About Us

How It All Began by Ian Bruce, Founder of Crystal Classics There is no exact moment in my life where I can say ‘I began collecting minerals’, they have always been part of my life from my earliest memories, and there has always been an unquenchable fascination with their form, beauty and sheer variety. As a very young child growing up in Mid Devon in England, our neighbour worked at the Meldon Quarry and would often bring home pretty Pyrite and Quartz specimens for the inquisitive kid next door. My Grandparents saw my interest and as they ran a tour company organising holidays all over Europe, they would always bring me back unusual pieces of rock or minerals from each country they visited, as well as buying me great books on Geology and Natural Wonders each Christmas and for my early birthdays. As far back as I can remember I always wanted to work with minerals. This led to an early decision to study Geology and Mineralogy leading to an Honours Degree in Mining Geology.

Ian collecting in Australia in the early nineties.

During my days as a student I was lucky enough to meet and spend a lot of time collecting with some of the great English field collectors, David Lloyd in particular. This was a time when field collecting in England was much easier and we spent a lot of time underground in old English mines and also travelled widely throughout Europe collecting minerals with some fine success stories.

Ian collecting underground in the Panasquiera mine in Portugal 2005		Dave Lloyd collecting in the Tsumeb mine open pit in 2002.
Ian collecting underground in Devon, England in 2003.		Dave collecting in the open pit at Hemerdon mine, Devon, England 2002.

Crystal Classics was born in the early nineties as a vehicle to sell some of the mineral specimens collected during trips to Australia. It has grown ever since and blossomed into one of the premier sources for fine mineral specimens worldwide.

We exhibit at all the major mineral shows worldwide (Tucson, St. Marie, Denver, Munich) and have been involved in the dispersal and sale of some of the world’s finest mineral collections over the last few years. We are well known for handling top quality classic minerals, and have supplied some of the world’s finest and rarest specimens to private collectors and museums worldwide.

Over the last few years we have been working closely with American dealers Kristalle (Wayne and Dona Leicht), and this has led us to obtaining even more fine mineral collections.

Come and see our stock; we carry one of the world’s finest and most varied mineral inventories.