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The Collectors. A bit of history.
  
  Index -> The histories behind mineral specimens
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Brokenstone




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PostPosted: Feb 27, 2008 08:37    Post subject: The Collectors. A bit of history.  

The collectors of minerals exist probably from the whiteness of the humanity, since it is proved by the tiny objects made of rock or slightly habitual minerals discovered in the megalithic Breton tombs or in the fragments of rock crystal found in the Egyptian graves. The XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries are the scene of the formation of the collections of natural history, in which there are gathered minerals, rocks, fossils, shells and dissected animals. From these sets gradually real collections of rocks arose, before even from that there was arising the mineralogical science in strict sense.
The mineralogy, as science, takes shape at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the XIXth, under Just Hauy's influence in Paris and of Abraham Gottfried Werner in Germany, his progress favors the formation of strictly mineralogical collections. This epoch corresponds with the first one of the golden ages of the collections of minerals. At this moment the first merchants appear, being probably the most famous of all of them the englishman Von Heuland. The big european collections of beginning of the 19th century laid the foundations of what will be later the classic collection of minerals, called " to the European " that tries to assemble the as high as possible number of representative samples of the mineral species till then known. The quality of the samples still does not constitute a criterion of selection..
The second resplendent period for the collections spreads from ends of the 19th century at the beginning of the first world war. The big collectors of the epoch form big collections to the european and, in a parallel way, in the United States it took hold of the intensive search of the best samples. Between the collectors most famous of the epoch, they must indicate in France Adam and Emile Bertrand, in Great Britain to Willian Nevill, Henry Ludlam, Heddle, Ascroft and in Germany to Bosch and Von Geipel.
In the United States, collectors of great height form enormous collections that constitute actually the nucleus of all the big museums. They establish a strong competition between them, trying to obtain the best mineralogical samples of the moment; can mention names like Roebling, Canfield, William Vaux, J.Pierpont, Morgan and Clarence Bement,A.F. Holden, Albert Cameron, Burrage, etc.. At this moment there arise also numerous collectors of minerals who realize a prodigious work of search and rescue of samples across the collections to which they give.
The regression of the natural sciences once finished the first world war produces a fatal blow to the collections, especially in Europe. Like that, alone three collectors of the Great Britain work regularly. Nevertheless, it continues the formation of some European collections; those of Louis Vesigné deserve to be mentioned, in Paris, and in Great Britain both collections tied to the British Museum of Natural History, that of Arthur Kingsbury and that of Sir Arthur Russell.
The third great period of the collections, which still is kept in force at present, begins at the end of the 60s. This renaissance of the collections obeys probably, on the one hand, to the disappearance of a certain type of descriptive mineralogy that it was tending to stopping the development of the collections, and for other one to the rediscovery in Occident of the extreme value of the natural sciences.
The emergence of a collectors' new race and l renaissance of the collections, they practised a beneficial effect on the mineralogy while natural history, since they supposed a better codification of the collections, the recognition of which they form a part of the cultural patrimony of a country, the rescue of the collections you publish and simultaneously they propitiated an intense activity of exploration and discovery of minerals in all the mines and quarries of the world. The typical dealer, shopkeeper of minerals, has disappeared stopping I happen progressively to the agent, very strictly on the quality of the samples offered to his customers.
They can distinguish several families between the new collectors. Those who look for specimens of showcase leave the standards of the former collections the European to pass to form sets of strict quality, to image and similarity of the big collections of painting and objects of art developed for approximately one century in Europe.
The collector of the 21st century is an intermediary's kind placed between the fan, the field man recollector of minerals and the scientific.The aesthetic criteria imposed on the modern collectors have orientated them gradually for the route planned by his predecessors, lovers of the fine arts. For many of them, the constitution of a collection is based on the meeting of minerals obtained by them themselves on the mountains, mines or quarries. Nevertheless, the accomplishment of a qualit collection needs a certain scientific knowledge of the minerals and, nowadays, the collectors are often the only ones depositories of complete slopes of the descriptive mineralogy.
I hope you like it.
Pablo

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keldjarn




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PostPosted: Feb 27, 2008 10:15    Post subject: Re: The Collectors. A bit of history.  

Very interesting summary of the history of mineral collecting and collections. Your views are very similar to what would be a Northern European/Scandinavian perspective. Especially Sweden was a European center both for the accumulation of mineral and natural history object in private collections in the 18th century and for the development of modern Natural History and science in the late 18th and early 19th century. Modern chemistry was developed by Berzelius and other scientists of that periode to a large extent based on the study of minerals.
Except for the scientific dimension, there are other interesting trends that have been evident during the great epochs of mineral collecting and studies of natural science. The golden ages of mineral collecting also witnessed exceptional economic growth and other important changes in society. Also in art and architecture there were surges of "modernism" rooted in a "back to nature" approach that produced the fabulous first descriptive natural history books during the 16th century, the evolution of natural sciences in the late 18th and early 19th century, the post-industrial modernism and "art nuveau" in the late 19th and early 20th century. These were "renescanse" periods of prosperity and abundance both in art, architechture, home decoration etc. Between these golden epochs periods of recessions, poverty and wars coincided with minimalism and functionalism. We have during the last 50 years witnessed one of the longest "golden epochs" in recent history and this has also stimulated again the collection of minerals. Unlike previous periods of economic growth, modesty, minimalism and functionalism has had a strong grip during the period of reconstruction in post second world war Europe. With new generation these virtues are no longer so important. It is interesting that the more scientific and systematic interest in mineral collecting was more prominent in the modest post-war decades while we now see a surge in trophy-hunting aesthetic specimen collectors and an unprecedented rise in prices of the best specimens coinciding with a similar surge of luxury consumption and extravagancy in other areas.'
Will we be witnessing a continuing economic growth and a corresponding further development of mineral collecting, or are we witnessing the start of a new and protracted recession which could also be the end of this golden epoch of mineral collecting?
That is also an interesting reflection based on your excellent summary of the history and other current discussions on this site.
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Brokenstone




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PostPosted: Feb 27, 2008 10:46    Post subject: Re: The Collectors. A bit of history.  

Estimated sir, any process of production overcome his higher level suffers a declivity. The question is: Is there this,the highest point of this golden age of the minerals? If the response was affirmative this would suppose a future and acute crisis of the sector. On the contrary, if the response was negative this would mean that still roof has not touched itself in this growth and that still there remains great for walking and for growing. Personally, probably wrongly also, I do not know it, think that still there remains great until the limit of growth reaches and that it us give a certain strategic advantage and a certain tranquility. Optimist view, I know.
A greeting
Pablo

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