VALUE OF THE DIAMOND.
The history of the commercial value of the diamond, extending back
to a distant period of time, forms an interesting chapter for the
philosopher as well as the merchant. It would appear that the gem had
been comparatively independent of the caprice of fashion, and that it
has had for many years a value quite as fixed as gold or silver. This
comparative valuation only applies to the snow-white diamonds, and to
those whose imperfections are not readily discernible to the naked eye.
In estimating the value of diamonds, Barbot divides their shades into
fifteen degrees, as follows: In the first degree he places the rare
diamonds which exhibit the vivid gleam like the flash of polished
steel; second degree, snow-white, first water; third degree, white,
first water; fourth degree, white, with faint shades, red, yellow,
and blue; fifth degree, white, yellow, or green, second water; sixth
degree, grayish-yellow or green, second water; seventh degree, orange
yellow; eighth degree, translucent topaz yellow; ninth degree,
translucent deep green; tenth degree, translucent brick-red; eleventh
degree, translucent deep red; twelfth degree, quite opaque, dingy blue;
thirteenth degree, quite opaque, deep bottle green; fourteenth degree,
quite opaque, brown or blackish; fifteenth degree, quite opaque, black
as jet.
In ancient times, the gem probably had no fixed commercial value,
and was sought for as a curiosity or as a talisman. In the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries, the goldsmiths of Italy, which was then the
richest country in the world, established a comparative valuation for
the four precious stones, ruby, emerald, diamond, and sapphire. From
these accounts we learn that the diamond of one karat was valued at
100 gold scudi, and that the emerald was estimated at 400, and the red
sapphire, or ruby, at 800, or eight times the price of the adamas.
These valuations, if we estimate the scudi at nine English shillings,
make a diamond of one karat worth $225, and the ruby of the same weight
at $1,800, or nearly two thousand dollars, a statement which is quite
incredible.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and even before these dates,
Venice was the chief gem mart of Europe. Her merchants had control of
a great part of the trade with the Eastern countries; and most of the
Oriental luxuries passed through their hands. From the account of the
auction sale, in the year 1606, of the effects of a diamond merchant
in that city, we learn the value of diamonds of one karat weight at
that time. They were then valued at £21 13_s._ 4_d._, which was an
enormous sum, compared with the value of money at the present day.
In 1750, the price of the stone in Europe was $40 for one-karat gems.
This was just before the discovery of the Brazilian mines. The sudden
influx of the gems reduced the price shortly after to $5 per karat;
but the market soon recovered from the panic, and in 1791, at the time
the inventory of the French jewels was made, the price had arisen to
$30 for the same class of diamonds. Since this period, the prices have
varied, from the influences of the wars of Europe, sinking at the time
of the disturbances of the Revolution of 1848, to $20 and $25 per
karat. But after the year 1850, the price of the gem steadily advanced,
and in 1865, its quotations were almost the same as that of Venice in
1606. This comparison, however, should not be made without remembering
the vast difference in the value of money of the two periods.
The valuations of the diamond for more than a century past have been
based upon the form of the brilliant, while those of the star, table,
rose, and others, have been valued at lesser and sometimes almost
nominal prices.
The price of the rose diamonds has been affected by the views of
fashion for a long time, and at the present day we are unable to
establish any fixed scale. We will, however, append the views of some
of the gem experts as to the valuation of this pattern, during the past
two centuries.
Robert de Berquen, in 1669, valued the rose cut
of 1 karat at 100 francs.
” 2 ” ” 500 ”
” 4 ” ” 1,500 ”
” 8 ” ” 6,000 ”
” 10 ” ” 9,000 ”
This estimate, however, was not founded upon any principle; and it was
not until the celebrated Tavernier formed his rule for the valuation of
the rose cut, that the diamond had any definite value. Tavernier, in
1692, took for an example a rose of one karat, of fine water, white,
and of good form, and fixed the valuation at 150 francs, and for gems
of greater weight multiplied this figure by the square of their weight.
The justly celebrated jeweller and traveller also followed the same
rule with fine diamonds that were not of regular form. The brilliant
cut was not then known.
In 1858, in France, the comparative values were: for one karat, fine
brilliant cut, 300 francs; for one karat, fine rose cut, 200 francs.
The following list has been kindly furnished me by Henry D. Morse,
Esq., of Boston, as giving the value of diamonds in the United States
at the present time, January, 1884. The prices have fluctuated
considerably during the past year, and the estimates given are
wholesale prices, and regarded as being quite low for fine stones:--
Lots averaging ¹⁄₂ karat each, $60 per karat.
” ” ³⁄₄ ” ” 80 ” ”
” ” 1 ” ” 100 ” ”
” ” 1¹⁄₄ ” ” 110 ” ”
” ” 1¹⁄₂ ” ” 125 ” ”
” ” 1³⁄₄ ” ” 145 ” ”
” ” 2 ” ” 175 ” ”
Above two karats the prices are not much increased per karat, because
of their not being as much in demand. Stones of five karats and
upwards, being very slow to sell, at the present time can be bought at
$175 to $200 per karat, of the same qualities as the two-karat stones
quoted above. Very extra white perfect stones, when well cut, bring,
when sold singly or few at a time, from 20 to 25 per cent more than the
prices quoted. The lower grades of stones are generally sold in lots,
and the sizes do not make much difference in price. The larger they are
the less desirable, and oftentimes stones of from five to ten karats
are sold cheaper than stones of one to two karats; the price depending
upon the shade of color and skill in cutting. Lots of this description
can be bought for from $75 to $90 per karat. If the tinge is a little
more decided they will bring but $60 per karat. The yellow diamonds
even ranging as high as ten to twenty karats bring about $45 per karat.
Flawy stones bring from $15 to $35 per karat, according to their color,
size, and brilliancy. Fine rough stones of assorted sizes, varying
from three to ten karats, bring from $30 to $45 per karat according to
their shape and perfection. Smaller sizes are reckoned in value from
$15 to $20 per karat. Cheaper grades and off-colored crystals are sold
as low as $8 to $12 per karat. The bort diamonds vary in value; those
coming from Africa bring but $1.50 per karat, while the same variety
found in Brazil bring $6. The carbon variety of the best sizes bring
about $20 per karat. Fifteen years ago the same mineral could be bought
for $2.50 per karat; while the Brazilian bort was quoted at $9.
Of colored diamonds, those slightly tinged with various colors,
especially the yellow and brown, were valued in London and Amsterdam,
in 1872, as follows:--
Under 1 karat 30s. to £2 10s. per karat.
