FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[John S. White]

As a collector of single crystals I am in contact with several other collectors having similar interests. A big challenge for many of these people is finding a supplier of hinged, compartmented wooden boxes for them to put their crystals in. I am hoping that through this column we can locate one or more good sources of such boxes; perhaps one in Europe and one in the U.S. So I am asking visitors to this Forum to ask around and share with us any information that they can come up with.

[str4hler]

sorry John
what is hinged?
(I use old wooden sigar boxes as little treasure boxes for my floaters ;-)

for floater conversations: just mailme: strahler(at)gmail(dot)com

cheers!

[chris]

Hi John,

There was one person (from Germany or Netherlands I don't remember) who was selling such items during the 2007 Chamonix Show. But they were in frosted acrylic or something similar.

Didn't see him this year, but I can always ask. Tell me what you think.

Christophe

[Jan Razmsey]

Greetings,

I haven't posted in quite awhile and hope you are all happy collectors!

In he US there is a TV station called Jewelry Television. They have a website you can google for and they sell small specimen boxes....I am not certain about the hinged lids though, but it may be a good lead.

Happy hunting!
Jan
Tacoma, WA

[Jordi Fabre]

I publish this message from Jan.
Too much links, to say Jan to try again, so I publish it now on his behalf:

the only hinged boxes I found were these

https://www.jewelrytelevision.com/index.aspx?Ntt=boxes&cm_re=full_Store_Collectibles&N=53&cm_sp=&tid=7362

here is a link to a 3 x 3 box, it may not be hinged, but gets you to the site to look for other items.

https://www.jewelrytelevision.com/index.aspx?tid=21847&N=49%201088&cm_sp=&up=UP2180008&cm_re=Results_5_1&cm_pos=17&bca=DISPLAY33&ptid=7362&R=2891802

this is a link to a hinged magnetic box with 6 specimen holders

https://www.jewelrytelevision.com/index.aspx?tid=21847&cm_sp=&Nrppo=0&up=UP2180008&N=49%201088&No=48&cm_re=Results_2_1&cm_pos=53&bca=TRAY7&ptid=7362&R=1139747

this is a gem tray with 25 compartments (none hinged)

https://www.jewelrytelevision.com/index.aspx?tid=21847&cm_sp=&Nrppo=0&up=UP2180008&N=49%201088&No=48&cm_re=Results_12_3&cm_pos=95&bca=TRAY3&ptid=7362&R=1671435

[John S. White]

Okay, guess I didn't make clear enough what I meant. Attached is a photo of a box in my collection which I made myself. I have four such boxes for the larger single crystals, and several smaller ones that were once commercially available, but are difficult to find these days. The box in the photo measures about 64 x 34 x 6 cm and the lid is attached to the bottom with hinges so that it can be closed.

Surely someone on this planet is making similar specimen boxes and that is why I have raised this issue.

[Jordi Fabre]

I copied here a text from Les Presmyk already published on another post, just to keep this thread together:

John White - I have found some wooden boxes for you for your single crystals. They have compartments that are approximately 2" by 2" and the box is about 2" deep. These were made years ago by someone in Phoenix who constructed these boxes for thumbnails and miniatures. I just acquired an old collection that has several of these boxes.

Les Presmyk

[Roger Warin]

Such hinged wooden boxes are not exceptional in Belgium. They were given as gifts to former employees of the Union Minière du Haut-Katanga. But the quality of the samples depended on the rank of the collaborator, as well as the marquetry of the box.
Of course, all samples came from Katanga.

[vic rzonca]

How many hundred do you want, John?