This is a classic alpine style specimen: a large, fist-sized cluster of gemmy, translucent orthoclase feldspar crystals. The cluster is a floater, complete all around. It is unusually pristine and sharp, and very 3-dimensional in person. The photos show it in normal frontal lighting, though it has a better "glow" to it when backlit. Impressive, in person! From the collection of Hubert De Monmonier (1919-2007), donated by bequest to the University of Arizona Museum to add to their displays and to provide specimens for sale to establish an endowment fund for museum operations, in perpetuity.

A very gemmy, translucent, glowing crystal of scheelite from the mountains of Sonora (no specific locale was attributed, but it is classic for the region and for this mine). Nearly complete-all-around and with only minor edge wear, this specimen stands as a very fine example of the species from Mexico. In person it has a unique yellow-orange color that is really quite different than Chinese material we see today, and similar to but brighter and more gemmy than the old Korean scheelites. The surface lustre is very bright - not lustrous and smooth, but nevetheless very bright and shiny. This specimen is very similar to a famous piece from the Dr Miguel Romero collection was on loan exhibition to the University of Arizona Museum for over a decade (featured in the book "The Miguel Romero Collection of Mexico Minerals"). If you had swapped out the Romero piece for this one, they are of such similar size an dpresence that I doubt anybody would have noticed. Such pieces are extremely rarified and seldom seen on the market. I am told that they are thought to have come out prior to the 1970s but perhaps as far back as the 1940s. This specimen was donated by noted collector Rukin Jelks, to the University of Arizona Museum when it was still the State of Arizona collection. His original label is preserved, as well as the Museum label.

Because we see so much more production from Naica, good Fluorite from the Zacatecas area is sometimes confused with material from the much more common locales in Naica, and I have found them on occasion mislabelled as such. This large display piece, however, has a decidedly non-Naica look to it. Naica produces octohedra, but not large purple crystals of this color; and the pagoda-like calcite is distinctive here also. This specimen is complete all around and shows off a great contrast of the small but brilliantly metallic chalcopyrite crystals perched upon the large fluorite octohedra. This is an oldtime specimen, and I have seen only smaller examples of the style for sale before. Ex University of Arizona Mineral Museum collection

The major crystal here sticks up about 3.5 cm, shooting up from the spray of crystallized albite around it. These unusual blue-tipped tourmalines came out of Stak Nala in the mid 1990s. I am aware of only one find of them, which came to Tucson at that time and was highly valued. The style itself, is classic and came from many pockets over a decade of production here. But the thick blue cap on the termination, those were few and far between. This specimen is complete all around 360 degrees and the termination is freestanding and looks good from any angle. It is not, as are so many of these clusters, repaired. From the collection of Hubert De Monmonier (1919-2007), donated by bequest to the University of Arizona Museum to add to their displays and to provide specimens for sale to establish an endowment fund for museum operations, in perpetuity.

The largest crystal here is not huge, at 13mm, but these ARE exceedingly gemmy and bright and there are a lot of them ! I am told that this habit of benitoite dates to very old workings at the mine, prior to 1960. I have seen only a handful of these brilliant, gemmy crystals in the past, all in old collections. This is a relatively large, display quality examnple with over a dozen fine and gemmy benitoites. From the collection of Hubert De Monmonier (1919-2007), donated by bequest to the University of Arizona Museum to add to their displays and to provide specimens for sale to establish an endowment fund for museum operations, in perpetuity.