IMCA Insights – July 2006
Ensisheim Meteorite Show
2006
by Norbert Classen
Welcome to the July issue of
IMCA Insights and our first meteorite show report, Ensisheim
2006. As always, I had been anticipating this annual event for some time, not
just because it's so close to my home – just about 40km right across the French
border – but also because it's one of the best meteorite events on our planet.
The Ensisheim show was opening its gates for the 7th
time from
The
Thunderstone of Ensisheim
On
Historic woodcut
showing the fall of the Thunderstone of Ensisheim
The whole affair attracted
very much public attention, causing Emperor Maximilian to visit Ensisheim 15 days after the fall to hold court over the
"Thunderstone of Ensisheim" and to
determine the meaning of the occurrence. After some consideration, he decided
to take the fall as a good omen in his ongoing wars with France and the Turks.
However, he ordered that the stone had to be preserved in the local church –
fixed to the wall with iron chains to prevent it from either wandering around
at night or departing in the same violent manner by which it had arrived.
Today, the remaining main mass
of this most historic meteorite fall can still be seen in the Regency Palace of
Ensisheim. It resides there in a small museum, and it
regularly serves as the centrepiece of the annual Ensisheim
show which is organized by the St. Georges Confraternity of the Ensisheim Meteorite Guardians (Confrérie
des Gardiens de la Météorite
d'Ensisheim) inside of the historic
Meteor
Beer & Meteorite People
The show always starts on
Fridays – the so-called dealers day – with the dealers
setting up their tables, trading meteorites, and having fun. Then, at
Six new Guardians
of the Ensisheim Meteorite: Stefan Ralew, Hanno Strufe,
Jean-Pierre Herth, Rico R. Mettler, Denis Leypold, Roger Warin (from left
to right)
Photo courtesy
Peter Marmet
This year, two of the new
Guardians were IMCA members, Stefan Ralew and Hanno Strufe, both meteorites
dealers and collectors from
Next morning, the show opened
to the public, and I was on my way to Ensisheim. I
parked my car near to the
Together, we visited Marcin Cimala’s cutting service
in the opposite corner of the square in front of the
About two hours later (!),
after another beer, and lots of meteorite talk with Sergey Vasiliev,
Dave Schultz (one of the American visitors that I met for the first time in
person), and other friends, I finally entered the Regency Palace to see what
was going on in the main hall were all the dealers had their tables. More than
30 meteorite dealers had their goodies for sale, this year, and I was amazed to
see that about half of them were actually IMCA members, such as Moritz Karl,
Sergey Vasiliev, Thomas Dehner,
Hanno Strufe, Frederic Beroud, Stefan Ralew,
Pierre-Marie Pele, Andreas Gren,
Peter Marmet, Marcin Cimala, Martin Altmann, Olaf Gabel, Sven Buhl, Philippe Thomas, Laurent Jaworski, and – not to forget our own Mrs. President – Anne
Black. Please forgive me if I forgot to mention the one or the other.
IMCA member &
meteorite hunter Frederic Beroud with a great
assortment of his Saharan finds
Photo courtesy
Peter Marmet
On all these tables there were
more goodies than one can possibly mention – historic falls, and fresh desert
finds, enough to fill a book with all those rocks from space and the stories
behind them, and certainly enough to make most museum exhibits pale in
comparison. Naturally, I can only name a few, the real highlights.
In the entrance hall, a few
Moroccan dealers were offering some fresh finds, and a variety of books were
offered by the Astronomical Association. In the first room, Giorgio Tomelleri and his wife Gina from
More
Meteorites & Meteorite Aficionados
I crossed the consignment room
where a wealth of meteorites and tektites are sold by people who don’t have
their own tables, and finally entered the main hall. To the right there was Ali
Hmani and his son Mohammed – as always, they had the
best selection of new NWA finds, such as their rare angrite
main masses, a lot of HEDs, and new carbonaceous chondrites.
Then there was the German
faction, represented by Andreas Gren, Martin Altmann, Svend Buhl, Olaf Gabel, and Stefan Ralew. As
always, Andi had a great selection of expertly
prepared iron meteorites, Martin convinced with a selection of reasonably
priced historic falls and other rarities, and Svend
surprised with a multitude of posters and reprints of historic meteorites and
falls. Olaf had a fantastic selection of impactites while Stefan offered the best of the best of NWA
for sale, rare acapulcoites, and other unusual
classifications.
On the other side of the aisle
there was the Swiss faction with IMCA Board Member Peter Marmet,
Twannberg II finder Marc Jost,
as well as long-time collector Jürgen Nauber from Zuerich. As a
collector of historic specimens, Peter offered a great assortment of historic
falls and pedigree specimens with old labels, and museum numbers. Marc had a
wide assortment with Swiss made meteorite watches, as well as an extraordinary
large slice of the Bear Creek iron meteorite – a real sight to behold! Seasoned
collector Jürgen Nauber
offered a wide variety of finds and falls, among them a stunning 2g fragment of
Chassigny, thin slices of Stannern,
and the hard to find eucrite Palo Blanco Creek – just
to name a few of his goodies.
IMCA member Hanno Strufe with a great
selection of rarities from NWA and
Photo courtesy
Peter Marmet
To the right, there was Hanno Strufe’s table. The new
Guardian convinced with a striking display, as well as with reasonably priced
meteorites from NWA and
On the other side of the isle
there were even more guests from overseas, such as Mike Farmer who was offering
some outstanding lunar specimens, including his latest find, Dhofar 1428, a lunar anorthositic
breccia which displays very nicely. As another
novelty, Mike was offering fantastic posters, “Meteorites from the Moon and
Mars”, showing some of his best finds, and acquisitions – a must for every
planetary meteorite lover. To his left, the ever-smiling Hans Koser from
There were many more tables
worth mentioning, such as Frederic Beroud & Christophe Boucher's table, displaying a wealth of their
own Saharan finds, including the now famous anomalous C4, Tanezrouft
057; Marcin Cimala’s table
with a great selection of NWA’s as well as a great regmaglypted Morasko iron; Bruno Fectay’s and Carine Bidauts stall with a multitude of historic rarities, lunar
and martian specimens, and a incredible large
polished endcut of the bencubbinite
Gujba; Peter Kümmels table
with a wealth of German meteorite finds, and falls; Pierre-Marie Pele offering his comprehensive meteorite books and DVD’s;
as well as Philippe Thomas’ table with a neat assortment of Moroccan falls, and
rare NWA classifications. I could literally fill a book with all their goodies,
and the stories behind them.
Polish meteorite
dealer and IMCA member Marcin Cimala with his meteorites
Photo courtesy
Peter Marmet
The visitors of this year’s Ensisheim
show were as illustrious and international as the dealers and exhibitors. There
were scientists from all over the world, such as Dr. Juergen
Otto from
As always, we have to thank the organizer of
the show, Zelimir Gabelica,
for a great and most entertaining event – the Ensisheim
show is growing bigger and better, each year! If you’re into historic
meteorites and witnessed falls, you won’t find a better selection for sale at
most reasonable prices. If you’re into NWAs and
desert finds, you can either buy them unclassified from the Moroccan dealers,
or you can get the rarest of the rare from well established dealers, and
meteorite hunters. The weather is always perfect, although sometimes a bit hot,
the food is good, and the opportunities of socializing, discussing, and
partying with fellow meteorite aficionados are endless. I thoroughly enjoyed
this year show, and I’m looking forward to see you all at next years Ensisheim show which will open its gates from
The Last Waltz:
IMCA Board Members Anne Black & Christian Anger
dancing in front of the
Photo courtesy
Peter Marmet
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