_What the Stones Are_
_What the Stones Are_
On the basis of beauty, stones cannot be divided into precious and
semiprecious for, from stone to stone, there is continuous range of
color and glow. Nor indeed can price be the one criterion, for here many
elements produce variety. Although the term “gem of the first water”
is reserved for the flawless blue-white diamond, as the carats of the
single stone increase the flawless ruby and the emerald become even
more costly; and varieties and special specimens of other stones, such
as the fire opal and imperial jade, move up into comparable range. For
certain individuals, of course, a particular stone will have associations
of sentiment that render it more precious—in the nontechnical
sense—than another stone in the category of “precious.” It is, then,
tradition rather than any inherent value that sets a secondary label,
“semiprecious,” on all but five of the stones used for human adornment.
Let us call these five the gems, to distinguish them from the other
stones.
_The Gems_
There is no doubt that the five gems—diamond, ruby, emerald, sapphire,
and pearl—have grown more fully than all others into our ways of living.
They have become, as I shall indicate in this chapter, adornments not
only of our persons but of our speech and writing. They are used not only
in figures of jewelry but in figures of speech, to express human beauty,
or eminence, or virtue. The poet and the orator, as well as the monarch
and the lover, have utilized the glamour of the gem.
_Diamond_
Supreme in human imagination is the diamond, the hardest of all stones.
The word _diamond_ captures this significance, for it is from Greek
_adamas_, meaning unconquerable, the tameless stone.
The diamond is also the only gem that is entirely composed of a single
element. It is carbon, which also appears in its more common and
less costly forms as soot, jet, and coal. The diamond is pure carbon
crystallized in regular octahedrons, eight-sided figures.
For a long time, one word was used to mean both the diamond and the
lodestone, the natural magnet. In French today, the gem is _diamant_, and
the magnet is _aimant_—which also means loving. Perhaps the word changed
because the natural magnet, attracting things to it, was thought of as
“the loving stone.” The diamond is the beloved stone.
Most diamonds at their best are colorless, with perhaps a bluish glow.
They may also be blue, green, violet, less often red—and black. The black
diamond is usually unwanted for jewelry, but is used by lapidaries and
others for cutting, grinding, and polishing hard stones.
If a jeweler speaks of a Matura diamond or a Ceylon diamond, he is using
an old trade name for a zircon. Similarly, a Welsh, Irish, Cornish,
Quebec, or California diamond is likely to be an attractive piece of rock
crystal.
True diamonds were known in Asia at least as far back as 900 B.C. India
was the homeland of the gem for many years. The best stones in the
sixteenth century were those cut in Hyderabad, India, in the famed city
of Golconda. Rich findings were made about 1720 in Brazil; in Borneo in
1738; elsewhere, diamonds were discovered in less significant amounts.
But by far the richest hoards were unearthed in 1867 in South Africa,
which is still the world’s greatest source of diamonds.
Although the lozenge is the characteristic shape of its crystal surface,
the rough diamond stone is found in many shapes and cut into great
variety. Because of the tears that the great tragic actress Sarah
Bernhardt wrung from the audiences at his melodramas, Victor Hugo
presented her with a tear-shaped diamond.
Among the many literary references to the diamond, the Elizabethan
playwrights were particularly fond of the expression “diamond cut
diamond”, meaning in that aristocratic age, when great man matched with
great. In the more democratic nineteenth century, particularly with
regard to those most democratic of spirits, the pioneers—such as the
Americans opening up the West—it became popular to speak of an uncouth,
unpolished but fundamentally fine fellow as “a diamond in the rough.”
Lovers at all times have linked this most brilliant of stones with their
fair one’s sparkling eyes. One said that, wherever he went in the world,
he found only his beloved:
If to far India’s coast we sail,
Thy eyes are seen as diamonds bright,
Thy breath is Amric’s spicy gale,
Thy skin is ivory’s soft white.
There are several sayings which, though they refer to the diamond, by
indirection speak of mankind. Thus there is a warning to the person who
is heedless of dress or decor, or of the furnishing of office or home, in
the remark: “A fine diamond may be ill set.” There is, on the other hand,
a challenge to pretense, or perhaps a warning to a person about to select
an employee—or a mate—in the Chinese proverb: “A diamond with a flaw is
better than a perfect pebble.”