1 to 2 ” 40 ” 4 10 ” ”
2 ” 3 ” £3 ” 5 10 ” ”
The following account of Cape of Good Hope diamonds which were sold by
auction at Covent Garden, February, 1872, may interest the reader in
comparison with other sales at various periods of time:--
One white rough diamond, 9¹⁄₂ karats, £60; one slightly off color, 7¹⁄₄
karats, £37; a curious cabinet specimen of native diamond in matrix,
£14, one large rough gem, drop shape, 14¹⁄₂ karats, £42. Among the cut
diamonds the following were sold: a magnificent brilliant, 8 karats,
430 guineas; a fine yellow brilliant of great lustre, 7¹⁄₂ karats,
140 guineas; a brilliant of great spread and good water, about 7¹⁄₂
karats, 140 guineas; a large, lustrous brilliant of fine color weighing
about 7 karats, 480 guineas; a court tiara of five graduated brilliant
stars, 185 guineas; a brilliant necklace of forty graduated collets,
£300.
The following sale by auction, in London, of some of the Imperial
jewels belonging to the Empress Eugenie, may also interest the reader;
and we have therefore thought proper to insert the account. It took
place in July, 1872, at the rooms of Christie, Manson, & Co.:--
Lots 16 and 17. A bracelet, with forget-me-nots formed of turquoises
and small diamonds, and another, with pearls and diamonds,--175
guineas. (Attenborough.)
22, 23. A heart-shaped locket, formed of bands of brilliants, and a
pair of gold solitaires, with large diamond centres,--215 guineas.
(Copeland.)
24. A very small keyless watch, with E. in diamonds, with gold chain,
set with rubies and emeralds,--120 guineas. (Agnew.)
26. A chased gold snuff-box, the top set with flowers in brilliants,
with the Pasha of Egypt’s cipher in brilliants on blue enamel,--165
guineas. (B. Benjamin.)
33. A brooch, with pendants, formed of five large turquoises and
brilliants,--105 guineas. (Streeter.)
35. A brilliant brooch, with sprays set with brilliants,--120 guineas.
(Attenborough.)
36. A pair of large pink pearl ear-rings in enamelled setting with
brilliants,--105 guineas. (Thompson.)
37. A heart-shaped pendant, formed of a fine large turquoise surmounted
by brilliants,--250 guineas. (Martin.)
38, 39. A large black pearl, with brilliant top, and a heart-shaped
brilliant locket,--300 guineas. (Woodgate.)
40. A pair of shell-shaped brilliant ear-rings with pearl centres and
drops,--106 guineas. (B. Benjamin.)
41. A brilliant brooch, formed as a corn-flower and group of
foliage,--348 guineas. (Phillips.)
43-45. A ring with a large brilliant, a fine single stone brilliant
ring, and a ring with a large brilliant and two fine emeralds,--485
guineas. (Woodgate.)
46. A ring, with a splendid ruby and two brilliants,--300 guineas.
(Challens.)
47, 48. Three very fine emeralds, set as a ring, and a pair of hairpins
formed as rosebuds, of pink pearls and brilliants,--275 guineas.
(Gibbons.)
49. A marquise ring, with a pink diamond surrounded by brilliants,
formerly the property of the Empress Josephine,--400 guineas. (Martin.)
50. A beautiful pendant, the centre a fine emerald, surrounded by bands
of brilliants, with emerald and pearl drop,--605 guineas. (Brown.)
51, 52. A group of three wheat-ears tied with a ribbon formed of
fine brilliants, making a brooch or head ornament, and the companion
group,--975 guineas. (Lennox.)
53, 54. A group of two wheat-ears, en suite, and the companion
group,--£810. (Martin.)
55. A fine pendant, with a large square emerald, surrounded by
brilliants, with very large pearl drop,--620 guineas. (Ford.)
56. A scroll-pattern brilliant brooch, for a miniature, with large
pearl drop,--470 guineas. (Challens.)
57. A broad chain-band bracelet, with sapphire and two large
brilliants,--340 guineas. (Lomax.)
58. Two fine emeralds and three large brilliants, mounted as a
bracelet,--810 guineas. (Hancock.)
59. A beautiful cross, formed of eleven large brilliants,--900 guineas.
(Carter.)
60. A ribbon tie brilliant brooch,--335 guineas. (Grindley.)
61. A handsome pendant of brilliants and pearls, with a fine large
black pearl centre and drop,--420 guineas. (Martin.)
62. Two fine large brilliants and an emerald mounted on a buckle set
with small brilliants,--430 guineas. (Harborough.)
64. A splendid brooch, formed as a rosebud and leaves, composed
entirely of brilliants,--820 guineas. (Attenborough.)
65. A magnificent bracelet, with sapphire centre, surrounded by rubies,
brilliants, and emeralds,--£650. (Rothschild.)
67. A fine large pearl, mounted as a hairpin of chased gold, with chain
set with small diamonds,--188 guineas. (Chapman.)
68. A splendid fly brooch, the body a very large opal, the head
and wings set with rubies, brilliants, emeralds, sapphires, and
opals,--£320. (Greenwood.)
69. A beautiful watch, in blue enamel setting, surrounded by eleven
large brilliants, suspended from a hook, set with a cluster of
brilliants,--£1,660. (James.)
70, 71. A fine polished emerald, surrounded by brilliants, and a
bracelet with splendid ruby centre and large brilliants,--975 guineas.
(Hancock.)
72, 73. A brooch, formed as an anchor, composed entirely of brilliants,
and the companion brooch,--£2,150. (Eaton.)
74. A tiara, formed of a band of brilliants, the centre a cluster of
fine brilliants and emeralds, surmounted by a large oval emerald, with
brilliant sprays and pearl drop,--780 guineas. (Challens.)
75. A bracelet, the centre a very fine sapphire surrounded by large
brilliants, with trellis pattern open-work bands, studded with
brilliants,--£1,105. (Martin.)
76, 77. A brilliant set as a brooch, with fine pearl drop, and a
brilliant brooch with colored stone centre and pearl drop,--730
guineas. (Keane.)
78. A brilliant tiara, formed as a group of leaves,--£970. (Carter.)
79. A pearl necklace, composed of forty-one large pearls of the highest
quality, with cluster brilliant snap,--£2,400. (Marquis of Bristol.)
80-84. A pair of polished emerald drops, four pairs of larger ditto,
and a single ditto,--750 guineas. (Masters.)
