Munich
2004
(esta página en español)
Munich
is over. We will remember its intensity, the sheer amount of activity, and, of
course, the large number of friends we saw there. If we did not have time to give
you the attention you deserved, we can only say “sorry but we were very busy”.
This year we seemed to have more work than we have had in the past, so we got
very busy.
Overall
the most notable features of the show were the sheer number of visitors and the
sales this generated. That said, this year we sold less top quality specimens
than usual. From what we heard, this seemed to be the case for most dealers, so
we guess that the general economical situation, and the German one in particular,
may have caused people to avoid spending large amount of money on expensive specimens.
Another way of looking at it is that, while there are many more people involved
in the hobby and lots of enthusiastic visitors as well as the regular collectors,
maybe people were less happy spending large sums.
That
said, one cannot forget that Munich is a great show, which you must not miss if
you want to be up to date with the mineral world and all the new finds from the
corners of the world. Below this text you will find some photos that show some
of the things we remember from the show. You will also see some thoughts on the
mineralogical novelties that we noticed during the show.
Different
views of Feldkirchen, a small and typical Bavarian village that is very popular
for two reasons: it is close to the show and has many pleasant restaurants where
one can eat well without spending a fortune. The last photo shows the inside of
a restaurant.
Our
stand and a partial shot of the huge hall 5 in which we were working. You can
see me trying to ‘manage’ the plastic bags that we use to wrap the specimens
we sell. We really sold lots of rock!
The
Show Cases are the best feature of the show. In the left hand photo you can see
a case of Chinese Fluorite and in the right one a king size Elbaite.
It wasn’t all work, as we found the
chance to head off one evening to a really beautiful restaurant in Munich: the
Ratskeller, which is just beneath the town hall. For all that, it has not become
a pure tourist attraction, as it seems to still have a local atmosphere and very
good food. In the first photo you can see Julia standing in one of the many passages
of the restaurant, which is as nice as the other photos suggests. In the last
photo you can see the metro that we used after the meal to get back to the area
where the show is held. Pares looks like a ghost, as the metro was completely
empty and we were on our own! The area where they hold the show is not well known
for its night life.
So
let’s move on to the novelties of the show. To simplify things we can just
say that China keeps on producing a huge number of novelties as well as the normal
range of minerals that are now becoming classics. In terms of China we saw the
new, very attractive Quartz from Meigu, Liangshan, Sichuan with inclusions of
a first generation of red quartz and of very neat deformed crystals of Hematite.
There were lots of these at the show, although the quality was not always that
high. There were also the new, really neat, Gibbsites from a locality that is
still to be fully confirmed: it may be Yunnan? In terms of the classic material
the Stibnites from Wuning, Jiangxi that were found quite recently really stand
out for their exceptional quality and brilliance. We also saw good examples of
Cinnabar from Fenghua, Chatian, which was good news as they almost disappeared
from the market quite a while ago.
Lots
new from Pakistan as well. First among these, for both their quality and the number
of samples seen, were the Brookites that have been found in the Pashine area of
Baluchistan. Along with the Brookite there were also some very neat, alpine quality
Anatase. There is a chance that they will keep on finding these in the area and
we may see Anatase that is as exceptional as the Brookite. We also saw excellent
Diopside from Kunar as well as octahedral Fluorite from the Nagar region, which
had large, intensely pink (nearly red) crystals.
From
India the new large, perfect cubes of Fluorapophyllite are notable, with octahedral
faces on their edges and the inclusions of iron oxide that make them look quite
like Pyrite (some even looked twinned, like the Spanish Pyrites!)
From
the old continent there was some other good news: Rumania has started to produce
interesting Scheelite again, some of which are gemmy and blue. In Sicily some
miners from Cozzodisi have been visiting old mines and have been able to find
new Sulfur specimens similar to the old classics. Above all else we liked the
exceptional Perovskites from the Perovskitovaya mine in Zlatoust, Russia, which
are very brilliant and have many faces to the crystals, and the impressive chrome
Amesites with their amazing blue-red color change.
Without
doubt Munich 2004 had far more than we are able to show you here. We have just
told you about the things that we felt required more attention and, as the Italians
say, “si non e vero e ben trovato”
Aufwiedersehn...
The Jordi Fabre Collection
The
Vault
Express Minerals
by C. Manresa
Expominerals
Updates
Minerals - Virtual Museum(#MVM)
Home
page
Minerals About
us Client
Comments Friends
of
Minerals
Forum Feedback
Form Search
All pictures, text, design © Fabre Minerals 1996-2024 — Europe's first Internet mineral dealer, on the web since 1996
Munich 2004
 |
|  |
(esta página en español)
|
|
Different views of Feldkirchen, a small and typical Bavarian village that is very popular for two reasons: it is close to the show and has many pleasant restaurants where one can eat well without spending a fortune. The last photo shows the inside of a restaurant. |
|
Our stand and a partial shot of the huge hall 5 in which we were working. You can see me trying to ‘manage’ the plastic bags that we use to wrap the specimens we sell. We really sold lots of rock! |
|
The Show Cases are the best feature of the show. In the left hand photo you can see a case of Chinese Fluorite and in the right one a king size Elbaite. |
|
It wasn’t all work, as we found the chance to head off one evening to a really beautiful restaurant in Munich: the Ratskeller, which is just beneath the town hall. For all that, it has not become a pure tourist attraction, as it seems to still have a local atmosphere and very good food. In the first photo you can see Julia standing in one of the many passages of the restaurant, which is as nice as the other photos suggests. In the last photo you can see the metro that we used after the meal to get back to the area where the show is held. Pares looks like a ghost, as the metro was completely empty and we were on our own! The area where they hold the show is not well known for its night life. |
| |
|
|
Aufwiedersehn...
|
The Jordi Fabre Collection |
The Vault |
Express Minerals by C. Manresa |
Expominerals |
Updates |
Minerals - Virtual Museum(#MVM) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
| Home page Minerals | About us | Client Comments | Friends of Minerals Forum | Feedback Form | Search |
| All pictures, text, design © Fabre Minerals 1996-2024 — Europe's first Internet mineral dealer, on the web since 1996 |