_Ruby_
The ruby is a variety of corundum. The Sanskrit word _kuruvinda_ was
limited to the ruby, but we today use the word corundum to mean any form
of aluminum oxide, chemically Al₂O₃. Corundum is next in hardness (though
far inferior) to the diamond, and a hard granular form of it is used in
grinding and polishing. In its pure, transparent form it is, according to
its color, the ruby, the sapphire, the Oriental amethyst, or the Oriental
topaz.
The Latin word _ruber_ means red, and the crystalline corundum that is a
ruby takes shades from pale rose-pink to a deep crimson that borders on
the purple. The color is determined by the nature of the oxide, and the
gem sometimes has a light silken sheen. A flawless deep red ruby is one
of the rarest and most costly of gems.
Because of its great value, the ruby has often been used as a term of
comparison for human worth, implying the highest excellence. The Scottish
poet William Dunbar used it in pious thought: “Hail, redolent ruby, rich
and radious! Hail, Mother of God!”
Among precious rubies, greatly desired is the star ruby, a gem so flawed
that it catches the light as a sun with six out-shooting rays. “The sun
is fair,” said the poet Drummond of Hawthorne on a fine summer’s morning,
“when he with crimson crown and flaming rubies leaves his eastern bed.”
The star ruby, with its three crossbars making six rays of light, has
been thought by these lines of light to signify Faith, Hope, Charity,
Health, Wealth, and Happiness. Thus it is doubly prized, for its good
fortune and for its beauty.
The deep rubies of “pigeon’s blood” or ox-blood red come from Burma;
those from Siam may be purplish brown; from Ceylon, more probably pink; a
Brazilian ruby, a topaz; a Siberian ruby, a tourmaline; and a Balas ruby,
a spinel.
Most frequent of all comparisons with gems are references to the “ruby
lips” of beauty. Close after these come allusions to the rich red of
wine, as when Fitzgerald tells us, in his translation of the _Rubaiyat_
of Omar Khayyam:
But still a ruby kindles in the vine,
And many a garden by the water blows.
Robert Herrick, the poet of youth and springtime, who advises us to enjoy
lovely things while they are here—“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may”—in a
note of more solemn warning says to a fair maid:
That ruby which you wear
Sunk from the tip of your soft ear
Will last to be a precious stone
When all your world of beauty’s gone.
What the maiden answered is not on record, but it is sadly pleasant to
think, three hundred years later, that somewhere today that ruby is still
beautiful and still enjoyed.
_Sapphire_
Sapphire is the current form of a Sanskrit word meaning dear to Saturn,
an olden god whose reign was regarded as the golden age. The stone has
been known since earliest times, although what the ancients called
sapphire was probably the lapis lazuli, our sapphire being called by them
the hyacinth. It is hard to tell, however, just what gem is intended when
in the _Song of Songs_ the Queen of Sheba sings of Solomon, her beloved:
“His hands are as gold rings set with beryl; his belly is as bright ivory
overlaid with sapphires.”
Our sapphire is a bluish transparent variety of native crystalline
aluminum oxide, the same corundum that when it is red we call a ruby.
The sapphire may be sky blue or cornflower blue, and shade through the
lighter hues to an almost colorless stone, called white or water sapphire.
The sapphire is often used as a figure for the stars or for blue eyes:
“Those eyes, those sparkling sapphires of delight”... “Now glowed the
firmament with living sapphires.” This last line is by Milton, from
_Paradise Lost_, which he dictated to his daughters when he was blind.
The poet Gray pictures Milton as becoming blinded by his great vision:
He passed the flaming bounds of place and time,
The living throne, the sapphire-blaze,
Where angels tremble while they gaze,
He saw but, blasted with excess of light,
Closed his eyes in endless night.
While the sapphire at its best still captures the blue of a cloudless
sky, it brings with it today a vision of more serene beauty.
_Emerald_
The emerald is the most precious of the large beryl group of stones. It
has been deemed precious from ancient times. Cleopatra’s emerald mines
are still being worked. A flawless deep green emerald of good size is
extremely rare. Such a gem, normally, is table cut. The emerald also may
be pierced for use as a bead, or engraved. In Egypt, the usual carving
was a scarab—Cleopatra possessed one; in India, the carving often was a
god.
The word emerald, before the sixteenth century, was _esmeraldus_ and
_smaragdus_; the Sanskrit word for the gem was _marakta_. As recently
as the last century, Ralph Waldo Emerson summed up the chief sensuous
impressions of the Orient: “Color, taste, and smell: smaragdus, sugar,
and musk.”
