Dan Weinrich
Dealer in Fine Mineral Specimens
P.O. Box 425 * Grover, Missouri * 63040
Telephone: 314-341-1811 E-Mail: danweinrich@charter.net
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Dan Weinrich Dealer in Fine Mineral Specimens P.O. Box 425 * Grover, Missouri * 63040 Telephone: 314-341-1811 E-Mail: danweinrich@charter.net |
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John Schneider Tsumeb Collection
Schneider Collection Gallery 1
I am very pleased and excited to present three galleries of mineral specimens, all from the famous locality at Tsumeb, Namibia, from the collection of John Schneider!
John, a retired professional engineer, has been interested in rocks and minerals most all of his life. His interest was especially piqued around the age of twelve when he received a mineralogy set made by the Porter Chemical Company from his parents. He says that he still has that set today. Throughout his "working years" it was not uncommon for him to visit mineral exhibits in museum, or rock shops when on vacation, purchasing the odd quartz or fluorite specimen. He began to collect minerals seriously in 1991 following a visit to a rock shop in Banff, Alberta, Canada. At the time his wife, Mary Jo, noted his continued fascination with minerals and suggested that he purchase several attractive barite specimens. Upon retiring in 1993, he was able to devote more time to his mineral collecting hobby, and the collection really started to grow.
The collection began, like most, as a general "worldwide" collection of mostly miniature sized specimens. John had a desire to collect mineral specimens from every famous locality. He soon learned that this could get very expensive and space consuming, even when collecting only miniatures. His main interest and fascination in minerals has always been their beauty and aesthetics; he felt that if he cannot display a specimen for all to see, why collect it? It was becoming obvious that he needed to specialize.
A big change in his collecting philosophy came about in 1997. John was invited to visit with Marshall Sussman in Evanston, Illinois and see his wonderful and famous collection of Tsumeb minerals. John was particularly taken with the overall beauty and diversity of minerals from this famous locality. John was greatly influenced by this visit and decided to focus his own collection on miniatures from this classic locality. While he has retained suites of specimens from Russia, a beautiful suite of pyromorphites from various localities, and a suite of minerals from the Kalahari manganese district in South Africa, minerals from Tsumeb have evolved as the core of his collection. He now has over 350 specimens from Tsumeb including many rarities; this suite continues to grow today.
John has two other hobbies that mesh together well with his mineral collecting hobby. Woodworking is something that he really enjoys. His mineral collection is housed in several attractive and well lit display cases, all personally built. He has also created wooden display bases in order to mount all of his specimens to display them at their best advantage. Another hobby is photography. His son Mark is a professional photographer whose works have been published in scientific journals, textbooks and advertising. All of John's specimens are photographed, either by himself or Mark. John's entire collection is kept in a Microsoft Access database, and file cards are kept with all pertinent information for each specimen, along with a color photo. John has also documented his complete Tsumeb collection in a photo album which is kept current as specimens are added.
The collection has been recognized in recent years with several awards. In 2000 John was invited to display at the Carnegie Museum mineral show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He used the theme "Minerals of Southern Africa" with an emphasis on education, presentation, and specimen quality. This display won the first place award. In 2002, John took this same display to the Tucson show in Arizona. The display was awarded "Best of Show" in the advanced category. John was also awarded the Lidstrom Trophy for the "best of species" at this show, this being his superb alamosite specimen which is shown in the first of the three galleries here.
All of the following photographs were done by either John or his son Mark. The photography was done digitally using a Nikon D-1 Professional digital camera with a 105mm micro Nikon lens and incandescent lighting. The images are computer enhanced in Adobe Photoshop.
I hope that you enjoy looking over this wonderful collection!!!!! Simply follow the link at the bottom and enjoy!
John Schneider Collection Biography
John Schneider Collection Gallery 1
John Schneider Collection Gallery 2
John Schneider Collection Gallery 3