85-89. Two pairs of emerald drops, with brilliant tops, three pairs of
larger ditto,--550 guineas. (Carter.)
90-92. Three pairs of very large emerald drops,--£1,275. (Garrard.)
93-103. A brooch, with a fine large emerald surrounded by brilliants,
nine larger ditto, and one with a square emerald,--5,000 guineas.
(Keane.)
104-106. A brooch with emerald centre, surrounded by fine brilliants,
with emerald and brilliant drop, and two larger ditto,--£3,525.
(Graham.)
107. A tiara, composed of ten fine large emeralds, surrounded by bands
of brilliants,--£2,625. (Keane.)
108. A brilliant brooch, formed as a group of leaves, with six large
brilliant drops and pendants, set with smaller brilliants,--1,050
guineas. (Keane.)
109-111. Three brilliant pendants composed of very fine large stones,
with brilliant drops and pendants of false pearls,--2,600 guineas.
(Keane.)
112. A bracelet, composed entirely of brilliants, the centre an oval
sapphire,--£2,250. (Carter.)
113. A pair of long ear-rings composed of very large
brilliants,--£3,255. (Stevens.)
114. A brilliant brooch, formed as a double pink,--£1,470. (Stevens.)
The whole realized upwards of £50,000 ($250,000) gold.
The quantity of diamonds now in circulation in fashion, and hoarded
by commerce, is enormous, and may be estimated by the ton. Yet the
requirements of society and the arts are so vast that the gem
apparently seems to be a rare stone, while in reality it ranks low down
in the scale of rarity.
Although we believe that there are immense diamond placers yet to be
discovered in Africa, Asia, and America, we do not think that the gem
will ever lose its high rank in the wants of fashion and ornamentation,
or that its price will ever again descend to the valuation of 1848
except in transient times of far-extended commercial distress. The
misfortunes of any one country will not affect the established price to
any great extent, since the demand from other countries is so great as
to preserve a well-marked equilibrium.
India, with its millions of people who prefer to invest their gains in
a gem to all other known property, will furnish an eager market for the
diamond for many ages to come. The history of the influx and absorption
of silver by that country furnishes an interesting parallelism.
Most of the people of the earth entertain superstitious fancies, and
especially invest the gems with spiritual powers or special attributes.
Hence the innate love of ornament, combined with the desire of
possessing a rare treasure, will always give to the gems a prestige
and a commercial value above all other things. Puritanical morality
may rail against the gems as luxuries; but the nature of man must be
changed before these ideas can be universally adopted. The refinements
of civilization, as well as the follies of barbaric ages, call for
the ornamentation of jewels and gems. And modern economy may, with
Tiberius, complain in vain of that “rage for jewels and precious stones
which drains the empire of its wealth, and sends, in exchange for its
baubles, the money of the commonwealth to foreign nations.”
A brilliant writer has lately stated that “Pictures, gems, china,
bronzes, _bric-à-brac_ of every sort, rare shawls, rare engravings,
and even rare fruits, flowers, and dogs are steadily tending upwards
in value, as if their price depended upon a want and not a caprice. It
is the most curious illustration of the unchangeableness of the law
which governs even caprices that we are acquainted with; and tends to
indicate that the desire for the rare, which we all notice and smile
at, in bibliopoles, antiquarians, entomologists, and every variety
of the genus collector, is not an exceptionable eccentricity, but a
permanent attribute of the human mind, though only noticed in those who
have wealth to indulge in some unusual or splendid form. It is like the
desire of accumulation, one of the passions, and not one of the mere
tastes of men; and may be relied on in business, almost as certainly as
self-interest, vanity, or ambition.”
The relative worth of the diamond has never been better described than
by the following lines from the pen of an able English author:--
“It is in truth the very essence of property. It is riches condensed
and wealth secured; too small to be seen by the midnight burglar; too
easily hid to be seized by the tyrant; and too quickly carried away to
be wrested from the patriot exile or torn from the hunted outlaw. In
vain would the vanquished monarch strive to remove his bags of gold,
or transport his territorial domains; but a diamond is an empire made
portable, with which he might purchase a better kingdom, and mount a
prouder throne. Had the treasure of Crœsus been invested in brilliants
he might have founded a nobler Lydia beyond the reach of his Persian
invader.”
THE EMERALD.
“The emerald burns intensely bright,
With radiance of an olive light;
This is the faith that highest shines,
No need of charity declines,
And seeks no rest and shuns no strife,
In working out a holy life.”
MARBODEUS.
THE EMERALD.
Dutens and several others who have written upon gems and precious
stones during the last two centuries, have asserted that the ancients
were unacquainted with the true emerald, and that Heliodorus, when
speaking nearly two thousand years ago of “gems green as a meadow in
the spring,” or Pliny, when describing stone of a “soft green lustre,”
referred to the peridot, the plasma, the malachite, or the far rarer
gem, the green sapphire. But the antiquary has come to the rescue with
the treasures of the despoiled mounds of Tuscany, the exposed ashes of
Herculaneum and Pompeii, and now exhibits emeralds which were mounted
in gold two thousand years before Columbus dreamed of the New World, or
Pizarro and his remorseless band gathered the precious stones by the
hundred-weight from the spoils of Peru.
Although these specimens of antique jewelry set with emeralds may be
numbered by the score or more in the museums and reliquaries of Europe,
but very few engraved emeralds have descended to us from ancient times.
This rarity is not due to the hardness of the stone, for the ancient
lapidaries cut the difficult and still harder sapphire; therefore we
must believe the statement of the early gem-writers that the emerald
was exempted from the glyptic art by common consent on account of its
beauty and costliness.
Stones possessing a green color have been used for ornamental purposes
from the very earliest periods of the social life of man. And as we
review the archæological history of the human race, it would seem as
though minerals of this hue had been especially selected among all
others for ornamental purposes.
For instances of this primitive selection, we will refer to the green
stone hatchets found among the ancient tombs of Brittany; the axe heads
of jade in New Caledonia; the green serpentine implements of Africa;
the articles carved from green zoisite, revered among the Chinese from
time immemorial; as well as the green jade and amazon stones, which
the Mexicans wrought with wondrous skill into strange and grotesque
forms, and which they prized above even their magnificent and matchless
emeralds. It is also clearly evident that the emerald was discovered in
very ancient times, and that it was early adopted in ornamentation, and
was prized as among the most valuable of the gems, if not the highest
in estimation, for its color and fancied virtues.
Pliny was undoubtedly familiar with the true emerald, and expressed
his satisfaction in the following language:--
“There is no color so pleasing to the eye as that of the emerald.