There are few colors at once as striking and as restful as the green
of an emerald. It seems to have the depths of the pure rays in a calm
ocean. Coleridge in _The Ancient Mariner_ used it for another form of the
ever-changing waters:
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.
Tennyson used it for the widespread carpet of the land.
A livelier emerald sparkles in the grass.
In a lighter vein, it has been used to suggest the color of unripe fruit,
as in Eugene Field’s verses on the peach:
A little peach in an orchard grew,
A little peach of emerald hue;
Warmed by the sun and wet by the dew,
It grew.
The green of the emerald makes it, in many minds, the most beautiful of
colored gems.
_Pearl_
The pearl is the only one of the five gems that is the product of life.
It gives body to the eternal paradox that out of evil springs good; out
of deformity, beauty. For these reasons, the pearl is most frequently, of
all gems, woven into symbols of man’s activity. “Honesty dwells like a
miser, sir, in a poor house,” said Shakespeare, “as your pearl in a foul
oyster.”
A pearl, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it, is a nacreous
concretion formed within the shell of various bivalve molluscs around
some foreign substance (i.e., a grain of sand), composed of filmy layers
of carbonate of lime interstratified with animal membrane.
Trying to isolate the intruding irritant, the oyster secretes a sticky
fluid. The fluid hardens, another layer of it is secreted, and the pearl
grows. The genuine pearl oyster is the _meleagrina margaritifera_.
_Margaritifera_ means pearl-bearing from which comes the name Margaret
meaning pearl. Other molluscs may also form pearls, though not usually
the varieties served in the months with an “R”.
Freshwater pearls come from mussels, of the kind called _unionidae_.
_Unionem_ is the Latin word for pearl—also for onion, which like the
pearl is made up of layer upon layer. Mary Queen of Scots had a necklace
of fifty-two graduated pearls, all of them fetched out of Scottish rivers.
Pearls are prized because of the beautiful lustre that glows upon them,
pink or even bluish-grey, an iridescence over the basic white. Rarest are
the large black pearls, which make a beautiful center drop on a brooch or
a necklace. The pearl is hard and smooth in texture, beautiful to see and
pleasant to feel.
The usual shapes in which a pearl grows are round, button, pear, and
baroque (which in this use merely means irregular). The round pearls are
used mainly for necklaces, which must be threaded in silk or plastic
or other such material; any metal may darken and dull the beauty of a
pearl. Button pearls are used in earclips, studs, brooches and rings.
Pear-shaped pearls are attractive as pendants. The use of baroque pearls
depends upon their shape and size.
Pearls are assorted and matched with great care, according to their size,
shape, and color. The matching of a string of pearls may be a quest of
twenty years. Sometimes a jeweler will hold the pearls until he has a
matched necklace, graduated or of equal size; but it is also a challenge
to a woman who enjoys jewels to buy a few pearls she can wear in various
ways while watching for enough of their peers to form a string.
The lustrous inside of the oyster shell, formed of the same material
as the gem, is called mother of pearl. A blister pearl is a flattish
excrescence that, instead of being inside the soft oyster, adheres to the
shell; it may be detached and used. Seed pearls are very tiny pearls,
weighing less than a quarter of a grain.
For ages one of the most highly prized and priced of gems, the pearl
has become less costly not because of changing taste or of successful
simulation, but because man has learned the secret of the stimulation of
the oyster to make it create a pearl. The best natural pearls come from
the Persian gulf and the waters of Australia; but it is the Japanese
who have most fully developed the technique of inserting a foreign body
in the oyster, so that it then carries on, under its own living power,
the process of making a real—but what is called a cultured—pearl. Man
proposes and the oyster disposes.
From the “gates of pearl” through which Saint Peter allows the elect to
enter Heaven, to the guardians—“of Orient pearl a double row”—of the
smiling mouth, the pearl has been caught into proverb and poem. At the
beginning of this century, the pearl figured in a popular song:
The hours I’ve spent with you, dear heart,
Are as a string of pearls to me;
I count them over, every one apart,
My rosary.
For some reason, all of Shakespeare’s references to the pearl are linked
with sadness. The song in _The Tempest_ tells:
Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes ...
