FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Jordi Fabre]

If you want to know how The Party was from inside :

[Jordi Fabre]

Tucson 02/16/2019

About to take my flight back to Barcelona I'm adding few photos of pieces that I liked in the TGMS at the Convention Center.
There are more that I will publish when I am already in Barcelona.

[Tobi]

[bob kerr]

Today is the last day of the TGMS "Main Show" which also signifies the end of the 2019 Tucson Shows - lots of teardown work ahead for many of us.

For those of you who couldn't attend the TGMS, I plan to provide some detail of 6 to 8 of the display cases - which this year were REALLY great - much greater than the recent past and the recent past has had terrific display cases. I'll provide some photos and a brief video of what I think are the 7 or so best ones.

For now though, I'd like to recognize and thank Jim and Gail Spann for all they have done at this show - they provided their usual excellent display case (this year packed with excellent Chinese minerals), they provided many of their best wulfenites for another excellent display case that included mining memorabilia, and also hosted a wonderful dinner/reception at the Hacienda del Sol for those of use fortunate enough to get an invitation. I can't imagine the effort they went through to plan the cases, set them up/tear them down, and transport them to and back from Tucson. They truly made a huge contribution to the success of the show.

Stay tuned for some photos/videos of some of the best specimens in the world.

bob

[bob kerr]

[bob kerr]

The display cases at this year’s TGMS Show were, in my opinion, the best in many years – not that the displays of the recent past were not terrific, it’s just that for some reason the 2019 Show produced so many truly great world class cases.

The featured mineral was Wulfenite – recently designated as the Arizona state mineral – so there were lots and lots of beautiful cases full of wulfenites – but only one made my list (apologies to the wulfenite cases I do not include – especially to Harvard and to Tony Potucek / Evan Jones who both put in a top level case) .

As an exercise in futility, I thought I would summarize what I consider as the Top 8 display cases in order. Admittedly this is purely subjective so feel free to comment as to how poorly I ordered these – they are all just plain great and the people who agreed to display their world class specimens deserve a big thank you from all of us.

I will post a few photos of each case and a link to a video of the case.

Number 8 on my list is the case put in by Jim and Gail Span and Wendell and Carolyn Wilson showing numerous pieces of mining memorabilia (provided by the Wilson’s) in conjunction with numerous wonderful wulfenites (provided by the Spann’s).

And to think this is incredible case is my number 8.

Here’s a link to a brief video:


bob

[bob kerr]

For the number 7 case, I chose the non-competitive case put in by Irv Brown. To give some perspective of the quality of the cases this year, Irv's cases are typically in the top 1 to 3 cases each year.

He also put in a competitive case that won the Desautel's Trophy and also one specimen in that case won the Lidstrom Trophy - a photo of it is included below.

you can also see a brief video - staring Irv himself - at:


bob

[bob kerr]

The number 6 case in my humble opinion was the case entered by the Mineral association of Dallas (MAD). The case featured all lead based minerals with of course a healthy sprinkling of wulfenites.

You can see a brief video at:


bob

[bob kerr]

For the number 5 case I chose the case submitted by The Arizona Mineral Minions. Given that the group is from Arizona, one would expect some pretty nice wulfenites and this case does not disappoint at all.

You can see a brief video at:


bob

[bob kerr]

For number 4, I chose the excellent case of Chinese minerals submitted by Jim and Gail Spann. This large case is just jammed packed (maybe a bit too jammed packed?) with very high quality Chinese minerals. A sight to behold.

You can see a brief video of the case at:


bob

[bob kerr]

For number 3 I chose the Scott Rudolf case. He has frequently permitted us to gaze upon parts of his collection at the TGMS Show - and this is the 2019 version. I admit to being a bit biased to rate this case high because of that electric blue Morenci azurite included in it - but there are others that clearly justify a very high rating.

You can see a brief video at :


bob

[bob kerr]

And now to the top 2 cases - actually I would consider this a tie but if I had to, this is the order I would choose.

Number 2 is the "triptage-case" entered by Wil Johnson of Wisconsin. There no appropriate descriptive adjectives for the minerals in these cases. Just enjoy the photos and video.

The video can be seen at:


bob

[bob kerr]

And finally, what I consider as the best case in the 2019 TGMS Show - the case presented by Lawrence and Rebecca Stern. Again, no words - just gaze upon the photos and video.

Jordi has already posted a few additional photos in an earlier post.

You can see a brief video of this case at:


bob

[Don Lum]

Bob,

I am really enjoying your photos and commentary on the 2019 Tucson Show. I appreciate your work.

Regards,

Don

[Chris Rayburn]

Bob, thank you so much for the excellent job (as always) of documenting the show, and in particular these cases. I have to agree, these displays set a new standard for the Tucson Show (or any show). An embarrassment of riches!