Arranging A Collection

2007: Gordon Axon's tips on arranging gem collection is superb and practical. Once when you start doing it, you enjoy it because now you see what the gemstones look like when they are in its right place.

(via The Journal of Gemmology, Vol.13, No.1, January 1972) Gordon V Axon writes:

A collector faces immediately the problem of arranging his collection. In the United States, where the author currently lives, mineral and gem collecting is probably more advanced than anywhere else in the world, and the mechanical ability of Americans has been applied to the problems facing collectors. As a result, several companies provide a range of cases, cartons, trays, cabinets, stands, and gem holders.

Even so, collectors sometimes still need custom-made boxes, so even in the United States problems are still faced by collectors. One trouble lies in the variety of acquisitions, since gems come from minerals, and minerals come in all shapes and sizes, on matrix, as separate crystals, and as rough.

A display cabinet of the type known in Europe is no doubt the best way to exhibit fine mineral specimens for daily pleasure. Special supports may be needed for large specimens, but, otherwise, the plastic supports commonly available should suffice for medium-sized specimens, while the varieties of plastic-rubber will support separate crystals. Good sparkling lighting is essential, with ultra-violet for fluorescent specimens.

Gem collectors are a breed apart, since they usually deal with much smaller items that convey a different type of pleasure and indulge distinct intellectual tastes. Specifically, gem collectors are often concerned with fairly small stones, or with stones that have unusual characteristics.

In both cases, the visual pleasure affordable by a modest collection along these lines need not necessarily be great enough to compel an open collection that can be viewed readily. It may suffice to use stone papers arranged in any way suitable for the user. Should the visual pleasure be a factor, several facilities are available that combine in varying degree the visual pleasure with ease of access.

A wooden board could be drilled for cavities for the stones that would be protected by a sliding glass top. The trouble here is that the stones would move around and often present less than their must attractive view. Pads of cotton (cotton wool) or plastic foam would help.

Yet small plastic boxes that hold a single gem might prove better since they are easily stored in a cardboard box. These small plastic boxes, readily available in the United States, are hinged clear-plastic boxes often with hard-foam lining, and a soft-foam within the lid. The gem is displayed simply by opening the hinged top. Here, of course, there is no simple visual inspection since all the hinged boxes would have to be opened each time a collection was displayed, but for valuable single gems the idea is worth considering. In a sense, each gem is treated as a ring in a box.

As a rule, foam is superior to cotton wool (known as cotton in the United States) or any other lint-producing substance, since foam provides varying degrees of support, according to type used, and does not produce the irritating strands and wisps of cotton wool. Several stones can easily be accommodated in the larger plastic boxes complete with foam linings for base and cover. Depressions are easily made in this substance and the stones arranged as needed. These larger boxes are suitable for several stones of the same mineral variety, or of several varieties, or of the same cut, or of several cuts. Large gems, crystal or rough and cut to match, can also be accommodated.

Glue, of course, should not be used to fix the stones. There is no need, quite apart from spoiling the stone and the viewing. Sometimes, gem mounting prongs are useful. These may be home-made or bought. They are suitable for most stones of any reasonable size and consist of flexible plastic or metal strands or fibres attached to a central support that can be pushed into hard foam for display.

Yet all these types of covered boxes suffer from the lack of easy viewing. There’s nothing like being able to take a look at a collection without all the bother of opening stone papers or folding back plastic hinges. One method suitable for gem collectors is the custom-made box of wood, with hinged lid, containing two trays each divided into say 50 small compartments. Each tray base and the inside of the lid are well padded to protect the stones and keep them in place. A simple opening of the box would disclose 50 stones, for instance, while the lifting of the top tray would reveal the other 50—in short, 100 gems on display almost immediately.

A method very suitable for cabochons is the wooden tray lined with foam and covered with glass that can be simply lifted by a tag and removed. These come in many sizes, ranging for instance from four inches by six, to twelve inches by sixteen. The wood, in this particular advertisement, is either pine or mahogany. The foam is blue or white.

Other firms have similar boxes, ranging up to one inch or more deep, that are filled with cotton wool, padding, or plastic foam. Such boxes, especially the smaller ones, can be very suitable for faceted gems even though the glass exerts some pressure on the stones. This does not matter very much, of course, with cabochons, but faceted gems are another thing entirely. Even so, these trays are very useful for most gems. Those trays with glass tops have the problem of removing the glass when stones are being changed, but that is easily done. The shallow cardboard boxes with glass top in cover have the problem of removing the side pins and taking off the cover. Here again, the problem is minor although the replacing of the tight cover may upset the arranged stones. The pins simply go through the cardboard sides and keep the cover in place. The boxes range from small to large.

These are just some of the many, often ingenious, ways of displaying collections. Of interest to collectors of small mineral specimens are the display cases with rising levels complete with plastic cassettes, or holders, of the small specimens. The result is a minor football stadium, each individual seat being a mineral specimen. Special cases are also available for thumbnail specimens and micromounts as well as the miniatures.

In short, in the United States, at least, there is a galaxy of choice. There’s no doubt that a fine and easy way of displaying adds considerable enjoyment to a collector’s pleasure.