Whoever delights in the verdure of herb and leaf must enjoy infinitely
more the contemplation of emeralds; for no verdure can compare to
theirs. They are the only stones that charm the eye without wearying
it. It loses its lustre neither in sun nor in shade, nor in artificial
light. It shines continually with the same soft glow.”
In the time of Alexander, the emblems of authority of the Persians
consisted of golden imitations of vines, loaded with clusters of
emeralds, carbuncles, and other gems. At the famous marriage feast
of Alexander and his eighty companions with their beautiful Persian
brides, emeralds appear to have been the favorite gem used, and to have
been esteemed above all other ornaments except the beautiful pearls of
the Persian Gulf.
In ancient times this gem was not only prized as an ornament, but also
as a talisman, and even as a medicine in the powdered state. Its beauty
captivated the vain and frivolous, and its supposed virtues endeared
it to the rich and the wise. It was supposed to exercise a good effect
upon the eyesight; hence it was worn as a seal to be looked at; when
worn as an amulet it endowed the wearer with courage, drove away evil
spirits, assuaged terror, and prevented attacks of epilepsy.
Pliny states that Paulina, at the Banquet, was literally covered with
emeralds and pearls, arranged over her dress in alternate rows.
The famous and fatal ring which Polycrates cast into the sea, as an
offering to the gods in return for forty years of prosperity, was set
with a beautiful emerald.
The ancient Etruscans carved the emerald at a very remote period, and
the fact is proven by the scarabeus in the Townley collection.
The Castellani collection exhibits ear-rings of gold set with pendants
of emeralds which were found in the tombs at Bolsena.
In the Devonshire gems there is a large emerald cut into a Gorgon’s
head, in high relief,--evidently a gem of great antiquity and of
exceeding value at the time of its conversion into a work of art.
Within the sarcophagus of Maria Honorii fifty rings set with different
stones were found, and among them an emerald set in gold and engraved
with a head supposed to be that of Honorius himself. It was probably
fashioned for a royal signet and buried with the remains of its owner.
The famous mirror or lens, in or through which the cruel and
near-sighted Nero was wont to view the bloody combats in the arena at
Rome, is supposed to have been cut from an emerald; but it was probably
a lens cut from green glass.
It appears, however, from the researches of the antiquaries, that the
gem was very rare until the Imperial epoch, when they were introduced
from Asia and other countries in accordance with the luxury and
extravagance of the age. Castellani’s collection displays some fine
examples of the jewelry of this period set with emeralds. Among them
there is a beautiful necklace formed of sixteen natural crystals of
emerald fastened in gold; and also another composed of ten natural
crystals of emerald set in double chains of gold. Among the engraved
gems may be seen an emerald intaglio, representing a Nereid on a sea
bull, and two other intaglios of beryl, with pictures of Mars, and a
portrait of Julia Paula.
From the earliest times of history monarchs and potentates of all
ranks and races, from Solomon to Montezuma, were wont to wear signet
rings, which were sometimes engraved, and were then often used to
impart authority either by the exhibition of the ring itself, or its
impression upon papyrus, parchment, or wax. The most celebrated ring of
this description we have any authentic knowledge of, was that formed
of a large emerald set in gold and worn by Alexander the Great, whose
portrait was engraved upon the stone. The hero, when dying, bestowed it
upon his favorite general, Perdiccas, and thereby invested him with the
authority of succession. History refuses to make known the fate of this
splendid gem. It is probable that Ptolemy Soter obtained possession
of it when Perdiccas was slain in Egypt, and that eventually Augustus
Cæsar may have worn it for his first imperial seal, which was an
emerald engraved with the head of Alexander.
After the death of Pompey in Egypt, his seal ring, which represented
a lion holding a sword in his paw, was taken to Rome and presented
to Cæsar, who burst into tears on receiving the signet of his former
associate and unfortunate rival.
The practice of interring with the dead some of the jewels worn in
life, has been practised in recent times. When Cardinal Borromeo was
buried at Milan two hundred years ago or more, a large gold cross,
containing seven large and fine emeralds surrounded with diamonds, was
placed in his tomb. When Lord Palmerston was buried at Westminster
Abbey, the officiating clergyman threw into the grave several diamond
and gold rings as a peace offering. In ancient times the custom was
of frequent occurrence, and to this habit we owe the preservation of
many beautiful gems and jewels, which have in this manner escaped the
pillage and fury of thieves and iconoclasts.
The mineral has borne the name of emerald since the middle of the
seventeenth century, at which time it was adopted by the mineralogist,
Wallerius. But whence it is derived, and on what particular grounds, we
are not informed. In Asia, in ancient times, it was described under the
Sanskrit name, “marakat,” which is connected with “esmark,” signifying
a sea monster, or “makara,” meaning the sea. As it passed westward,
among the Persians it became “zabargat,” and still farther on its
journey it was changed by the Greeks and Latins into “smaragdus.” The
derivation of its ancient terms is also exemplified by the use or
purposes in which the gem and its varieties were used. It was therefore
frequently chosen by the antique gem cutters and engravers, as the
proper material for the representation of all maritime subjects or any
allusions to the sea gods.
The emerald is now one of the rarest of gems; and its scarcity gives
rise to the inquiry as to what has become of the abundant shower of
emeralds which fairly rained upon Spain during the early days of the
conquest of Mexico and Peru, bringing down the value of fine stones to
a trifling price. As with all commercial articles, there is a waste and
loss to be accounted for during the wear of three centuries; but this
alone will not explain their present rarity in civilized countries.
Even in the times of Charles II., when the destitution of the country
was extreme, the Dukes of Infantado and Albuquerque had millions in
diamonds, rubies, and precious stones, yet hardly possessed a single
sou. So impoverished was the land, and so slender were the purses of
all, that the Duke of Albuquerque dined on an egg and a pigeon, yet it
required six weeks to make an inventory of his plate. At this period,
when the nobles gave fêtes the lamps were often decorated with emeralds
and the ceilings garlanded with precious stones. The women fairly
blazed with sparkling gems of fabulous value, while the country was
starving. Most, if not all, of this missing treasure was transferred
to Asia, and with the silver current which flowed steadily from the
Spanish coffers into India went many of the emeralds also; for in those
regions this gem is regarded as a foreign stone, and the natives,
investing it with the possession of certain talismanic properties,
prize it above all earthly treasures.
