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Below are presented rocks and minerals selected by famous mineral dealer James R. Gregory of Victorian London, England, and arranged in two wooden boxes, one formed of two trays for the rock collection (Fig. 1) and one formed of four trays for the mineral collection (Figs. 2-3). Each tray contains 50 specimens, meaning a total of c. 100 rock specimens and c. 200 minerals in the collection. Originally, each specimen carried a small sticker with its collection number typed on it and was accompanied by a James R. Gregory label. Some specimens are unfortunately missing. Others lost their number and may be mislabelled. The address on one box label (Fig. 4, 88 Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square, London) indicates the collection would have been prepared in the period 1874-1895. Some specimen labels give however another address (15 Russell Street, Covent Garden, London), which indicates that these specimens would have been labelled in the period 1866-1874. Similar portable collections were common in the 19th century as educational tools for geologists. They are nowadays relatively rare and praised by collectors. We purchased this collection in 2011 from an estate in Staffordshire, England. It now forms the Special Collection B of the Tricottet Collection.

Rock collection catalogue

Table 1 lists the sedimentary rock specimens, no. 1 to 72 from the rock collection (Fig. 1), and Table 2 the igneous and metamorphic rocks, no. 73 to 100. The two tables follow the exact description given by the Gregory labels (Figs. 5-6). When a word could not be identified, it has been replaced by "----". Sedimentary rocks are arranged chronologically from the most recent to the oldest one. All specimens come from different regions of United Kingdom making this collection a rare memento of 19th-century regional geology. Most specimens come from type localities, some being nowadays Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Table 1: List of sedimentary rocks (no. 1-72) from the James R. Gregory rock collection, as described by the labels shown in Figures 5 and 6.

No.	Formn.	Species	Loc.		No.	Formn.	Species	Loc.
1	Recent	Peat	Banffshire		37	Mid. Lias	Marlstone	South Petherton
2	Pleistocene	Brick Clay	London		38	Low. Lias	Limestone	Barrow on Soar
3	Pliocene	Coralline Crag	Orford, Suffolk		39	Low. Lias	Limestone	Keynsham, Bristol
4	Miocene	Hempstead Clay	Hempstead, I. W.		40	Rhaetic	Bone Bed	Aust Cliff, Bristol
5	Miocene?	Lignite	Novey, Devon		41	Rhaetic	White Limestone	Cotham, W. Bristol
6	Up. Eocene	Bembridge Limestone	----point, I. Wight		42	Trias	Keuper Sandstone	Lossiemouth, Elgin
7	Up. Eocene	Headon Marl	Headon Hill, I. W.		43	Trias	Gypsum with Marl	Leicester
8	Mid. Eocone	Barton Clay	Barton, H----		44	Trias	Bunter Sandstone	Chester
9	Mid. Eocene | Bagshot	----	----		45	Permian	Magnesian Limestone	E. Hinckley, Durham
10	Mid. Eocene | Bagshot	Pipe Clay	Bournemouth		46	Permian	Marlslate	Midderidge, Durham
11	Low Eocene	London Clay	Highgate		47	Permian	Conglomerate	Portishead, Somerset
12	Low Eocene | Woolwich Beds	Conglomerate	St. Albans		48	Carboniferous	Coal Shale	Fenton, Stafford
13	Cretaceous	Upper Chalk	Charlton, Kent		49	Carboniferous	Coal Shale	Durham
14	Cretaceous	Up. Chalk Flint	Charlton, Kent		50	Carboniferous	Blackland Brownstone	Lanarkshire
15	Cretaceous	Chalk Marl	Ventnor, I. of W.		51	Carboniferous	Millstone Grit	W----, Stafford
16	Cretaceous	Up. Greensand	Folkestone		52	Carboniferous	Millstone Grit | (Flagstone)	Yorkshire
17	Cretaceous	----lt	Folkestone		53	Carboniferous	Limestone | (Black Marble)	Derbyshire
18	Cretaceous	Red Chalk	Hunstanton		54	Carboniferous	Limestone	Oreton, Salop
19	Cretaceous	Low. Greensand	Farringdon, Berks		55	Carboniferous	Limestone	Vincent Rock, Clifton
20	Cretaceous	Low. Greensand | Fullers' Earth	Nutfield, Surrey		56	Carboniferous	Encrinital Limestone	Derbyshire
21	Wealden	Hastings Sands	Hastings		57	Carboniferous	Chert	Derbyshire
22	Purbeck	Purbeck Marble	Corfe, Dorset		58	Devonian	Limestone	Torquay, Devon
23	Purbeck	Limestone	Swanage, Dorset		59	Devonian	Killas	Lostwithiel
24	Up Oolite	Portland Oolite	Portland, Dorset		60	Devonian	Yellow Sandstone	Kiltorcan, Killkenny
25	Up Oolite	Kimeridge Clay	Weymouth		61	Devonian	Old Red Sandstone	Cromarty
26	Mid. Oolite	Coralline Oolite	Weymouth		62	Devonian	Silestone	Stromness, Orkney
27	Mid. Oolite	Oxford Clay	Weymouth		63	Devonian	Cornstone	Cradley, Hereford
28	Mid. Oolite	Kelloway Rock	Scarborough		64	Up. Silurian	Up. Ludlow Shale	Ludlow
29	Low Oolite	Cornbrash	Scarborough		65	Up. Silurian	Aymestry Limestone	Aymestry
30	Low Oolite	Forest Marble	Melkesham, Wilts		66	Up. Silurian	Wenlock Limestone	Dudley
31	Low Oolite	Great Oolite	Bath		67	Up. Silurian	Up. Slandovery	May Hill
32	Low Oolite	Stonesfield Slate	Stonesfield		68	Low. Silurian	Caradoc Sandstone	Bala
33	Low Oolite	Inferior Oolite	Ham Hill, Somerset		69	Low. Silurian	Llandeilo Flags	Skiddaw
34	Low Oolite	Inferior Oolite | Pea Grit	Crickley Hill, Cheltenham		70	Low. Silurian	Lingula Flags	Tremadoe
35	Up. Lias	Alum Shale	Whitby		71	Cambrian	Grit	Bray Head, Wicklow
36	Mid. Lias	Marlstone	Cleveland, Yorkshire		72	Cambrian	Grit	Charnwood Forest | Leicester

