A rich, major specimen of the species , nearly solid with Gartrellite. Gartrellite is a mineral that was recently discovered (1990) and its presentation up until now is not that great by common aesthetic standards. Usually it is presented as dull crusts of fine-grained coatings from other locales. This is a good, showy, display-worthy specimen. Minor duftite is in association. Joe Budd photos

A choice, reticulated cerussite showing the adamantine lustre and slightly beige color that these are famous for. The piece is very balanced and, nearly, pristine. For those wanting a fine Tsumeb cerussite this is, I think, a bargain. It has the robustness you normally see in a larger specimen without the cost, and it is a full miniature still in size. Old material, probably from the 1970s or early 1980s. from the Helmut Bruckner collection. Joe Budd photos

A totally gemmy, 3-dimensional, 1.6-cm garnet crystal crowns this beautiful plate from the classic, now closed locale. The specimen literally formed as a "plate" , coating a wall in situ. So it is minutely crystallized around the back, though it looks flat there. The brightness of the piece , and the size of the garnets, give it a good impact in a case. From an old French Canadian collection, being sold off at Tucson 2011. Joe Budd photos

Glassy, transparent, richly colored garnet crystals to 1.5 cm make this a beautiful plate from the classic, now closed locale. The specimen literally formed as a "plate" , coating a wall in situ. So it is minutely crystallized around the back, though it looks flat there. The brightness of the piece , and the size of the garnets, give it a good impact in a case. From an old French Canadian collection, being sold off at Tucson 2011. Joe Budd photos

Every now and then, you see a large matrix piece which just screams "fake" at you. It just seems too contrived to be real. That is what I thought of this specimen, when I first saw it in a dealer advertisement over 5 years ago. When I saw it in person though, I immediately realized that it actually is the real thing, with three isolated and pristine tourmaline crystals shooting out in 3 different directions. Remarkably, there are no repairs! The piece has been through my preferred preparation lab to confirm that fact. The fact that a single matrix piece can have two totally different habits of tourmaline has always impressed me about how these things form. It is rare, but it happens. Still, usually that exceptional case refers to two tourmalines of the same color, but perhaps different terminations on the same matrix. Here, we have both of the really stereotypical habits of a Paprok tourmaline, totally different in color and symmetries, perched on the same piece. The classic multicolored red-green crystal is 5 inches tall. Again, it is NOT repaired, despite its perch and freestanding nature. The hot pink crystal to the left is fully 2 inches long, and shows a totally different termination. We call this style the "bubblegum pinks" and it is also classic for the locality. I simply am NOT aware of another specimen which combines both of these particular styles of tourmaline, let alone with such pizzazz. This is a major matrix tourmaline, by any standard. Joe Budd photos

We have all seen innumerable quantities of these aesthetic, dramatic combination pieces come out over the years. BUT, few have ever just stunned me for the sheer beauty and symmetry as this piece. It displays dramatically perched on a custom made lucite base which raises it into the air, to appear floating. Note this is somewhat fragile, and therefore hand delivery is a must for this specimen. Nevertheless, once put on a shelf, or in a drawer, it is safely at home! I paid a bloody fortune for this piece compared to what they usually go for, just because it is so striking, so balanced, and appealed to me when I usually ignore most of them. Joe Budd photos

I first started seeing dribbles of rhodonite cleavage fragments from this mine in 2005. Formerly, the mine had been worked for manganese, then closed fo rdecades. The rhodonite cutting rough provided a new reason to prospect here. The cutting rough came to market first, and only later did a few sporadic pockets yield these giant, cherry red crystals. They were always rare, and to my knowledge no more than half a dozen really fine pockets were found over the last 5 years of hard mining at this very old manganese mine. I obtained 4 of those pockets, myself, with an agent camped out at the source. This particular crystal is one that came out in 2008, and I handled at that time. It is a dramatic piece that is very fat, and thus very juicy with the top cherry-red color. The edges are transparent while the core is translucent. Like most of the crystals mined here, the edges are contacted due to the extremely tight pockets and narrow room to grow. Although contacted on the left and with some breakaway damage on the lower edges to the sides, this crystal displays dramatically from the front, and sits either flat or horizontally showing the longest axis as the top, like an inverted pyramid. Set on its custom display base, it is a very impressive piece, and literally radiates color in a case. Joe Budd photos

A rare example of seemingly octohedral crystals of alabandite, from the Chiurucu Mining area and NOT from the Ucchuchaccua rhodochrosite mine in Lima Dept. The crystal, 2 cm on edge, is complete and sharp, and world class for the species . The piece overall is a "toenail" or small miniature size. Only one dealer had a very few of these specimens at the Tucson 2011 show. What are the odds of two new finds of the best alabandite crystals in the world coming out of different mines in Peru at th same time, after decades of nothing like this? near zero? I am very sure of this locale, though. One of these specimens has a smidge of rhodonite on the bottom of the matrix, confirming its mine of origin. Joe Budd photos

Scheelite from this locale, before the discovery of Chinese material in modern times, was considered by most collectors to be the best of color for the species. Crystals were far and few between, and traded as if they were platinum among sophisticated collectors. This is a large crystal for the locale, bigger than the very few I have seen and handled in the past by quite a bit. Most are on the order of 1 cm or smaller. This is robust in size, form, and has a deeply saturated orange-red color to it. This is a MAJOR locality specimen! ex American Museum of Natural History, by exchange to collector/dealer Lawrence Conklin in the 1980s. Joe Budd photos

This is a relatively large crystal for the species, from a rare and one-off find of this very rare species (circa 1976). You will almost never see a matrix example for sale, let alone one with such a large crystal! They are extremely uncommon today on the market, and ONLY come from this locality in good crystals of note. The crystal has an off-white color, and is translucent. It fluoresces blue under UV light. I purchased this in Seattle from associates of Jack Zektzer who collected the area with him and then hoarded these for several decades. Joe Budd photos