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growcrystal
Joined: 06 Oct 2011
Posts: 6
Location: Oregon
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 Posted: Oct 12, 2011 18:55 Post subject: Re: Mineral labels as art ;) |
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| Both of these collections are awesome though I have to say I have a soft spot for the more official labels over the calligraphy. This might inspire me to go see what I can find in my father's geography box from his days in the office...
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Tobi
Site Admin
Joined: 07 Apr 2009
Posts: 4235
Location: Germany
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| Posted: Oct 25, 2011 12:31 Post subject: Re: Mineral labels as art ;) |
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| growcrystal wrote: | | [...]though I have to say I have a soft spot for the more official labels over the calligraphy. |
Well, i liked the noble and nostalgic look of the calligraphic ones. But from now an i'll have another generation of labels. The problem was that these old-time letters were often unreadable. And often the letters didn't look right, for example "v" looked like "b" and thus the cavansite was a "cabansite" at first sight. And then i thought: IF a collector uses such old-time labels, then he should even DO it the old way and write them by his own hand. Here in this forum i've seen great examples for such artwork (Ed Huskinson, Andreas Gerstenberg), but my handwriting is not that artistic. And so i dediced that if i can't write labels the old way, i won't pretend that they are old just by using an old font from MS Word ;-)
And so i use this "normal" ones now. Here some samples, they go with my new specimens posted recently in my collection thread.
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Mineral: Printer ink on document paper ;-)
Locality: Printer of Tobias Martin, Marburg, Hesse, Germany ;-)
Dimensions: 50 x 25 x 0,1 mm each one |
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Princess
Joined: 01 Mar 2012
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Mar 01, 2012 21:32 Post subject: Re: Mineral labels as art ;) |
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| Thank you for any photos ..... it was interesting to look at these labels
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Elise
Joined: 22 Dec 2009
Posts: 243
Location: New York State
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| Posted: Jun 22, 2012 08:29 Post subject: Re: Mineral labels as art ;) |
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| Peter Megaw wrote: | | Be nice to see the specimens that go with these labels! |
In a public display, would you necessarily want to see the original labels with the specimens or would a facsimile alongside a newer, more detailed label be desirable? (Space is always a problem).
I was up in the London Natural History Museum workrooms in Fall 2011 whose curator Alan Hart gave me a tour of the specimens stored there - I was almost more interested in the old labels than the other contents ( the handwriting itself as well as what it was written on them). See two images below of drawers of historic diamond models and casts - many have old labels along with more current ones and notes. I never got around to seeing the public displays except a quick walk-through of the Vault gem display on the way to the attic ( Jolyon has some images of the Vault from 2008 https://www.mindat.org/article.php/101/The+Vault+-+Natural+History+Museum+London)
I've been working on preserving some very old labels in a University setting (see below) -- in some cases only the label is what is left, the specimen having long ago disappeared somewhere. Luckily, these are pre-acid paper and are in good shape. What is sometimes most interesting is what the original collector chose to write on the back, giving clues to that time period - in the case of Benjamin Silliman Jr, the mid-1800's. Sometimes this type of information was not copied to a newer label.
A last thought, I miss real handwriting....no more hand-lettered labels....come to think of it, no more handwriting at all, anywhere!
Best wishes,
Elise
(PS - I may have posted some of these images elsewhere on FMF, but if so, I can't find where, apologies if I'm repeating myself).
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| Original label, no specimen, 2" x 1 1/4" (photo: E. Skalwold) |
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| Original label with specimens, very teeny tiny diamond crystals, technically speaking (photo: E. Skalwold) |
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| Casts and models of diamond crystals and faceted diamonds; storage drawers, Natural History Museum, London. Note - some have multiple old and new labels. (photo: E. Skalwold) |
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| Casts and models of diamond crystals and faceted diamonds; storage drawers, Natural History Museum, London (photo: E. Skalwold) |
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Tobi
Site Admin
Joined: 07 Apr 2009
Posts: 4235
Location: Germany
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| Posted: Jun 22, 2012 10:44 Post subject: Re: Mineral labels as art ;) |
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| Elise wrote: | | A last thought, I miss real handwriting....no more hand-lettered labels....come to think of it, no more handwriting at all, anywhere! |
But there are some counterexamples: Andreas Gerstenberg and Ed Huskinson are proof that some collectors still DO handwriting - and they do a very good job!
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Mark Ost
Joined: 18 Mar 2013
Posts: 516
Location: Virginia Beach
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| Posted: Apr 12, 2013 17:19 Post subject: Re: Mineral labels as art ;) |
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Speaking of lovely handwriting; here is a label from the former Folch Collection for an Anglesite I acquired. It was also accompanied by a note card. I only know one person in my circle of acquaintances who can do this today. His handwriting is fantastic. Looks like the specimen was acquired originally in 1921.
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Anglesite/Galena
Monte Poni Mine, Sardinia, Italy
7 cm x 6cm x 4 cm |
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Tobi
Site Admin
Joined: 07 Apr 2009
Posts: 4235
Location: Germany
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| Posted: Sep 21, 2014 05:21 Post subject: Re: Mineral labels as art ;) |
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I created some new collages:
The first one is a small frame (20 x 30 cm) with some nice labels, it stands on a board in the living room. The other one is a larger frame (55 x 45 cm) that shows some old mineral illustrations together with labels from my collection that somehow match with the specimens. This one was finished yesterday and now hangs in my office.
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colin robinson
Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 82
Location: Cumbria
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| Posted: Sep 21, 2014 17:28 Post subject: Re: Mineral labels as art ;) |
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| I have an uneasy feeling that this is all a bit like collecting bus tickets or postage stamps...but then I'm a philistine!
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Tobi
Site Admin
Joined: 07 Apr 2009
Posts: 4235
Location: Germany
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| Posted: Sep 22, 2014 02:06 Post subject: Re: Mineral labels as art ;) |
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| colin robinson wrote: | | I have an uneasy feeling that this is all a bit like collecting bus tickets or postage stamps...but then I'm a philistine! |
So what? I think everyone is free to collect whatever he or she wants, even if it's tickets or stamps. We should not judge people for that; others may shake their heads at us for collecting rocks ...
And you should not forget that some labels are worth much more than some minerals, just think of some really old ones with prominent previous owners. It's the same with the postage stamps you mentioned deprecatingly: There are some that are highly valuable, so why shouldn't someone collect them?!
However, this thread is not about collecting labels, it is about making artwork or decoration with them ;)
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