When the Spaniards commenced their march toward the capital of Mexico,
they were astonished at the magnificence of the costumes of the
chiefs who came to meet them as envoys or join them as allies; and
among the splendid gems which adorned their persons they recognized
emeralds and turquoises of such rare perfection and beauty that their
cupidity was excited to the highest degree. During the after years of
conquest and occupation the avaricious spoilers sought in vain for
the parent ledge where these precious stones were found. Recent times
have, however, revealed the home of the Mexican turquoise, which has
proved to be in the northern part of Mexico, as the Totonacs informed
the inquiring Spaniards. The first of these mines, which is of great
antiquity, is situated in the Cerrillos Mountains, eighteen miles
from Santa Fé. The deposit occurs in soft trachyte, and an immense
cavity of several hundred feet in extent has been excavated by the
Indians while searching for this gem in past times. Probably some
of the fine turquoises worn by the Aztec nobles at the time of the
Spanish Conquest came from this mine. Another mine is located in the
Sierra Blanca Mountains in New Mexico, but the Navajos will not allow
strangers to visit it. Stones of transcendent beauty have been taken
from it, and handed down in the tribe from generation to generation as
heirlooms. Nothing tempts the cupidity of the Indians to dispose of
these gems, and gratitude alone causes them to part with any of these
treasures, which, like the mountaineers of Thibet, they regard with
mystical reverence. The Navajos wear them as ear-drops, by boring them
and attaching them to the ear by means of a deer sinew. Lesser stones
are pierced, then strung on sinews, and worn as necklaces. Even the
nobler Ute Indians, when stripping the ornaments of turquoise from the
ears of the conquered Navajos, value them as sacred treasures, and
refuse to part with them even for gold or silver.
All the Spanish accounts of the invasion of Mexico agree in the
great abundance of emeralds, both in the adornment of the chiefs and
nobles and also in the decoration of the gods, the thrones, and the
paraphernalia. The Mexican historian Ixtlilxochitl says the throne of
gold in the palace of Tezcuco was inlaid with turquoises and other
precious stones; that a human skull in front of it was crowned with an
immense emerald of a pyramidal form.
The great standard of the republic of Tlascala was richly ornamented
with emeralds and silver-work. The fantastic helmets of the chiefs
glittered with gold and precious stones, and their plumes were set
with emeralds. The mantle of Montezuma was held together by a clasp of
the green chalchivitl (jade), and the same precious gem, with emeralds
of uncommon size, ornamented other parts of his dress.
The Mexicans carved the obdurate jade and emerald with wonderful skill,
using, like the Peruvians, nothing but silicious powder and copper
instruments alloyed with tin. They also worked with exquisite taste
in gold and silver, and they represented Nature so faithfully and so
beautifully that the great naturalist Hernandez took many of these
objects thus portrayed for his models when describing the natural
history of the country.
When Cortez returned home he displayed five emeralds of extraordinary
size and beauty, and presented them to his bride, the niece of the
Duke de Bejar. On his famous expedition along the Pacific coast and up
the Gulf of California he was reduced to such want as to be obliged to
pawn these jewels for a time. One of them was as precious as Shylock’s
turquoise, and Gomara states that some Genoese merchants who examined
it in Seville offered forty thousand golden ducats for it. One of the
emeralds was in the form of a rose; the second in that of a horn; the
third like a fish with eyes of gold; the fourth was like a little bell,
with a fine pearl for a tongue, and it bore on its rim the following
inscription in Spanish: “Blessed is he who created thee!” The fifth,
which was the most valuable of all, was in the form of a small cup
with a foot of gold, and with four little chains of the same metal
attached to a large pearl as a button: the edge of the cup was of
gold, on which was engraved in Latin words, “Inter natos mulierum non
surrexit major.” These splendid gems are now buried deep in the sand
on the coast of Barbary, where they were lost in 1529, when Cortez was
shipwrecked with the Admiral of Castile whilst on their way to assist
Charles V. at the siege of Algiers.
Mariana, in his history of Spain, declares that Cortez had, besides
the five great historical emeralds, also two emerald vases which were
valued at 300,000 ducats. Whether these remarkable treasures were
swallowed up by the sea with the other five when the conqueror of
Mexico was shipwrecked, history does not relate.
Among the presents sent to Charles V. of Spain by the first Spanish
commissioners, Puerto Carreso and Montijo, in 1519, and also by
Montezuma through his governor Teuthlili, were the following articles,
according to the description given by Peter Martyr, the learned
Italian, who enjoyed the friendship of Columbus and the confidence of
the Spanish Court. The Chronicles of Gomara also contain the same list:
a gold necklace composed of seven pieces with 183 small emeralds set
in it, and 232 gems similar to small rubies, from which hung 27 little
bells of gold and several fine pearls; another necklace composed of
four pieces of gold with 102 red gems like small rubies, 172 emeralds,
and 10 fine pearls, with 26 little bells of gold attached.
The historians, Gomara and Martyr, mention among the prizes which fell
into the hands of Cortez, an immense emerald of a pyramidal form,
whose base was as large as the palm of the hand; and which may have
been the identical stone which crowned the skull which stood before
the throne in the palace of Tezcuco. At all events, an emerald of this
description Cortez sent as a present to the Emperor of Spain, together
with his letters of explanation, after the fall of the city of Mexico.
The letters and the various presents were intrusted to the care of
two of his confidential officers, Quinones and Avila. Arriving at the
Azores, Quinones lost his life in a brawl, and jeopardized the mission;
but Avila escaped and put to sea, to be captured shortly after by a
French privateer; and the rich spoils of the Aztecs were presented to
the King of France, instead of the Emperor of Spain. Francis I. gazed
with delight upon the splendors of the gem, and with a feeling of envy
exclaimed that he “would like to see the clause in Adam’s testament,
which entitled his brothers of Castile and Portugal to divide the New
World between them.” What has become of this historic stone?
The quantity of emeralds obtained by the Spaniards in their pillage of
Mexico was large; but it was trifling when compared with that collected
by Pizarro and his remorseless followers in the sack of Peru. Many
large and magnificent stones were then obtained by the Spaniards; but
the transcendent gem of all, called by the Peruvians the Great Mother,
and nearly as large as an ostrich egg, was concealed by the natives,
and all the efforts of Pizarro and his successors to discover it proved
unavailing.
Previous to the plunder of America by Cortez and his followers,
emeralds were not numerous in Europe; but early in the sixteenth
century they began to appear in Spain, and were soon afterwards
distributed among the powerful and wealthy throughout Europe. England
seems to have had at one time a large share of them, and perhaps many
of them were taken by her freebooters from the richly laden Spanish
galleons. In the days of Queen Elizabeth emeralds were exhibited in
profusion, if we can give credence to the chronicles and inventories of
that period.
