I had the opportunity in late September to visit the Dallas, Texas, area and more specifically while in the area visit “The Arkenstone”. What is the Arkenstone? It is a mineral dealer of extremely fine minerals owned and operated by Dr. Robert Lavinsky. Even though Rob is just in his mid-30’s, he has developed quite a reputation as being one of only a handful of real quality mineral dealers in the country.
Rob has weekly minerals auctions and several months ago had a unique auction for a trip to visit his establishment. He offered this as a way to get collectors who hadn’t visited his gallery the opportunity to do so. The winner of the auction would be provided airfare to Dallas where Rob would also provide hotel accommodations and lunch. Also included in the package was the opportunity to meet several local collectors. I was the winning bidder of this auction and worked out a date and time schedule convenient to both Rob and me.
Rob provided me the address and time to meet him in Richardson, Texas, where his gallery and warehouse are located. It didn’t take very long for me to realize the magnitude and scope of this operation! Not only did he have a new mineral gallery, he also had several other rooms which were wall-to-wall mineral cabinets all filled with quality specimens. Without a doubt it was the single highest concentration of quality mineral specimens I have ever witnessed in one place! This includes visiting the Tucson shows five times and the Smithsonian. There were mineral specimens for all levels of collectors from $100 specimens to over $100,000 specimens! I actually held several aquamarine crystals in my hand that were worth six figures! It is one thing to visit a museum and look at these behind glass and another thing to actually hold, feel, touch, and look at them up close! What a rush! Rob is very busy on any given day so he allowed me to look through all of the mineral drawers at my own pace and would occasionally drop by to see how I was doing. He also made me aware of several collections he had just purchased, one of them heavily favoring minerals from Tsumeb, Namibia. Talk about a candy store, it was hard to know where to begin. He also provided me with an area where I could place any specimens I was interested in purchasing and we would negotiate a price later. I saw a number of pieces I wanted to add to my collection so I just started pulling them out and laying them aside for later consideration. Rob remembered from past business with me that I was interested in quartz minerals. He had already set aside a number of quality quartz specimens for my inspection. I also made him aware that I also liked gem crystals and in fact had started focusing on them as well. No problem here, as gem crystals were certainly well represented in this gallery!
While there Rob also introduced me to several of his employees, Kevin Brown and Karl Warning in particular. Kevin is the gallery Business Manager and Karl is involved in posting of the weekly mineral auctions. Kevin also provided me a guided tour of his personal collection at his home. This was quite a treat as his collection focuses on minerals of the U.S.A. It is always interesting to see the different collector focus as many collectors over time seem to change their interest. For instance I began collecting quartz minerals with a heavy focus on agates and eventually migrated to gem minerals and crystals. I did acquire a number of fine specimens for my collection and saw many more I wanted but couldn’t afford. Kevin mentioned to me that several weeks before I arrived, a prominent collector visited the gallery and bought about $250,000 worth of specimens! Wow, to have that kind of pocketbook! I might add that whether you spend $500 or $50,000, you are treated the same by the staff of The Arkenstone. Yes, this is a business but it is also run by mineral collectors who have a passion for the hobby and it is highly contagious I might add.
In all I spent two days at Rob’s gallery and still don’t feel I saw everything. It is kind of like spending one day at the Smithsonian Institution, you only scratch the surface and that is putting it mildly! I would highly recommend to any serious collector if you are in the Dallas area, give Rob a call. The gallery is open by appointment only but the staff is available and ready to assist you on most days (except for shows).

In order to leave comments to this blog post, you must be registered