Table 2: List of igneous and metamorphic rocks (no. 73-100) from the James R. Gregory rock collection, as described by the labels shown in Figure 6.

No.			No.			No.
73	Granite | Cheesewring | Cornwall		83	Porphyry | Belowda Beacon | Cornwall		93	Mica Slate | Perthshire | Scotland
74	Granite | Peterhead		84	Elvan | Lands end | Cornwall		94	Gneiss | Sutherlandshire
75	Granite | Aberdeen		85	Felsite | Groby | Leicester		95	Clay Slate | Cornwall
76	Granite | Penrhyn | Cornwall		86	Quartzite | Devonshire		96	Dolerite | W. Glasgow
77	Porphyritic Granite | St. Leven | Cornwall		87	MISSING		97	Diorite Porphyry | Dolgelly | N. Wales
78	Red Granite | Mount Sorrel | Leicester		88	Serpentine | Lizard | Cornwall		98	Diorite | Guernsay
79	Syenite | Guernsey		89	Serpentine | Lizard | Cornwall		99	Amygdaloid | Skye
80	Syenite | Groby | Leicester		90	Basalt | Bolam | Durham		100	Volcanic Tuff | W. Edinburgh
81	Porphyry | Withiel | Cornwall		91	Basalt | Guernsay		-
82	Quartz Porphyry | Pwllheli | N. Wales		92	Mica Slate | Inverness		-

Fig. 5: Labels no. 1 to 50 from the rock collection, brought by James R. Gregory.

Fig. 6: Labels no. 51 to 100 from the rock collection, brought by James R. Gregory. Label no. 87 is missing.

Mineral collection catalogue

Incoming.

Fig. 7: Labels no. 1 to 50 from the mineral collection, brought by James R. Gregory.

Fig. 8: Labels no. 51 to 100 from the mineral collection, brought by James R. Gregory.

Fig. 9: Labels no. 101 to 150 from the mineral collection, brought by James R. Gregory.

Fig. 10: Labels no. 151 to 200 from the mineral collection, brought by James R. Gregory.