The parure of emeralds which the Queen of Navarre bequeathed in 1572,
to her daughter Catherine, must have been of wonderful beauty and
perfection.
What is the stone lately given to Mustapha, the ex-premier of Tunis,
by the Bey, and described as the famous emerald once belonging to the
Spanish Crown? Was it one recovered from the shipwreck of Cortez, or
was it one of those given away by the Spanish rulers in the early days
of the conquest of Peru, when they imagined the emerald mines were as
broad and exhaustless as the silver beds of Potosi?
The finest emerald in Europe is said to belong to the Emperor of
Russia. It weighs but thirty karats; but it is of the most perfect
transparency, and of the most beautiful color. There are many other
fine emeralds among the imperial jewels of the Czar, some of which
are of great size and rare beauty. The ancient crown of Vladimir
glitters with four great stones of unusual brilliancy. The grand state
sceptre is surmounted by another emerald of great size. The sceptre
of Poland, which is now treasured in the Kremlin, has a long green
stone, fractured in the middle. It is not described, and may be one of
the Siberian tourmalines, some of which closely approach the emerald
in hue. The imperial orb of Russia, which is said to be of Byzantine
workmanship of the tenth century, has fifty emeralds. This fact alone
would seem to prove that emeralds were known in Europe or Asia Minor
long before the discovery of America; but, on the other hand, the
ancient crown which was taken when Kazan was subjugated in 1553,
is destitute of emeralds. And hence we are inclined to believe the
imperial orb to be of modern workmanship, especially as some of the
ancient state chairs do not exhibit emeralds among their decoration of
gems and precious stones.
The immense uncut Peruvian emerald, given by Rudolph II. to the Elector
of Saxony, is still preserved in the Green Vaults at Dresden.
Queen Elizabeth of England sent to Henry IV., the champion of the
Reformed faith, a beautiful emerald, which she herself had worn. She
gave it as a token of esteem, and reminded the gay monarch that the gem
possessed the virtue of not breaking so long as faith remains entire
and firm.
It has been stated that the Emperor Charlemagne regarded the gift
from the Empress Irene as the dearest of all his talismans. This
treasure consisted of a piece of the true cross, enclosed in a large
emerald, which was attached to a strong chain of golden links. When
his sepulchre was rifled of the treasures deposited with the deceased
monarch, this relic was removed with the rest of the jewels; and
in 1811 was presented to Napoleon by the Burghers of the city of
Aix-la-Chapelle. Bonaparte one day playfully threw it over the neck
of Queen Hortense, declaring that he had worn it on his breast in the
bloody battles of Austerlitz and Wagram, as Charlemagne had worn it on
the field of battle in the Middle Ages. Hortense wore it until the day
of her death.
The emeralds of the French Crown at the time the famous inventory was
taken in 1781, do not appear to have been of very great purity. Several
of them exhibited fine color, but had many faults. Five of the best
were valued at that time at fifty thousand francs, or ten thousand
dollars, each.
In the famous Hungarian crown, the large sapphire is surrounded with
four green stones of oblong form, whose species are unknown. It is
also a mystery how they came there, as they are not mentioned in the
inventory made of the jewel when Queen Elizabeth of Hungary pledged it
to the Emperor Frederick IV.
The Sultan of Turkey is known to possess some exquisite emeralds; and
Rambusson, a French writer on gems, declares that they are the finest
in the world. One of them is said to weigh one hundred and twenty-five
ounces, and is probably another lump of antique glass. Another of three
hundred karats weight, and of less doubtful character, is a gem of
great purity and perfection of color. It adorns the handle of a poniard.
In the museum at Florence there is a small vase carved in emerald, and
also another ornament of similar form, fashioned from a fine beryl.
The mineralogical collection at Munich boasts of some immense emeralds
which are supposed to have been obtained from Spain, and part of
her Peruvian booty. There are also some splendid specimens of uncut
emeralds in the cabinet of minerals at Vienna. The Saxon and the Papal
crowns contain very beautiful emeralds.
Probably the most beautiful specimen of the natural emerald in the
world is that presented to the renowned shrine of Loretto in Italy, by
Don Pierre Daragon, when Spanish ambassador at Rome. He was formerly
viceroy in Peru and obtained the treasure at that time. The specimen
is a mass of white limestone, crowned with great crystals of emeralds
more than an inch in diameter and of exquisite color and lustre.
The name of Emerald Isle is generally supposed to have been derived
from the ever green appearance of its shores but an antiquary asserts
that it arose from the ring which was set with “Optimo Smaragdo,” and
which Pope Adrian sent to King Henry II. as the instrument of his
investiture with the dominion of Ireland.
There is a very fine and large crystal of emerald in the museum at
Leiden, but its history is unknown.
Dhuleep Singh of India possesses a flattened crystal of three inches in
length by two in width, and half an inch in depth, which is regarded as
of great value in India. It is said to be of very fine color and with
but few imperfections.
The Duke of Devonshire’s crystal in its natural state is reckoned as
one of the finest, if not the finest single specimen in the world. It
is from Muzo in New Granada, and more than two inches in length. Its
form is that of a hexagonal crystal, and its weight is 8 oz. 18 dwts.
The color of the stone is beautiful, but several flaws impair the value
as a gem.
During the visit of the Prince of Wales to India, many fine emeralds
were exhibited to the royal party by the Hindoo nobility. At the
grand reception given them at Madras, the Prince of Virianagram wore
a bracelet composed of three splendid emeralds of very great size.
At Kandy, in Ceylon, the Buddhist priests brought forth from their
sanctuary for the inspection of the Prince, an immense emerald four
inches long by two inches in depth.
A ring cut out of a single emerald, 1¹⁄₄ inches in diameter, with the
name of the Emperor Jehangir engraved upon it, was presented to the
East India Company.
One of the most costly and difficult works in engraving upon the
emerald in modern times, was that executed by Carlo Costanzi during the
last century. Upon a table of emerald two inches in diameter, the head
of Pope Benedict and those of St. Peter and St. Paul were engraved. Two
years and a half were required by the lapidary for the execution of his
task. The engraved gem may now be seen in the treasury of St. Petronio
at Bologna.
Some very fine emeralds are said to be preserved in the royal
collection at Madrid, one quite as large as the Devonshire emerald and
without many flaws.
