FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[bob kerr]

OK - on to the elite dealer's new location - the Tucson Fine Mineral Gallery. Located just north of "The White House" of Dan Trinchillo at the corner of St Mary and Grenada is this new Gallery. Established by Crystal Classics - who have relocated their base of operations from England to Tucson - it houses a small number of elite dealers.

See photos describing the facilities.

bob

[Robert Seitz]

After looking at all the exhibited minerals in displays, it was great to look through all he cabinets in the Crystal Classics area.

[bob kerr]

Once again, Jim and Gail Spann have graced us with a glimpse of their incredible mineral collection. The entrance of the Tucson Fine Mineral Gallery was guarded by a huge display case packed with top notch pieces generously provided by Jim and Gail. It's hard to put into words the excellent variety and quality of the specimens they provided so I'll show some photos of what I think are special ones - correction - they are all special, but these particularly caught my eye.

bob

[bob kerr]

The Gallery was purchased and developed by the crew at Crystal Classics, and they made sure that their portion of the facility was very classy. See photos.

bob

[bob kerr]

Also housed in the Gallery was Collector's Edge. Lots of new and updated finds were on display. See photos.

bob

[bob kerr]

The "White House" of Fine Minerals International cannot be left out of any Tucson Shows review. Danny always has ultra-choice minerals available, and this year was no exception. The rear of the building also contained some of the wonderful mineral art of Lawrence Stoller.

A few selections provided below for your viewing pleasure.

bob

[silvia]

Hello Bob:

Congratulations on a first-rate report. Can you give some indication about the size of the specimens? Just an estimate of the length of a label helps put the piece in perspective. Not an easy task I know, but a worthwhile one.

Keep up the great work.

All the best.

Silvia

[Robert Seitz]

A few more from the museum.

[silvia]

I absolutely love that Bisbee Malachite - a true gem. We do not have many Bisbee minerals in our collection but will get more when any become available. A really fine Malachite specimen.

[bob kerr]

[bob kerr]

Now, on to the TGMS Show at the Tucson Convention Center - sometimes called "The Main Show". It is usually the highlight of the Tucson Show Weeks and although it was indeed good it simply lacked the "flair" of TGMS Shows past.

The two photos demonstrate this. The major dealers who usually occupy the entire center of the floor were MIA (with the exception of Crystal Classics who had a large - but smaller than usual - booth).

And the number of mineral dealers was much smaller than usual. This was clear as about 30% of the dealers in the "mineral half" of the floor were jewelry or lapidary dealers. (The upstairs rooms and the annex, traditionally occupied by jewelry dealers, were closed.)

Covid has certainly been a major cause of these changes - but there's more to it. It's called the internet.

More to follow on the issues challenging the Tucson Shows.

bob
.

[bob kerr]

The dealership of Laszlo Gal (World of Fine Minerals) had a booth at the TGMS Show (and also a room at the Min City) and was selling specimens from a new and unique find - Romanechite on Goethite from Hungary. The specimens show a wonderful contrast between the Romanechite and the black goethite. See photos. These were reasonably priced, and one could obtain a very nice miniature for less than $200 - better ones were only slightly higher - $350 or so.

Laszlo asked that I recognize Tamas Nemeth who was the miner who brought these wonderful specimens out of the ground.

There's also a good article in the 3/2021 issue of Lapis.

bob

[Bruce Friedman]

Great reporting Bob. I look forward to your future reports. It was great meeting you at Westward Look in Anton Watzl's room. I was the one who bought the nice Turkish diaspore.

[bob kerr]

There were 16 cases dedicated to Dick Graeme who passed away last summer. Dick was a legend and the number one guru on minerals of the Bisbee district. Placing 16 dedication cases is clearly a record that will no doubt not be broken, and it shows the love and respect held for Dick - especially in the Arizona collecting community.

I'll only post photos of a few cases as coverage of the complete 16 cases would just be too long. My apologies to those I had to leave out.

bob

[silvia]

Hello Bob:

You have produced a first-rate report on the Tucson show – congratulations and best wishes. I love how your focus is on the minerals – for minerals are what we want to see.

I am amazed at the depth of the late, great Richard Graeme’s Bisbee collection. It is truly world-class, and I hope his family will retain it in total. It is very sad when a mineral collector passes on and his family sells his collection.

All the best

Silvia

[bob kerr]

Fine Minerals International put in one display case with 8 incredible specimens - 2 of which REALLY caught my eye. One is a HUGE doubly terminated dioptase and the other is an aquamarine that simply glows. See photos.

bob

[bob kerr]

As always, Jim and Gail Spann put in yet another case displaying a portion of their excellent collection. This case focused on Apatites which was the theme of this year's show.

This case was in addition to their case installed at the Fine Mineral Gallery. They must've needed a truck to get all these wonderful minerals to Tucson.

We all owe the Spanns a big "THANKS" for their cases. These are a huge amount of work and risk - and - they permit the world to see what they own. So many excellent pieces are "hidden out of public view" when they go into a collection.

thanks, Jim and Gail.

bob

[bob kerr]

Each year, stars of stage and screen, The Dorris's (Pinnacle 5 Minerals) bring to Tucson the results of their latest diggings at the Amazonite and Smokey Quartz locality in Colorado - an American Classic locality. But the past year or so seems to have produced specimens with a richer blue to the amazonite and a deeper smokey to the quartz - that and their digging techniques have produced large plates with minimal damage, minimal repairs and minimal restorations. They are a real sight.

bob

[bob kerr]

This huge aquamarine "geode" that was in the Westward Look Fine Art Minerals room of Ghulam Mustafa was moved to the TCC for the TGMS show. Rumor has it that this "impact rock" is now in the collection of Jim and Gail Spann. So, there's hope that it will make a future appearance.

bob

[Don Lum]

Bob, thank you for taking the time to post your pictures of the Tucson 2022 show. I really have enjoyed them. If you have the time and energy please keep posting.

Regards,

Don