FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Peter Megaw]

We're not going to be able to make SMaM this year...sad, because we LOVED that show last year and that's where Lauren found that sapphire everyone likes so much! Instead, she'll be on a 3-week school exchange visit to France at that time...in Compiene north of Paris... in case there's someone nearby who has a collection she and her host family could visit.

We probably should give Ed second-hand credit for her collecting too!

[Peter]

Very true Peter. We should not forget the chain of inspiration.

I was inspired of my University collection from age of 10, built by Albert Karlsson-Ygger. He was a Swedish inventor who immigrated to the USA and was a member of the NY Mineral Club in the 1920s-1940s.

He himself had been inspired by a school collection on the Swedish east coast which I have seen . This collection was rescued after having been thrown out as landfill under a new gymnastics/sporthall of the school ! !

The oldest well documented specimen is a galenite collected in 1694 in the vein Vattpelarbandet in the Sala silver mine! The label is still glued to the specimen! ! !

At this time my own ancestors were miners and mining engineers!

[Peter Megaw]

Nice to be able to trace that kind of ancestry in the field.

This cartoon is inspiring too...at both ends

[Ed Huskinson]

Wow!!! What an eye you have!!! Yes, it is a Neudorf Galena, a magnificent spinel twin on siderite (I think). I first saw this specimen maybe 25 years ago when visiting Bob Jones in Phoenix. I'm unsure just exactly where/how he/they (Evan owned it) acquired it. I've been meaning to ask Evan about it, but never seem to remember when I see him.

The specimen came from a university in germany though, and it has suffered at the hands of the ignorant, much as the specimens with which you are dealing have been mishandled. Students (or whomever) have used the basal pinacoid for scratch testing a couple of times, and someone even took a blowpipe to one edge!!! Unbelievable!!! But hey, damage and all, I still love it. Maybe it was Goethe himself who did the testing on the piece. I like to think so, but...

I will be posting an individual picture of the piece soon, just for your benefit. Give me a day or so.

Again, good eye on your part.

Ed

[Ed Huskinson]

Peter. One day, long ago, I acquired a specimen with a beautifully written calligraphic label. "Wow!" I thought, "I sure wish I could do that." And then I thought "Well, why not?". So I taught myself calligraphy. Bought some books and started practicing. Because each one is hand-written, space becomes an issue, usually necessitating foreshortening of the locality information. At least on the display label. The curating technique that I use has all of the pertinent (and sometimes impertinent) information on each specimen. I consider these stories to be important, much the way John Barlow felt this data to be important.

An example of one of my labels is featured in the American Mineral Treasures book, page 9, upper right-hand side. When the special display of specimens that had passed through the hands of Dave Wilber was featured at the Tucson show in when, 1985? 1990? Well, whenever, I showed up at the convention center to help with Best Of Species check-in, as I do every year, and was approached by Jim Bleess, who had put the thing together. There were about 30 or 40 specimens, and he asked me if I'd write the labels for them. "Sure." And I did so, wrote steadily for the next two or three hours. It was fun, and I was able to see the specimens up close and personal, and became privy to little stories about some of them.

I plan to open up a thread or string or topic, whatever it's called, on the curation of mineral specimens. I look forward to an energetic back-and-forth on a subject that is near and dear to my heart.

More later, and thanks for the timely reponse and interest.

[Ed Huskinson]

Yes Carles, just for you I will move that specimen (the Los Lamentos wulfenite) to the forefront for photographing. It is a wonderful rock, and I have enjoyed my stewardship of the piece. It gives me such pleasure to see it each time I go into the Mineral Room to look around, or to bond with newer acquisitions, or just to lower my blood pressure.

Thanks for the response.

Ed

[Tobi]

Hi Ed,

concerning the Galena: Thank you - my eyes are not especially good, but these Galenas from Neudorf are famous and distinctive. They are in my opinion among the greatest mineral classics ever. Your specimen looks very nice, though i can't believe what you said about the scratching tests and the blowpipe ... oh no :-(

And yes - the matrix is Siderite. Looking forward to see a better photo of the specimen!

[Peter]

Dear Ed
Thank you for your kind answer. I also have special interest in curating, especially so to keep original information with each specimen. I have many times found that this information is not treasured by many collectors and dealers and thus only after serious inquieries I have traced the way back of many pieces. I am at the stage where I am considering to make tiny labels with mineral, locality to attach to each specimen in a spot where it does not disturb or cover any important features (i.e. base, backside etc). With modern printing labels can be mad every tiny). Rock Currier of Jewel Tunnel imports has developed a program for mineral collections where this is one of the features.
Peter

[Tony L. Potucek]

Congrats, Eduardo! You hit the big time! And, I never thought that you would ever, ever be able to get any more specimens into your cases, but you did it! That's an impressive mineralogical shoehorn you've got, Pard. I see some specimens in there that I fondly remember.....


Good luck--sounds like you're plowing the fields at Gold Basin? I found some of the most robust rattlesnakes in that district. I missed the wire gold and wulfenite. Turning up any good artifacts? I found PVC pipe underground!

best regards, Amigo.

[Ed Huskinson]

Yeah, well, I figure that what I display in my own mineral room is just that, My Own. Of course, when competing, it all changes. Then everything is spaced nicely, and the labels in the back are a little larger than the labels in the front, that sort of thing. Here's another photo of a shelf on the north wall, taken just a little west of the previous posted pic.

And when I post pictures of the fluorite suite, you can bet that your CaF2 from the Mex Tex, the one that you collected in 1970 or 1971 will be one of the first ones up. I display it with pride.

Anyway, I fill the shelves with the rocks, shovel 'em in there, just to be able to look at them. Labels get in the way and block light to the shelves below. I figure I can get away with this because I have system whereby the locality for each piece is affixed to the underside of the specimen. It's too easy for a label to become separated from a mineral and then it can be difficult to verify the provenance of the piece. Location, location, location. There's always some clever fella out there who will be able to identify the mineral, and usually the place of origin. But not always. So, this is why I consider the locality to be the singlemost important thing to affix permanently to the specimen.

BTW, I'm actually plowing the auriferous vineyards across the hwy from Gold Basin, west of 93, right behind Rosie's Den. No artifacts yet, but yes, large rattlesnakes, and I've heard that there's a substantial den of them at the Van Deemen, and that they are Mohave Greens. Of course I'll be one down in the hole mapping when they make their presence known. I'm even thinking of investing in some of those shin guard thingies that they sell out of Miner's Supply in Riggins.

Ah heck, here're a couple of photos of your CaF2. Please elaborate on it for the benefit of everyone else who looks at it/them.

Thanks,

Ed

[Tobi]

But the Galena is still impressive. Well, all of your specimens look impressive, a great collection! And (to proof my eye again) is this a Sulphur from Sicily on the right? I love them and i'm still searching for such a great display specimen of Italian Sulphur - but they're very rare (and very expensive ...) Please post more pics with some detail shots of the specimens!

[Peter]

Lovely San Fransisco Mine wulfenite and Mimetite too!

[Ed Huskinson]

Thanks Peter. Film at eleven....

[Peter Megaw]

Hey Ed: Ran across this in a box of rocks stashed away from my time in Austin. Did it come from that mineral garage sale you had?

[Peter Megaw]

Anybody know who the photoshop mechanic is who puts these things together? I've received about 5 of them over the last 2-3 years?