And it is after Othello has killed his faithful wife Desdemona and has
discovered that his clouding suspicions were untrue, that he calls
himself:
One whose hand,
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away
Richer than all his tribe.
As far back as the Bible a thing of supreme quality was referred to as
a pearl of great price; and the same book (_Matthew_) issues the famous
warning: “Neither cast ye your pearls before swine.”
In other ways the pearl has been used as a symbol. The poet Swinburne, in
sentimental mood, exclaimed:
The world has no such flowers in any land,
And no such pearl in any gulf the sea,
As any babe on any mother’s knee.
The rarity of the stone, and the difficult task of the pearl-diver, are
used symbolically in an epigram by Dryden:
Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls must dive below.
The American poet, William Russell Lowell (father of the Supreme Court
Justice of the same name), wrote in his copy of the _Rubaiyat_ of Omar
Khayyam:
These pearls of thought in Persian gulfs were bred,
Each softly lucent as a rounded moon;
The diver Omar plucked them from their bed,
Fitzgerald strung them on an English thread.
_Other Stones_
The other stones, though less esteemed in lore and letters, have many
claims to beauty. One shining specimen may adorn a jewel; or several of
a kind, or combinations of various stones, may create effects that rival
those of the gems. The four native stones among the five gems are usually
translucent, while most of the other stones are opaque. A transparent
or translucent stone, if it is cut as a prism or if its crystalline
structure is right, may break light into rainbow hues, and, catching
these rays, may shoot them around in varying interplays of sparkle and
color. The opaque stones, on the other hand, often smooth of surface,
are colored in ways that seem to snare the light and send it out with
added power and color. Special characteristics add to the beauty of many
of these stones, the main varieties of which we shall now glance at, in
alphabetical order.
_Agate_
The agate is a variety of chalcedony. It is named from the river Achates,
in Sicily. A hard stone, of striped or cloudy coloring, it is often
yellow or tawny brown. Shakespeare in _Romeo and Juliet_ uses the agate
in a ring to indicate the size of Queen Mab, who—before Freud brought us
other fancies—was the bringer of dreams:
She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate-stone
On the forefinger of an alderman ...
In her coach, Queen Mab gallops by night
Through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love;
O’er courtiers’ knees, that dream on curtsies straight;
O’er lawyers’ fingers, who straight dream on fees;
O’er ladies’ lips, who straight on kisses dream.
_Alexandrite_
The stone alexandrite was given its name from Alexander II (1818-1881),
Czar of all the Russias, in whose realm it was found. It is a variety
of chrysoberyl, containing chromium. It has the interesting quality of
being dark green in daylight, but under artificial illumination glowing
a brilliant red. These were the national colors of Russia, the green
standing for felicity, the red for humanity.
_Amethyst_
The amethyst is a variety of quartz—often called the queen of
quartz—purple or violet in color. It is one of the earliest stones found
in jewelry and has been used in every period. It is especially attractive
in combination with gold and pearls.
People as early as the Greeks have used the amethyst as a talisman
against intoxication. In 1502, Camilli Leonardi observed that the
amethyst protected the mild drinker and cautioned its wearer against
excess; but when its warnings were unheeded, the stone grew wan and
died. There is no question, as I can testify from my direct observation,
that continuing drunkenness of its wearer will cause an amethyst (like a
person) to grow dull.
A motion picture star, well known all over the world—her life recorded
in a major film—some time ago was in quest of an unusual necklace. At
the time, I was in Hollywood as jewelry consultant to a motion picture
company. As I happened to be staying at the same hotel as this actress,
we often went to the studio together, and we became rather friendly.
When she mentioned to me that she had been looking for a necklace that
was distinctive and personalized, I told her that her complexion and
hair coloring made it desirable—in my mind, almost mandatory—for her
to have the jewel made of deep purple Uruguayan amethysts combined with
diamonds. That night I made a sketch of such a jewel, and sent it to her
the next morning. She was enchanted. So was the Hollywood jeweler who was
entrusted with the making of the necklace from my design, for it was a
great success, the talk of the season in the movie colony.
What the jeweler did not tell me—what perhaps he did not know, as neither
did I—was that this glamorous star, with an angelic face and a skin the
poet Byron might despair of describing, used to hide away once a month
or more and drink herself into complete intoxication. We did not know,
but the amethysts did. Within a year the deep velvety purple had faded;
the stones were pale, and they had lost their lustre. The warning of the
amethysts had gone unheeded.
