Agate or Jasper is not opal nor precious

Ask anything about getting started with opals and gemstones here

Moderators: PinkDiamond, John

Post Reply
User avatar
SwordfishMining
Posts: 4216
Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2015 3:06 pm
Location: Denio, NV USA
Contact:

Agate or Jasper is not opal nor precious

Post by SwordfishMining »

I dont doubt Mr Perkins had some fine precious opal included or replaced Nevada wood, but this slab is from somewhere else. Probably Arizona.
Out of the Attic: Fossilized wood once was on display in Charles E. Perkins' cabinet of curiosity
Julie Martineau Des Moines County Historical Society
Image
https://www.thehawkeye.com/story/lifest ... 497133002/
This week’s object is as hard as a rock. Literally. But it started off life as something else entirely.

It is some 225 million years old and is thought to have originated in Arizona. Believe it or not, it owes its existence to a volcano. One side of the object has been polished, and what appear to be rings still can be seen on the surface.

Millions of years ago, a forest grew in what now is Arizona. Somehow, our object was rapidly covered in sediment that prevented rot and insects from damaging the wood. Silica and other minerals leached from volcanic ash (from a nearby volcano) seeped into the wood through groundwater, slowly mineralizing the wood. Eventually, it was uncovered, and collected by Charles E. Perkins during one of his jaunts to the South West, although our records don’t tell us when. Most fossilized wood is agatized, but some can be filled with precious opal.

Charles E. Perkins (of Perkins Park fame) was very much a man of his time. He was an avid collector of natural history objects, which he would show off to his friends in a Cabinet of Curiosity.

Cabinets of Curiosity were the forerunners of modern museums. They could be something relatively small, like a cabinet or chifforobe, or as large as an entire wing of a house where the collector would showcase their objects, or “curiosities.”

Most men of a certain socioeconomic class would have at least one collection, if not more. They were seen as a way to show off their wealth and taste to their peers. We know that Mr. Perkins was such a man because there are images of him showing off a portion of his cultural collection in what was likely either the carriage house or the stables (now a shelter house and storage building) in Perkins Park. The black and white image depicts Mr. Perkins standing in a room with rough-hewn board walls, with arrows and other Native American weaponry displayed on the wall, and other cultural objects spread out on tables around him.
Julie Martineau, Tuesday Oct. 23, 2018 at the Des Moines County Heritage Center Museum in Burlington.

Fortunately for us, Mr. Perkins used his connections with the CB&Q Railroad and his personal wealth to travel and to collect various curiosities and objects over the years. And, even more fortunately, Mr. Perkins bequeathed his collections to the Burlington School District, which in turn passed on the collection to us at the Heritage Museum.

A very small portion of the Perkins Collection, (including this piece of fossilized wood) is on display at the Heritage Museum and can be seen when the museum reopens June 22.
I'll jump over my shadow. https://www.virginvalleyopal.com"
Opals & more at my ESTY store https://swordfishmining.etsy.com"
Post Reply