The Mineralogical Record, Sep/Oct 2005
You know the quartz specimen that you have, the one that isn't very attractive because of all the crud in it? Maybe you should take another look at it--you will want to after reading Jaroslav Hyrsl and Gerhard Niedermayr's book on quartz inclusions. It makes the reader realize that the "crud" can actually be interesting and often beautiful minerals. The book is presented in parallel columns of German and English, adopting a new approach for Bode Verlag, which usually publishes only in German.
This is a beautiful, illustrated work with more than 330 color photos of quartz inclusions, some common, others rare. It would be unfair to call it a "coffee table book;' but it certainly has a general appeal and will have grandma saying, "Oh, that one is pretty!" I do not have a problem with that at all; I am all for public outreach and believe our hobby would be better served by being more assertive. However discreetly, what Hyrsl and Niedermayr do is open a relatively overlooked field of collecting, where one can go far with dedication and even limited funds. To be sure, large high-grade alpine quartz crystals, crud or no crud, cost a fortune, and if you find a top-notch piece with silvery galena in clear quartz from Arkansas or a really fine quartz from Messina with shattuckite and papagoite, you will be lucky to get it for four figures. However, if you decide to acquire "interesting" inclusions in quartz crystals, you will find yourself looking for inconspicuous specimens that are easy to locate and inexpensive to purchase. Careful research and perhaps a hand lens may well show that the crud is actually an interesting mineral, and you have a superb piece.
This book is an excellent eye-opener to all of us jaded, longtime collectors who believe we have seen it all. It would be a superb gift for your friend who just retired, lives on a slim budget, and is getting too frail for a three-day hike into the Sierras--there is obviously so much accessible and very collectible crud stuck in quartz. A novice collector may also find that quartz inclusions make a good specialization, as they restrict the immense subject of minerals without restricting it--pretty and dull minerals, rare and common minerals, and minerals from every continent can be included in quartz.
Apart from its aesthetic appeal, this is a general mineral book. However, as such it is, in some ways, more accessible than most, for it describes even very unusual minerals--for example, izoklakeite--but does not follow the traditional approach of giving chemical formula, hardness, crystal system, cleavage, and so on. I would like to bestow praise to the authors for that. I collect "rare minerals" myself, and it is more important for me to know what izoklakeite looks like (fine needles, occasionally as phantoms) than to know its hardness.
Praise and credit given, I cannot help but express my only and deeply felt objection: Why does the book ignore the formation of inclusions? In the introduction, we do get the general observation that inclusions may be protogenetic, postgenetic, or syngenetic. Thank you, I am sure that they may also be hard, soft, or intermediate, but what is it that makes izoklakeite form during the growth of a quartz crystal, and particularly, what makes it form phantoms? The izoklakeite that I know is intergrown with jaskolskiite in "blebs" and doesn't have a phantom or any other interesting feature. Setting quartz inclusions (at least the protogenetic and syngenetic ones) apart from your standard-issue nine-to-five mineral is the fact that they are stuck inside another growing mineral (quartz). I would really like to know how that anhydrite formed and was kept floating (well, did it really?), and then got stuck inside a quartz crystal. What caused the izoklakeite to form "syngenetic" phantoms? Something must have happened to stop the growth of quartz crystals, to form a lead-copper-bismuth-sulfide, and then to continue growth of the quartz. Excuse me, but there is such a good interpretable story here, and it is never told.
Obviously, I am being unfair. The authors are well-known, highly competent mineralogists, and they have made a wonderful book--I know both of them personally and cannot detract from their credentials. I should not criticize them for what is not there--that is, after all, an editorial choice. I just happen to disagree with that choice. (It's complaining about chocolate mousse because the cook did not put whipped cream on top.) My criticism is not of what is there, it is a yearning for what could have been added.
Anyway, thanks to the authors for showing us that there is "virgin territory" right before our eyes, even in such a well-charted territory as collecting minerals. I give a strong "buy" recommendation for this book--if you are an experienced collector, it will inspire your interest in otherwise dull quartz specimens, and it will be an inspirational gift for a special friend, whether novice or experienced, needing guidance without restriction. May the quartz be with you.
-Claus Hedegaard
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