_Aquamarine_
The aquamarine is a pale, transparent, bluish-green variety of beryl.
Being of much the same chemical composition as the emerald, it is
sometimes called blue emerald. Although it is not a rare stone, when step
cut the aquamarine has a pleasant glow, and may be combined with diamonds
to make a distinctive jewel.
_Beryl_
Beryl is, chemically, a silicate of aluminum and glucinum, Be₃Al₂(SiO₃)₆.
It usually forms in hexagonal crystals. When there is also in the stone
some oxide of chromium, it becomes a bright or a deep green: this is the
emerald.
The word beryl covers a large number of hard and lustrous stones. At
first it was applied to clear crystals; thus in the fifteenth century we
find references to “water clear as beryl.” A pale bluish-green variety of
beryl is the aquamarine. A yellow variety is the chrysoberyl (_chrysos_
is the Greek word for gold).
_Carnelian_
The carnelian was originally the cornelian. Because of its flesh color,
the name was changed under the influence of the Latin word for flesh,
_carnem_. Carnelian is a red variety of chalcedony.
_Cat’s-eye_
There are two varieties of the cat’s-eye, equally effective against evil
spirits. The stone may be either olive green, or reddish brown. The most
attractive shades are bamboo and moss green. The distinguishing feature
of the stone is that it seems to have a horizontal slit that sends back
a white band of light, moving with the stone, and resembling the gleam
in the baleful eye of a cat. Other appropriately sinister colorings are
sometimes called tiger’s-eye and hawk’s-eye. The Oriental cat’s-eye is a
mineral of the chrysoberyl group; the Occidental, somewhat less glinting,
is a variety of quartz.
The cat’s-eye, of course, is in wide repute for the power it confers of
seeing in the dark. Thus it is an excellent stone for hunters. But it
proves similarly effective in mental darkness, providing the power for
seeing through the schemes of connivers. Wearing a cat’s-eye may thus
save one from becoming a cat’s-paw. I met a detective recently who was
wearing a superb hawk’s-eye ring; he told me he had just received notice
of his promotion, “with distinction,” to the rank of captain.
_Chalcedony_
Chalcedony is the name of a large group of stones, variously colored,
consisting mainly of non-crystal quartz. It has the lustre of wax.
Chalcedony has been known from early times and is mentioned in the
Bible. Among the stones belonging to this group are agate, carnelian,
chrysoprase, jasper, onyx, and sard.
_Chrysoberyl_
The various stones beginning with _chrys_ (Greek for gold) should in the
main be yellow. Chrysoberyl is a yellowish, sometimes slightly greenish,
mineral, beryllium aluminate, chemically Be Al₂O₄. It has been used for
adornment since ancient times.
_Chrysolite_
This is a rather common yellow silicate of magnesium and iron, of
granular structure. When, as sometimes occurs, it is greenish in tint, it
is called olivine by mineralogists, but when used for adornment jewelers
call it peridot.
Chrysolite is mentioned as one of the foundation stones of the New
Jerusalem prophesied in _Revelations_. Shakespeare has Othello, wrought
with agony over his beloved Desdemona whom he believes unfaithful,
exclaim:
Nay, had she been true,
If heaven would make me such another world
Of one entire and perfect chrysolite
I’d not have sold her for it.
There is indeed beauty in an entire and perfect chrysolite.
_Chrysoprase_
Gold touched with leek (_prason_ is the Greek word for leek) marks the
color of the chrysoprase. It is a light green quartz, a variety of
chalcedony. As chrysoprasus, it is listed in the King James Bible as the
tenth foundation stone of the New Jerusalem.
_Citrine_
Named from the citrus family, citrine is a lemon-yellow variety of
quartz. When clear, it may be used as becomingly as topaz.
_Coral_
Coral is a fairly hard substance, mainly calcium carbonate, made up
of the skeletons of myriads of marine animals called polyps. These
skeletons, attached to one another, through the centuries have formed
shelves in the ocean, or shaped themselves as atolls and far-extending
reefs. Coral may be in many colors, white, black, yellow, blue, and—most
popular in jewelry—shades of pink and red. The reddish shades, the Greeks
inform us, are dyed by the blood of the Gorgon Medusa, whose snake-haired
head, lopped off by Perseus, dripped its gore into the sea as he laid it
by to wash his hands. Scientists inform us the red is produced by the
presence of iron oxide.
