Objects of Curious Virtue, artwork entitled For the Love of Quartz. FOR THE LOVE OF QUARTZ: Quartz is one of the most abundant minerals in the Earths continental crust and may be found in almost every geological environment being a significant element of many igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. This natural form of silicon dioxide is found in an impressive range of varieties, forms and colours, a diversity that arises because of its abundance and widespread distribution. John Ruskin especially favoured the cryptocrystalline variety of quartz including agate, carnelian and chalcedony together with the hydrated silica version, opal. He also paid particular attention to crystallised examples of quartz in acquiring specimens for his collections and his reflection upon the mineral in his writing. Testimony of this is evident in his publication, “Ethics of the Dust”, where mention is made of its versatile crystallographic nature and distinctiveness. The following demonstrates his fascination for crystals of quartz. Both extracts are from, “Ethics of the Dust.” “Take for instance, the caprices of this single mineral, quartz;----variations upon a single theme. It has many forms; but see what it will make out of this one, the six-sided prism. For shortness’ sake, I shall call the body of this prism its ‘column’, and the pyramid at the extremities its ‘cap’. Now, here, first you have a straight column as long and thin as a stalk of asparagus, with two little caps at the ends; and here you have two caps fastened together, and no column at all between them! Then here is a crystal with its column fat in the middle, and tapering to a little cap; and here is one stalked like a mushroom, with a huge cap put on top of a slender column! Then here is a column built wholly out of little caps, with a large smooth cap at the top”. And here is a column built of columns and caps; the caps all truncated about half way to their points. And in both these last the little crystals are set anyhow, and build the larger one in a disorderly way; but here is a crystal of columns and truncated caps, set in regular terraces all the way up”. “There seems to be in some crystals, from the beginning, an unconquerable purity of vital power, and strength of crystal spirit. Whatever dead substance, unacceptant of this energy, comes in their way, is either rejected, or forced to take some beautiful subordinate form; the purity of the crystal remains unsullied, and every atom of it bright with coherent energy. Then the second condition is, that from the beginning of its whole structure, a fine crystal seems to have determined that it will be of a certain size and of a certain shape; it persists in this plan and completes it. Here is a perfect crystal of quartz for you.” A collector could easily have hundreds of quartz specimens and not two of them, even if from the same deposit or crystal lined chamber, would be the same. Here in the cabinet are crystals of quartz; some of them perfect others not so. Their variety however is clearly apparent.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 19:07:00 +0000
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