The Munich Mineral
show – Mineralientage - is held at the start of November each year, in the Messegelande Exhibition Centre on
the east side of Munich. The show is the largest mineral show in Europe, very well organised, easy for transport, and compact to walk around.
The mineral
show is well attended, open to professionals on the Friday and the public on
both Saturday and Sunday with queues of people flooding in from the 9am start.
The combination of snow and school holidays didn’t seem to have much effect,
with attendance rumoured to be up on last year's show.
The exhibition centre is enormous, with
three of its halls dedicated to the
mineral show. Definitely more than you could hope to see in a day. The
halls are roughly divided into themes, with the central hall B2 predominantly
mineral dealers, books and mineralogical supplies, B1 containing more gem
and bead
dealers and the special exhibition, and B3 a mix of mineral dealers
mostly from
Eastern Europe,
China
and
Morocco. B3 also featured a new ‘healy-feely’ area of hot stone massages accompanying the Feng Shui garden.
The central Hall B2
Birds eye view of Hall B3
Crystal
Classics and Kristalle shared a large stand in the ‘Internation Mineral
Pavillion’, an area shared by higher end mineral dealers. The pavillion is pictured below surrounded by the green and blue lighted walls.
International Mineral Pavillion.
Our booth, which extends all the way to the right edge of the photo - We have 20 cabinets, this is our largest display anywhere in the world, and there are few other dealers that have such large displays. It takes a lot of team work, and we are very proud of the end results.
There were a few of the familiar faces around, selling some great minerals:
Bryan and Steve of The Collector's Edge, busily working.
A superbly coloured Azurite and Malachite from Bisbee
Andreas Weerth sneaking some lunch
Eva helping out at Frederic Escaut stand, some of the fabulously pink Tourmalines from the pegmatite in Luc Yen, Vietnam just to the left.
The Gobin brothers
Jolyon of Mindat at his stand
The talk of
the show was the new find of pink Fluorites on Muscovite from Nagar, Pakistan in the booth of Ricardo Prato (Italy) , with
beautiful large octahedrons of translucent pink crystals – I think all had sold
before the show even started!!! The photos are not the best quality,
but it was a fight to get close enough to the cabinet to take a photo!
The special exhibit this year was 'Masterpieces of Nature and Man'. There was a great display of killer mineral specimens from the Natural History Museum of Houston, Texas, USA (Joel Bartsch is curator). Several of the specimens are photographed below to give you an idea of the quality on display:
Rhodo from N'Chwaning Mine, South Africa. Very unusual morphology compared the ruby red well terminated crystals from this location. There was only one pocket ever found, with only a handful of specimens.
Elbaite on Quartz from the Tourmaline Queen Mine, San Diego County, California, USA. This is a famous specimen.
Native Copper from Broken Hill, NSW, Australia
A killer Amethyst from Mexico
A stunning Azurite from Tsumeb, Namibia
A huge Hydroxyl-Herderite crystal from Shigar Valley, Pakistan. This is a unique specimen because the crystal is so large (about 5cm across) and such a great gemmy colour.
Spangolite crystals from Czar Shaft, Copper Queen Mine, Bisbee, Cochise County, Arizona, USA. This is a fantastic piece. Most specimens we have come across only have one or two Spangolite crystals on matrix, making this a true masterpiece. This is the best known specimen for this species by far.
A killer Emerald from near Hiddenite, Alexander County, North Carolina, USA! Possibly one of the world's finest known Emeralds and the largest ever found in North America.
The famous Alma Queen from Sweet Home Mine, Colorado, USA - the colour is just stunning, and the crystal is HUGE (10cm)!
A superb Chilean Prousite measuring several centimetres across, displaying great red gemminess - this photo does not do it justice.
Azurite from Bisbee, Arizona, USA - easily recognised as this year's poster mineral for the show advertising.
The artwork of Quartz in the centre of the special exhibit area.
Surrounding the fantastic display of minerals were some other sections of Masterpieces of a different sort - one section had excellent hand drawn pictures of specimens, including the original subjects:
Aquamarine crystal
The hand drawn counterpart.
Amethyst geode
Pick the live one!
There was also a very interesting display of working models of mine equipment, and instruments of mineralogy and geology, many on loan from the Bergakademie, Freiberg,
Saxony, Germany.
Mine Models
Back to wandering around the halls where there was a huge range of minerals, gems, beads, sliced fossil tree trunks (perfect for your next dining room table top), fossils, meterorite, books and magazines, equipment and supplies...... the list goes on! Definitely something for everyone.
For those that like a little something different with their rocks.
A freshly hairsprayed Quartz specimen (we kid you not) to give it that glossy lustre, from one of the Romanian dealers. The specimen is also irradiated to give the Quartz the dark smoky colour.
Fengshui garden in hall B3. You did actually feel calmer walking around its spiral to the central waterfall.
Rock music of a different kind.
A demonstration on using crystals for healing and massage.
There was also a very good, although small exhibit on how to spot a fake trilobite (perhaps so as not to upset any of the less reputable fossil dealers?). Fossils are often created by using parts from several fossils combined into one, or using plastic to create parts or whole fossils. So next time you are looking to buy a trilobite - take a bit of extra time to make sure you are getting the real thing!
So another Munich show over for another year, it was a lot of fun, with lots of great buys. The experience was made complete by:
the typical Bavarian hotel, and a good dose of snow,
and a fine meal of Pork Knuckle and a stein of beer.
PROST!!!