The ancient Romans placed coral on cradles, to protect the babe against
the ills of infancy, especially teething. Even today, Italian peasants
use it as a charm against sterility, or in the form of a little bell the
wind might make tinkle to drive off evil spirits. If one has ever knocked
wood, one might place on the babe a ring or a trinket of coral.
References to the beloved one’s coral lips were so frequent in
Renaissance poetry that Shakespeare in revulsion wrote his Sonnet 130:
My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun,
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red ...
—And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.
A century later another playwright, William Congreve, also used the image
in a passage of scorn, after describing the physical allure of a great
beauty:
But soon as e’er the beauteous idiot spoke,
Forth from her coral lips such folly broke
Like balm the trickling nonsense healed my wound,
And what her eyes enthralled, her tongue unbound.
How true love grows through a lifetime by tiny, unnoticed moments is
beautifully pictured—to give an instance of a happier use of a coral
image—by the nineteenth-century poet Coventry Patmore:
... Fondness for her underwent
An unregarded increment
Like that which lifts, through centuries,
The coral reef within the seas.
_Garnet_
The garnet is a hard glass-like silicate mineral. It is found in many
colors: green, yellow, orange, pink and black. When it is a deep,
translucent red, it can be used to form a beautiful jewel. Its name
is a corruption of _granate_, seeded, as also in the pomegranate, the
seed-apple.
The garnet is sometimes cut faceted. The deep red, cabochon cut is
sometimes called a carbuncle, which means glowing coal. In trade terms,
the pyrope garnet is a deep blood red; the almandine garnet a violet
red. The Adelaide, Cape and Colorado “rubies” all are garnets.
_Hyacinth_
The color of the flower and the stone have given note to the name
hyacinth. In ancient times, the word was probably used to designate
what we call the sapphire. Today it is applied to any of the reddish or
purplish varieties of the garnet, topaz, or zircon.
_Jacinth_
_Jacinth_ is really another form of the word _hyacinth_. It is used, now,
especially to denote a reddish orange variety of zircon. The jacinth was
a favorite jewel of ancient times, its mention ranging from the Bible to
the _Thousand and One Nights_.
_Jade_
Two silicates of lime and magnesium are called jade. One, the true jade,
is a complex silicate also called jadeite. It is a tough substance,
usually green or white, and somewhat translucent. The other, less
valuable form, called nephrite, occurs in other colors.
Found in Burma and India, also in Mexico and Central America, jade did
not enter early into western literature; English mentions of jade usually
refer to the horse.
The word jade is from the Spanish _piedra de yjada_, stone of the side.
It is named from the belief that the stone counteracted pains in the
sides and kidneys. And the word nephrite is from Greek _nephros_, kidney.
Chinese women, indeed, clutched a piece of jade tightly in their hands
during childbirth. They had a double purpose in this: the stone, being
an effective charm, lessened their labor pains; and, being a symbol
of aristocracy, it ensured the male infant high rank and the female
a successful marriage. Mandarins, though not for the same reasons,
sometimes “spiked” their rice wine with powdered jade.
A piece of the deep green stone called imperial jade is one of the most
beautiful stones to look upon, and one of the most pleasant to touch. It
combines superbly with diamonds to create handsome jewels.
_Jasper_
Jasper was a stone treasured in antiquity. Although Biblical references
indicate a greenish stone, the jasper we know today is usually reddish,
yellow, or brown, in mottled colors. It is an opaque variety of quartz.
The jasper was sometimes used as a symbol of perfection. Thus the Scot
poet William Dunbar, about 1525, hailed the growing capital of England:
London, thou art the flower of cities all!
Gem of all joy, jasper of jocundity!
One might suspect Dunbar of bringing in the jasper to chime with the
jocundity, were it not more likely that he brought in the jocundity to
chime with the jasper!
_Jet_
This stone, which gives its name to its color, a shiny dark black, might
be called kissing kin to the diamond. It is a kind of lignite, one of
the forms of pure carbon, differing from coal and diamond only in the
arrangement of the molecules. It is an intense black in color but very
soft.
The name jet is from the Greek _gagates_, which indicates that it comes
from Gagas, a town and a river of Lycia in Asia Minor. Jet, however, was
known also to the ancient Celts, who carved it.