The Spanish freebooters, returning home from their American fights
laden with gems, did not forget the shrines of Spain in their peace
offerings. Marshal Lannes, in sacking the church of our Lady of the
Pillar, which was one of the richest in Spain, obtained an immense
booty. Madame Junot declares in her memoirs that it was not far below
five millions of francs in value.
Harsh stories are also told of the acts of vandalism of Marshal Junot
while he was military governor of Spain. It is related that when
he visited the Cathedral of Toledo, the church dignitaries freely
exhibited to him the magnificent jewels and treasures which belonged
to the church and had been accumulating for many ages. The crown of
the Virgin, which was beautifully constructed of gold and adorned with
exquisite gems, was placed in his hands for close examination. The
summit of this admirable and holy piece of human art was surmounted by
a large emerald of almost transcendent beauty. The French freebooter
examined the beautiful jewel for a few moments, and then coolly
twisted off the emerald from its setting and placed it in his pocket,
exclaiming, with a Parisian grimace, “Ceci doit être à moi.”
Finely formed crystals of emerald, when not too large, were in early
times mounted in gold and in jewelry without receiving any artificial
polish from the lapidary. Examples are often found in the tombs of
antiquity. The Princess Bariatinsky has a valuable necklace of ancient
emeralds fashioned in this manner.
The Orientals, taking advantage of the facility with which the prisms
are broken at right angles to the axis, frequently used slices of the
crystals, sometimes artificially polished, but often with the natural
planes of cleavage preserved. This practice was quite common prior to
the fifteenth century. They also adopted the unfortunate custom of
engraving them with condensed quotations from the Koran, and often
drilled holes through the centre of the stones so as to string them as
necklaces or as ear ornaments.
One of the finest gems that adorned the gorgeous harness of Runjeet
Singh was a beautiful emerald maltreated in this manner. Major Pearse
found in a Punjaub tope a reliquary formed from an emerald three inches
long and two inches thick, with the ends rounded off. It was originally
a gem of fine color, but had been bored half through its axis to
contain two finger joints of some revered Buddhist saint or petted
monkey.
The emerald has been a subject of controversy among the chemists and
mineralogists, and its character, especially the cause of its beautiful
color, is not clearly defined even at the present day. But that
distinguished chemist, Professor Lewy of Paris, seems to offer, thus
far, the most correct and plausible theory. More than ten years ago
he boldly asserted that the hue is not due to the oxide of chromium,
and with this opinion he confronted such eminent men as Vauquelin,
Klaproth, and others of high rank in the scientific world. Not
content with his researches in his laboratory in Paris, he resolutely
crossed the ocean and sought the emerald in its parent ledges in the
lofty table-lands of New Granada. Here he obtained new information
of a geological character which goes far to strengthen his position.
The experiments of M. Lewy indicate, if they do not prove, that the
coloring matter of the emerald is organic, and readily destroyed
by heat, which would not be the case if it was due to the oxide of
chromium. All my own fire-tests with the Granada emerald corroborate
the views of M. Lewy, for in every instance the gem lost its hue when
submitted to a red heat.
Nevertheless, the recent researches of Wöhler and Rose give negative
results. These experienced chemists kept an emerald at the temperature
of melted copper for an hour, and found that, although the stone had
become opaque, the color was not affected. They therefore considered
the oxide of chromium to be the coloring agent, without, however,
denying the presence of organic matter. The amount of the oxide of
chromium found by many chemists varies from one to two per cent, while
Lewy and others found it in a quantity so small as to be inappreciable,
and too minute to be weighed.
Before the ordinary blowpipe the emerald passes rapidly into a whitish
vesicular glass, and with borax it forms a fine green glass, while its
sub-species, the beryl, changes into a colorless bead; with salt of
phosphorus it slowly dissolves, leaving a silicious skeleton.
M. Lewy visited the mines at Muzo in Granada, and from the results of
his analyses, together with the fact of finding emeralds in conjunction
with the presence of fossil shells in the limestone in which they
occur, he arrived at the conclusion that they have been formed in the
wet way,--deposited from a chemical solution. He also found that when
extracted they are so soft and fragile that the largest and finest
fragments can be reduced to powder by merely rubbing them between the
fingers, and the crystals often crack and fall to pieces after being
removed from the mine, apparently from loss of water. Consequently,
when the emeralds are first extracted they are laid aside carefully for
a few days until the water is evaporated.
This statement relative to the softness of the gem and its subsequent
hardening has been met with a shout of derision from some of the
gem-seekers,--none louder than that of Barbot, the retired jeweller.
Barbot seems to forget that the rock of which his own house in Paris is
constructed undergoes the same change after being removed from the deep
quarries in the catacombs under the city.
This phenomenon is observed with many rocks. Flints acquire additional
toughness by the evaporation of water contained in them. The yellow
gneiss of Ceylon is soft when quarried, but hardens on exposure to the
atmosphere. The Egyptian verde antique marble, which was named after
Augustus and Tiberias, was easily quarried with steel implements, but
quickly hardened on exposure to the external air. The mosaic plates
of this mineral which are inlaid in the decorative work of the Tuscan
Gothic buildings are yet quite hard. The steatite of Saint Anthony’s
Falls grows harder on exposure, and other minerals, when quarried
from considerable depths, become firmer on exposure to the action of
the air. Observations of this kind led Kuhlman to investigate the
cause; and he believes that the hardening of rocks is not owing
solely to the evaporation of quarry-water, but that it depends upon
the tendency which all earthy matters possess to undergo a spontaneous
crystallization by slow desiccation, which commences the moment the
rock is exposed to the air.
The coloring matter of the emerald seems to be derived from the
decomposition of the remains of animals who have lived in a bygone age,
and whose remains are now found fossilized in the rock which forms the
matrix of the gem. This rock in Granada is a black limestone, with
white veins containing ammonites. Specimens of these rocks, exhibiting
fragments of emeralds _in situ_ and also ammonites, are to be seen in
the mineralogical gallery of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Lewy
believes that the beautiful tint of these gems is produced by an
organic substance, which he considers to be a carburet of hydrogen,
similar to that called chlorophyll, which constitutes the coloring
matter of the leaves of plants; and he has shown that the emeralds of
the darkest hue, which contain the greatest amount of organic matter,
lose their color completely at a low red heat, and become opaque and
white; while minerals and pastes which are well known to be colored by
chromium, like the green garnets (the lime-chrome garnets) of Siberia,
are unchanged in hue by the action of heat.
