Grand Canyon - March, 2005 - photo by John Veevaert

John Veevaert    PO BOX 2182   Weaverville, California  96093  USA  (888) 689-8402

---

Return to the 2008 Tucson Show Homepage 

Show Reports
Report 1   Report 2   Report 3   Report 4  Report 5  Report 6

Displays - 1   Displays - 2    Displays - 3

 

Tucson Show Report 4

 

It has been a few days since the last installment but here we go.  The Westward Look show is underway now and man oh man there are some great minerals there.  The dealers there all report very brisk sales and smiles abound.   I had a chance to go there on set up day and the 2nd day of the show to see it all. 

 

 The photo, taken near Pima Community College is aimed at Pima Canyon in the Catalina Mountains.

The line points to the approximate location of the Westward Look Show about 15 km to the north...

 

 

 

 

 This is what it looks like when you get there...

 

 

 A billboard for the show and several mineral noteables in the Westward Look parking lot including:

 Dave Bunk, Gloria Staebler, and Brice Gobin.  Take my word for it they are in the photo...

 

This year Marshall and Charlotte Sussman have their Tsumeb Collection on display in the Sonoran Room at the show.  They have been collecting Tsumeb for many years and have what is probably the finest privately owned collection from the mine in the United States.  They sold most of their earlier collection a couple of years ago and have managed to build yet another eye popping display of minerals from the world's premier mineral locality.  I will be posting shots of the collection later in the reports as I will be visiting them with a couple from Australia tomorrow.

 

 Marhsall Sussman (center) with James Zigras and Jim Spann viewing the collection. 

 That's Rockwall, Texas collector Gail Spann on the left.

 

 

There are so many fabulous rocks to see at this show that it is somewhat maddening to have to stick to a budget.   As I said earlier I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth - bummer.  One of the first rooms I visited was Cal Graeber and Leonard Himes' room.  As usual these two guys have some of the most interesting minerals on display of anyone.

 

 Here's a photo taken in the Graeber/Himes' room with Jack Halpern, Cal Graeber and Leonard Himes.

Leonard is holding an amethyst with calcite and drusy rose quartz from a new find in Brazil.

 

 

 Leonard showed me this incredible amethyst and calcite from Uruguay that, according

to a young visitor in the room, looks like the floating city as seen in a recent Star Wars movie .

 

 

 

 They had this specimen of amethyst the likes of which I have not seen before.

 

 

 Cal also showed me this stunning diaspore twin from Turkey.  Two gem crystals.

 

 

One room I always make a point of stopping in at the show is that of Brian Kosnar.  Brian works like the devil to bring interesting minerals to Tucson.  He has the glitzy stuff also but he finds the stuff that is what turns my crank in minerals - the odd and off the wall stuff.   He showed me three specimens of a new find of bournonite from the Marchacamaca mine in Bolivia.  This is not a new locality for bournonite but these new specimens are the best the mine has ever produced.  He also showed me a new find of vauxite from the Siglo XX mine, Llallagua, Potosí, Bolivia.  Goodness but this is the finest color for vauxite ever.  He will have these available at the main show next week. 

 

 

 An absolute killer 5 cm crystal group of bournonite.

 

 

 Stunning 6 cm specimen of vauxite with rich royal blue color.  

 

 

Had to stop by Scott's room again and grab a photo of probably the best of the new shattuckite specimens. This one is about 4 cm in length and is host to a quartz crystal included with shattuckite.  The price was up there at $15,000... But what a rock!

 

 "Beyond belief" blue of shattuckite in quartz.

 

 

 

Rob Lavinsky and Isaias Casanova have a new find of bipyramidal wulfenite from the Ojuela mine in Mexico.  These are remeniscent of the wuflenites found at the Aurora mine in Los Lamentos though the color is a bit more drab than those of the Aurora mine.  Several are found with greem mimetite which present a nice contrast.  The longest crystals are about 2 cm in length.

 

 

 12 cm specimen of the new bipyramidal wulfenite from the Ojuela mine in Mapimi, Durango, Mexico priced at $9500.

 

 

 Rob also had this colorless benitoite specimen from China... I mean calcite from the Daye Mine in China.

I thought long and hard about buying this one for my collection since I also have a sub set of triangular

formed crystals... But I couldn't bring myself to actually buy ah, er, eh, a CALCITE!  

 

The following are images of specimens I saw that piqued my interest...

 

 

A huge specimen of velvety malachite from the Congo offered by the Gobins.  

 

A 20 cm, c-twin crystal of manganoan calcite from the Daye mine in China offered by the Gobins.  

 

 

 A 30 cm specimen of muscovite with an 8-9 cm crystal of color zoned fluorite from Nagar in Pakistan offered by the Gobins.

 

 

 

A 20 cm specimen of smoky quartz and topaz from Virgem de Lapa, Minas Gerais, Brazil in the room of Ian Bruce. 

 

 

 

A large specimen of stacked apatite crystals on feldspar from the Sapo Mine in Minas Gerais, Brazil offered by Collector's Edge. 

Note the sun reflections on the wall in the picture on the left. Steve Behling may have a new career as a hand model.

 

 

 

A 9 cm crystal of gem dolomite from Brazil.  There's that triangle fetish of mine surfacing again.... 

 

I will be attending an interesting panel discussion tonight at the Westward Look entiled "Perspectives of the Woman Collector".  The panel will include Kerith Graeber, Carolyn Manchester, Dawn Minnette, Gail Spann, Ann Fraizier, and Diane Brownlee.  Cudos to Dave Waisman who is the show organizer for the Westward Look show.

 

Lots more to come from here in Tucson!