Okenite ex Perky collection

Item Description

These bright white Okenite balls actually have a velvety appearance consisting, as they do, of millions of hair-like, acicular crystals. These were once prolific and now are a rare occurrence. There are multiple tufts on this captivating thumbnail that coalesce and it's a challenge to tell where they begins and end, and they produce a very aesthetic grouping all placed on a sliver of white matrix of what looks to be botryoidal Gyrolite. The "cotton balls" of Okenite are pristine and fortunately protected by the thumbnail box. It is a rare pristine and choice example of this old classic material from India's early exports. Here is a bit of online background on Perky from a post we found on the FMF Forum by Peter Megaw:
I would guess that almost everyone has heard of "Perky" boxes ...the little plastic boxes with clear lids and black bases commonly used for thumbnails (and almost never for anything larger anymore). However, I suspect many have no concrete idea of where the name comes from...California dealer Willard Perkin, who was active from the 50s until he passed away in the 1980s. "Perk" paid a lot of attention to detail and managed to make tiny bits and pieces of things that might otherwise have been discarded look great.
First, he'd sort through the small bits and pieces in the lots he bought for mounting. Many were full TN sized and could be mounted directly, but many were smaller and needed "help" to fill the box properly...and sell! This involved gluing the tiny specimen to an inconspicuous post to be glued into the Styrofoam base. Perk used the teeth of cheap plastic combs for this...they came in black, white and clear and the teeth could be snipped one by one from a comb, so they never got scattered around. Also, he could snip them at whatever angle he liked to get the best orientation for the piece. Sometimes he glued a tiny bit of Styrofoam to the post to give a broader base for the glue. He would then carefully glue the post to the specimen and set it in a box of rice to let it dry in the right position.

Meanwhile he would take a box, onto the bottom of which he had pasted his personal business label, and hand paint the Styrofoam insert black (or other contrasting color) and carefully paste on a hand cut identification and locality label that he printed on glossy paper. (He did these in batches obviously, but this was still a LOT of work)

Once the specimen glue was dry he would glue the post into the Styrofoam...giving him a final opportunity to get the orientation...and location within the cube just right. He was careful to try to get them all to lie at about the same height so customers scanning his wares would not have to adjust focus between specimens!

The final act was to paste on a price tag...frequently only a few dollars despite the amount of work he put into each specimen.

A genuine Perkin's mounted Perky Box is a thing of beauty as well as a period piece. If you are lucky enough to find one, keeping it in its original mount is worth considering.