Although its color has made it popular mainly for religious and
especially (in the western world) for mourning motifs, jet has a bright
glow upon its black that can be effective in earclips and other jewel
forms.
_Kunzite_
Named for the American gem expert George F. Kunz (1856—1932), kunzite
is a stone of attractive lilac crystals. It is a transparent variety of
spodumene which is a crystalline mineral, lithium aluminum silicate,
chemically Li Al (Si O₃)₂. Spodumene is usually yellow or light green; in
its more delicate shadings, used for ornament, it is now called kunzite.
_Lapis Lazuli_
Known from earliest times, and in high repute as an ornamental stone,
lapis lazuli is a mixture of various minerals. It is azure blue and
opaque, usually with tiny golden flecks. The name means the azure stone.
Some old-time customs and cures, persisting in spite of superior smiles
and “scientific” derision, have been found to incorporate materials which
modern medicine has in its time welcomed into the pharmacopoeia, the
checkbook of current remedies. In ancient times, lapis lazuli was used
as a “charm” against bleeding of the nose, against inflammation of the
eyes, against any kind of hemorrhage. The Egyptians prescribed lapis
lazuli 4,000 years before chemists noted the astringent qualities of
copper oxide—which is what gives the golden flecks to lapis lazuli.
_Malachite_
Malachite is a basic copper carbonate, chemically CuCO₃Cu(OH)₂. It can be
highly polished and takes its name from the green color of the leaves of
the mallow plant, the marsh variety of which gives its name to a popular
candy. The stone is used for small boxes and other decorative pieces;
well polished, it makes an attractive ring.
_Moonstone_
Moonstone is a milky-white translucent variety of feldspar, with a pearly
lustre.
Feldspar (also felspar, meaning spar of the field) is any of a group of
crystalline minerals, made up mainly of aluminum silicates. They are
glassy and moderately hard, and are found among igneous rocks. Spar is
the name of various shiny materials that break off easily, in chips
or flakes. Few of these varieties are used in ornaments, but the even
milk-white tone of a good moonstone makes it effective in jewels.
_Onyx_
Named, because of its pale color, from the Greek word for nail, onyx is a
variety of agate. It consists of alternate layers of different colored
stone, as can be seen around the edge; this makes it prized for carving,
especially in cameos.
_Opal_
The opal was represented in such variety in early times that the word
_upala_ was the general Sanskrit term for a precious stone. The opal
comprises a large group of vitreous, translucent silicas, possessing the
property of refracting light and then reflecting it in a play of colors.
Silica is a dioxide of silicon, chemically Si O₂, a hard glassy mineral
that includes quartz and sand as well as opal. According as the compound
includes iron, magnesium or other elements, the color of the stone varies.
The best opals are the result of a flaw in their formation. Being
hydrated silicas, they were at first a sort of semi-liquid, jellified
substance; as this hardened, cracks and fissures were created by
unevenness in the material and in the speed of the hardening. These
tiny spaces trapped air or moisture, and it is this that produces the
phenomenon of refraction and reflection of light and gives the colorings
and variations known as opalescence. The play of light is at its best
when the stone is cut cabochon, except for the fire opal, which is
faceted.
There are three chief varieties of opal. The common or white opal has
a cloudy-white background, with pastel patches that often give it a
veritable sunrise glow. The black opal has actually a very dark green
background, in which there are deep pools of blue and green with patches
of flame. Rare, and most magnificent, is the fire opal, which seems
almost transparent, its body of smooth reddish orange shooting forth into
flame.
The opal is a delicate stone. It may be damaged by heat. It absorbs
grease, and may thus become dull. The outstanding and valued feature of
the stone is its opalescence. This creates a constantly changing, almost
kaleidoscopic play of lights. It is this variability that gives point to
the reference in Shakespeare’s _Twelfth Night_: “Now the melancholy god
protect thee, and the tailor make thy garment of changeable taffeta, for
thy mind is a very opal.”
_Peridot_
The peridot, a yellowish-green variety of chrysolite, was popular in
early England. It fell from favor but was reintroduced from France in
the seventeenth century. It is a beautiful stone, often as large as 30
carats, and again growing in favor.
_Quartz_
Quartz is one of the silicas, chemically Si O₂, as is the opal. It is
abundant as a colorless, transparent substance; it also appears as a
brilliant crystal. The name quartz is from the German _zwerg_, meaning
dwarf. Similarly cobalt and nickel are from German words for sprites, the
gnomes being little creatures that work the mine of the gods.
