How to store and display thumbnail specimens in perky boxes

A thumbnail, a specimen about an inch across, is stored in a perky box: a 1.25 inch plastic cube, usually with a clear lid and a dark base, made for exactly this size class [1][2]. You seat the specimen on a small support inside the box, put the label where it can be read, and keep the boxes in drawers of the same size so they cannot slide. This page explains where the perky box came from, how to mount a thumbnail in one without damaging it, how to label something that small, and how to show a group of them.

What a perky box is and where the name comes from

The perky box is named for Willard "Perky" Perkin, a collector who worked in the shop of the mineral dealer George Burnham. According to an iRocks history of thumbnail collecting, "While working in Burnham's shop, Perkin was shown a small, cubical, black plastic box by a traveling salesman," and it "inspired the invention of what became known as the 'perky' box, a 1.25-inch box for thumbnail specimens" [2]. Perkin sold the box business when orders became overwhelming, "but the name 'perky box' stuck" [2].

The size is the point. Size classes are dealer conventions rather than a standard. In one dealer's definition a thumbnail fits a box "no larger than 3.125cm (1.25″) in any dimension" [3], and iRocks, another dealer, says thumbnails generally fit a "1.25” plastic perky box" [1]. The full class limits, and where sources disagree, are on size classes. If a specimen will not close inside a perky box without touching the lid, it is not stored as a thumbnail, whatever its label says; move it to the next box size on what size box.

The parts

A perky box has three working parts:

Box plastics vary. Small clear boxes are made of several plastics, and conservation sources rate those resins differently; see which plastic is safe for specimens before buying in bulk.

Seating a thumbnail in its box

The goal is a specimen that sits still, shows its best face and can be taken out without leaving anything behind.

1. Choose the display face. Turn the piece until the best crystals face the lid and the front of the box.
2. Check the fit. With the lid on, nothing should touch. Allow for the height of the support.
3. Make a seat that holds by shape. A small pad or cradle of plain polyethylene foam holds most thumbnails. The National Park Service suggests polyethylene microfoam as bumpers and warns to use only foam "that has no coloring or other additives" [4]. Details on cushioning.
4. Raise it if needed. Collectors traditionally raise small specimens on a little pedestal. A 1957 article on small specimens describes early mounters fixing pieces on "small corks affixed to the bottom of the box," and the author preferred "balsa wood for supports rather than cork" [5].
5. Put the label in. See the next section.
6. Close and tilt. Tip the closed box gently on each side. If you hear or see movement, adjust the seat.

Glue, wax and putty

Many old thumbnails are glued to their pedestals, and many newer ones sit on a dab of putty or mounting wax. None of the sources cited here evaluates specific putties or waxes for minerals, so no product is recommended. Two published cautions apply:

• The Canadian Conservation Institute says "Applying adhesives or tapes directly to objects is unsafe and not recommended" [6].
• The 1957 article warned that "Common glue is not satisfactory because in time it may deteriorate, allowing the specimen to fall off" [5].

The practical rule that follows: a support should hold by shape (a cradle, a cupped pedestal, a foam seat) rather than by adhesive. If a specimen arrives stuck to a pedestal or smeared with putty, record that in the catalog and leave removal for a careful moment; forcing it off is how the base of a thumbnail breaks. If you sell it, say how it is mounted.

Labeling something an inch across

A thumbnail label has to carry the same data as any other label, in less space.

• Inside the box: a small folded label under or beside the support, with the species and locality at minimum and the catalog number. The fields a label must carry are on what a label has to carry.
• On the box: a catalog number on the base or lid lets you match box to record without opening it. The box number is not a substitute for the label.
• On the specimen: if you number the specimen itself, use the museum method of a barrier coat and archival ink, on an inconspicuous spot; see catalog numbers and marking the specimen.
• Old labels: keep them. The National Park Service says "never throw away old labels" [4]. Fold old dealer labels with the current one, or keep them in a numbered envelope cross-referenced in the catalog.

Some thumbnail collectors give the thumbnails their own numbering. The collector John Barlow "separated out his thumbnails into a separate display collection with separate numbering" [2]. Either way works, as long as every number leads to one record.

Storing a drawer of thumbnails

Perky boxes are designed to pack. A drawer of one box size, filled edge to edge, holds them without movement; the space arithmetic is on what size box. A few things keep a thumbnail drawer safe:

• Fill the gaps. A partly full drawer lets boxes slide every time it opens. NPS suggests space holders so trays do not shift [4].
• Keep the drawer level and close it slowly. Thumbnails on light supports tip over when a drawer is slammed.
• Keep them dark if any are light sensitive. NPS says light-sensitive specimens "should be stored in closed cabinets" [4]. Which species fade is on light fading.
• Keep sulfides and other humidity-sensitive species in a drawer you can monitor; the perky box is not a humidity barrier.

Showing thumbnails

Thumbnails reward close viewing and good light. One collector quoted by iRocks put it this way: "a well-chosen assembly of 1-inch specimens, mounted and lighted, is stunning" [2]. Perkin himself kept his specimens "in drawers and on glass shelves in big glass-fronted display cases," and lost part of his collection when the 1971 Sylmar earthquake "shattered the glass cases and shelves in his garage" [2]. In a display, secure the boxes on the shelves as well as the case itself. Display risks, from light and heat to earthquakes and theft, are covered on display cases.

For shows, the box is also the display. Competition rules set how thumbnails must be entered; check the show's current rules, since the 1957 article records that thumbnails then had to be "entered in a standard box of fifty compartments" [5], and rules have changed since.

Going smaller than a thumbnail

Below thumbnail size, specimens need a microscope to be appreciated, and they have their own boxes, mounting methods and societies. That world is on micromounts.

References

1. iRocks, *Size Matters! Collecting Miniature Mineral Specimens*, June 9, 2016. https://www.irocks.com/size-matters-collecting-miniature-mineral-specimens
2. Jim Houran, Jim Bleess and Alex Schauss, *Little Wonders: Connoisseur Thumbnails in the Contemporary Collector Market*, iRocks, April 7, 2020. https://www.irocks.com/little-wonders-connoisseur-thumbnails-in-the-contemporary-collector-market
3. Raymond McDougall, McDougall Minerals, *Size Matters!*, page dated 12.09.2013. https://mcdougallminerals.com/?p=33
4. National Park Service, Kathy Hall, *Storage Concerns for Geological Collections*, Conserve O Gram 11/2, April 1998. https://www.nps.gov/subjects/museums/upload/11-02_508.pdf
5. A. L. Flagg, *Petite Minerals*, Arizona Highways, November 1957. https://www.arizonahighways.com/archive/issues/chapter/Doc.406.Chapter.2
6. Canadian Conservation Institute, Jean Tétreault, *Products Used in Preventive Conservation*, Technical Bulletin 32, issued February 7, 2018, modified February 19, 2021. https://www.canada.ca/en/conservation-institute/services/conservation-preservation-publications/technical-bulletins/products-used-preventive-conservation.html