectors from their best specimen.... The following is but a few examples of the museum grade specimens in Scott's collection.
The cover specimen - a stunning chrome
diopside from Tanzania..
A closer view of the
specimen.
A foot wide specimen of rhodochrosite from the Sweet
Home mine.
A fairly decent benitoite specimen with the largest crystal at just
under 3 cm across.
One of the best leadhillite specimens I can recall ever seeing from Tsumeb or anywhere
else for that matter.
A 15+ cm specimen of
snowflake cerussite from Tsumeb.
A gemmy 1.5 cm crystal of mimetite sets atop other crystals
of mimetite from the gem pocket found in 1972 at
Tsumeb.
More eye candy from
Tsumeb.
Just a few of the dozen
or so specimens of dioptase on display from
Tsumeb,
A 10 cm specimen of quartz with crystallized gold from the Mocking Bird mine in
California.
A group of sharply crystallized specimens of
silver from Kongsberg.
A gorgeous specimen
of color zoned fluorite from
Illinois!
An absolutely stunning crystal of emerald 3.5 cm in length with calcite from
Colombia.
A specimen of blue glass from
Pakistan.
A 3cm gem
euclase from Colombia.
Crystals of scorodite to 2 cm on quartz from
Mexico... ouch my eyes!!
A 5cm crystal of lilac colored
topaz from Pakistan.
A 25cm specimen of interconnected elbaite with
lepidolite from Brazil.
Ok, that will wrap it up for me and this year's 2011 East Coast Show. The state of the economy has a lot of people "hoarding their nuts" like squirrels. There was as much talk about that as there was about rocks. Most of the dealers I spoke with said that it was a slow show for them with most people just "kicking the tires" and not really buying much. The market for specimens under $100 seemed to be fairly healthy though. Despite it all this is a fun show to go to. It is nice to be in one spot for a few days and get to see friends and catch up on all the latest in our collective worlds.
I will have specimens from this show posted in the coming week.
I fully intend to be back here again next year. Cheers!
John
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