In its crystalline form quartz includes amethyst, cairngorm, citrine,
quartz cat’s-eye, rock crystal, and rose quartz. Another main group
in the quartz family is chalcedony, which includes agate, bloodstone,
carnelian, jasper, moss agate, onyx, sard, and sardonyx. These stones are
used for beads for carving cameos and intaglios.
_Sard_
Sard is a very hard, deep orange-red variety of chalcedony. Its name
rises from the fact that it originally came from Sardis in Asia Minor.
_Sardonyx_
Sardonyx is a variety of onyx in which the alternating layers are of
white chalcedony and sard. It can be cut into beautiful cameos.
The sardonyx is not to be confused with the sardonics, known for their
scornful smile. The latter have no connection with the powers of the
stone; they derive their name from the plant of Sardinia, the island
off Italy. The plant, we are told, was poisonous, and made its victims
sneer while dying. More scientific botanical tales aver that the plant
was bitter, so that its taste at once produced contortions of the mouth.
In either event, the bitter, superior smile of the sardonic comes from
another part of the world than the peaceful sardonyx stone of Sardis,
Asia Minor.
_Spinel_
Spinel is so called, little spine, from the shape of its crystals. It
is a hard mineral, composed mainly of oxide of aluminum, with iron or
magnesium. The proportions of the metals determine the color, which
ranges from rose pink through green, blue, and purple, to black. The red
variety, rare and costly, is sometimes called a spinel ruby. It is also
known as a balas ruby, from Arabian _balakhsh_, from the Persian province
of Balakhshan, where spinels from pink to orange have long been found.
_Topaz_
The topaz ranges widely in color, according as other substances are
present in the complex aluminum silicate that is its basis, chemically
Al₂Si O₄F₂. It is transparent, crystalline, and may be white, pale
blue, or pale green; but the yellow shade (produced by the presence of
fluorine) is preferred for use in a jewel. It often develops its crystals
in large clusters; the National Museum in Washington has one weighing 153
pounds.
Brazilian topaz is genuine topaz. Oriental topaz, however, is a yellowish
crystalline corundum; Occidental topaz, a yellow quartz, citrine.
Topazolite is a yellow variety of garnet.
The topaz is mentioned in the Bible as the ninth foundation stone of
the New Jerusalem. It has not entered greatly into literature, being
an undramatic stone, and is not usually at its best when combined with
others; but it can be so fashioned as to display a serene and quiet
beauty.
_Tourmaline_
The tourmaline is any of a variety of complex silicoborates, formed into
a brittle mineral, crystalline stone. It was originally found in Ceylon,
first being brought to the West in the eighteenth century. The surface
of the stone has a vitreous lustre. A black, opaque variety is called
schorl; a blue variety, indicolite; a red, rubellite. The tourmaline is
most attractive, and most frequently chosen for jewels, in a colorless
transparent or translucent variety, and in deep green.
_Turquoise_
The turquoise was originally found in Persia, where it is still a
favorite and lucky stone. It was also found along the Sinai Peninsula;
but it was transported to the West by way of Turkey, whence its name, the
Turkish stone. It is also found in the western United States and, in its
rare crystalline form, in Virginia.
The turquoise is a hydrous phosphate of aluminum, with a little copper
or iron determining its color, from sky blue to greenish grey. It
is best when a rich green-blue. The stone is rather soft and is cut
cabochon. Like the opal, it absorbs grease and dirt and may grow dull.
Over-exposure to strong light will cause it to fade.
There may often be several hues in the one turquoise; it is another stone
that can be wrought into parures of quiet beauty.
_Zircon_
Zircon is really a silicate of zirconium, an element discovered by
Martin Klaproth. Zircon is chemically Zr Si O₄, a mineral occurring in
tetragonal crystals. Though it is found in many colors—yellow, brown,
red, pastels of green and blue—the colorless and transparent varieties
are in demand for jewels. The brown zircon, heated, turns first blue,
then colorless. Without the diamond hardness and full sparkle, the
colorless zircon more nearly approaches the radiance of the diamond than
any other stone.
The word zircon is from the Arabic _zarqun_, meaning cinnabar, from
Persian _zar_, meaning gold, and this indicates the ancients’ favorite
colors of the stone. It is also called the jargon or jargoon. A red
zircon is also known as a hyacinth.