My selections are those of a collector seeking beauty, perfection, and awe. I prefer pieces with character, such as the patina of surface-collected pieces or remnants of a branch. The form must be pleasing. It must have no bad side – no negatives issues whatsoever. Obviously, weather-battered pieces have less distinct surface detail, yet the added character can be glorious. Beauty has always been my polestar for selecting fossil wood specimens. If one is also rare, all the better. A paleobotanist examining fossil woods would likely have different needs and goals.
This collection is different from the average petrified wood collection for a number of reasons, most uniquely the perfection of the specimens and the lack of glue or filler. Very nearly every specimen has had nothing added. Most have a facet that has been polished but never glued, making it polished gemstone. Members of the silica family quality as semi-precious gemstones. I elevate top gem quality fossils woods to the precious gem category because they are not only gems, they are trees that became gems in a miraculous way. The specimens in this collection are also different from most petrified wood pieces due to superior polishing on each one. I personally prepared many of the specimens from their original, as found, state. The process of becoming expert at cutting and polishing took me about a decade. It’s one of those 10,000 hour things. I also found it necessary to repolish the majority of the prepared pieces I acquired from others and to remove traces of polishing compounds.
Although mineral collectors in general eschew polishing along with other forms of alteration, my position is that this fossil wood collection is more on a par with a collection of high end fine minerals, pristine antique glass, or top grade gold and silver antique coins than it is with practically every other petrified wood collection on planet earth.
I respect collectors with interests other than mine. Fossils wood collecting is a great hobby for inquisitive minds with myriad interests and from all backgrounds. Some collect wood from as many locations as they can; some collect only huge full rounds so they can hang them on their walls to boost their egos; some collect by species or by country and state. I once had a customer who lived in a tiny apartment in New York City who had a collection of tiny, petrified wood specimens. All of these are perfectly valid as collections. With my personality and collector instincts, honed and variously informed over many decades, three-dimensional specimens such as limbs and logs with perfection and beauty are my quarry. If it happens to be an extra-rare species, all the better. I have no interest in rare species specimens that are not perfect and beautiful. Perfection is an impossible standard. Consider a collector of antique plates. Would he or she want a display case filled with plates with cracks that are obviously or even unnoticeably glued? Would a coin collector be happy with a coin that was glued or filled or so worn or scratched that you can barely read the date? I would not. I prefer unglued perfection. Top grade fossil wood is rare … very rare, absolutely rarer than gold.
I don’t rate full rounds above specimen rounds. [see below for definitions] Specimen rounds can be far more interesting. Most specimens are much improved when prepared with adhesives or sealants like Opticon and cyanoacrylate. In my opinion, the collections that will retain and increase in value and desirability through the years will be those with mostly three-dimensional specimens without glues or fillers – pieces that could sit amidst the finest mineral specimens, as long as it’s fossil wood that is polished and not glue. That said, the best fossil wood collections will include some specimens that have a tiny degree of fortification, because only a fool would exclude a killer specimen simply because it needed a little help, so long as it’s not obvious. A top tier three-dimensional specimen is one you can pick up and turn and examine and see only natural fossil wood all around, preferably with an element of character—a knot, wind-polish, included agate fortification, lovely patina, borer holes, and such—plus a face that has been professionally polished to reveal its inner amazement. As I age (now well into my eight decade) and feel compelled to sell my collection as a favor to my wife and four daughters, my final display cases are predominately populated with all-natural, three-dimensional, unglued specimens, many of which I personally prepared, predominately cut and polished only. These are fossils that are gems. Gem quality petrified wood is unique. Although a fossil, it’s also a gem, and vice versa.
I am grateful to have discovered such a fulfilling field for collecting. These days I still rock hunt about fifty days a year, mostly by picking up tiny agates on the beaches of Oregon. Occasionally I find a killer.
Definitions:
SPECIMEN ROUND: A specimen round is a piece that is cut and polished, generally across the transverse aspect, with a perimeter that is the natural rock as found; the polished face reveals color and detail, although the rock as found was not a complete trunk or branch, sometimes having broken and been tumbled for millennia.
FULL ROUND: A full round will be a specimen cut across the transverse aspect [cross-section] that seems to pretty much encompass a complete set of annual rings, or if a cast, will have most of the full circumference.
UTAH FULL ROUND: This is a piece that I was taught as a novice Utah wood collector to be a full round. It has the exterior characteristics of a full round piece of wood, but the interior structures reveal it to be a piece of a larger tree. I personally do not discriminate against this type of full round, but since some do, I sometimes use this term as a compromise.
No glue/No filler: It means what is says, however I’ll add a proviso: the piece has no glue or filler of which I am aware or such a tiny amount as to be insignificant, so if there is some glue, it’s imperceptible and unobtrusive.
FACE: The face is the polished portion.