At the present time the composition of the emerald is supposed to be
a silicate of alumina and glucina, with traces of organic matter and
also other earths and oxides; but silica, alumina, and glucina are the
principal component parts. It resembles quartz in some of its physical
properties, having a specific gravity of 2.6 to 2.7, and a refractive
energy of 1.58, but its degree of hardness is slightly greater, ranging
from 7.5 to 8.0, while that of quartz is but 7.0.
The Peruvians maintain that the emerald ripens and deepens in color
after having been mined and exposed to the air and light. Whether
this assertion has been corroborated or not we cannot yet say; but it
is a well-substantiated fact that some minerals do gain in color and
hardness on exposure, and equally well proved that many others lose
their tints very perceptibly. Strange to say, the cystine calculi
undergo a similar change of color, and assume a fine greenish-blue tint
when exposed to the light, changing from a fawn color. The specimens
in Guy’s Museum described by Dr. Marcet in 1817 were of a pale
brown, but according to the report of Golding Bird they now resemble
the green sulphate of iron. Dr. Peter observed the same mysterious
change of color in the two cystine calculi preserved in the museum of
Transylvania University, and noted the fact that the change takes place
on the side exposed to the light.
But one locality thus far has been discovered in the United States or
even in North America, and this occurs in North Carolina. For several
years previous to the year 1880, Mr. J. A. Stephenson, a collector of
minerals, had obtained in Alexander County a number of beryls and
crystals of transparent minerals which had the shape of beryl with a
tint of the emerald hue, also other crystals of acicular form which
exhibited the true color of the finest Granada specimens of emeralds.
Some of these minerals were shown in 1880 to William E. Hidden, a
young naturalist then engaged in searching the mineral belts of North
and South Carolina and Georgia for rare minerals. The beauty of these
specimens led the young enthusiast to make a thorough search for the
parent ledge; and, after a few weeks of earnest labor in cutting deep
ditches in the soil near the spot where a number of crystals had been
found, he was rewarded with the discovery of the original deposit in
a rock of gneiss. In this rock, in which felspar preponderates, he
found implanted in open pockets and lenticular fissures crystals of
emeralds, quartz, rutile, monazite, beryl, and also many crystals
of long and slender shapes which appeared to be diopside, but which
exhibited colors of white, yellow, and green of the most beautiful
emerald hues. The mineral which appeared to be diopside was submitted
to the examination of the distinguished chemist, J. Lawrence Smith,
who soon pronounced it to be a new form of spodumene, and named it
Hiddenite after the young explorer. Since then the explorations have
been continued, and have yielded many very beautiful specimens of
both the emerald and the hiddenite. At the depth of thirty-three feet
below the surface of the rock several pockets were discovered which
yielded some beautiful emeralds and hiddenites. They occurred at the
bottom of the pockets, just as the finest crystals of tourmaline are
found in the cavities of the granite ledges at Mount Mica in Maine.
Twelve of these pockets were found within an area of forty feet square,
extending to thirty feet in depth. The largest crystal of emerald found
was more than three inches in length and three quarters of an inch in
breadth, but its color, although of the true emerald hue, is, however,
rather faint. Some of the smaller crystals are of much deeper tint,
and resemble the pure specimens from Granada. But the most interesting
treasures of the mineral kingdom revealed by this exploration were
the crystals which analysis proved to be composed of a silicate of
alumina and lithia, otherwise known as spodumene. Some of these
crystals were white or light yellow, others were of a rich yellow hue
shading into brown, while others exhibited the purest prismatic green
of various depths of hue. In some of the green crystals the color has
been uniform, while in others it is more intense at one end of their
extremities.
Quite a number of the crystals and their fragments have been cut and
polished into gems which rival, by their lustre and beauty of color,
the best of the South American emeralds. On account of their extreme
rarity, as well as their beauty, they have been sought for by amateurs,
and have commanded high prices. As the field of deposit thus far known
is quite limited, we fear that the yield of this charming mineral will
not meet even the demands of science.
Professor Cleaveland, who was one of the best authorities of his day,
maintained more than half a century ago that emeralds which exhibited a
lively and beautiful green hue were found in blasting a canal through
a ledge of graphic granite in the town of Topsham in Maine. Several
of the crystals presented so pure, uniform, and rich a green, that he
ventured to pronounce them precious emeralds. But to-day we are unable
to verify the assertion, or point to a single specimen similar in hue
to the emerald from the above-mentioned locality.
The nearest approach to the emerald in color, with the exception
of the incomparable green tourmalines from Maine, and the emeralds
and hiddenites of North Carolina, are the beryls of North and South
Royalston, in the State of Massachusetts. These beautiful stones
exhibit the physical characteristics of emeralds, with the exception
of the color, in which they differ very perceptibly. But to appreciate
fully the difference in hue we must compare the two gems. Then the
lively green of the beryl fades away before the overpowering hue of the
emerald, whose rich prismatic green may be taken as the purest type of
that color known to the chemist or the painter.
Several years ago we visited the localities in Massachusetts which were
famous in the days of Hitchcock and Webster. We found that the beryls
occurred in a very coarse granite, where the quartz appeared in masses
and the felspar in huge crystals. These also occur in finer granite,
and exhibit no indications of veins or connection with each other.
They are few in number, and are soon exhausted by blasting, being
generally very superficial. After removing several tons of the rock at
the locality at North Royalston, where the beryls appear on the summit
of the loftiest hill, our labors were at length rewarded with two
beautiful crystals. One of them was a fine prism an inch in diameter,
of perfect transparency and of a deep sea-green color, which, however,
is far from being similar to the transcendent hue of the Granada
emeralds, which exhibit an excess of neither blue nor yellow. The other
was yellowish-green, resembling the chrysoberyls of Brazil.
Other but imperfect crystals were brought to light, some fragments
of which exhibited the deepest golden tints of the topaz, and others
the tints of the sherry-wine colored topazes of Siberia. Magnificent
crystals have been found in these localities in times long past, and
from the fragments and sections of crystals found in the _débris_ of
early explorations, we observed the wide range of color, and the deep
longitudinal striæ which characterize the renowned beryls from the
Altai Mountains, in Siberia. Lively sea and grass green, light and deep
yellow, also blue crystals of various shades, have been found here.
At the quarries on Rollestone Mountain in Fitchburg, beryls of a
rich golden color have been blasted out. Some of these approach the
chrysoberyl and topaz in hardness and hue. Others so closely resemble
the yellow diamond that they may readily be taken for that superior
gem. The refractive power of these yellow stones is remarkable; and the
goniometer will probably reveal a higher index than is accorded to all
the varieties of beryl by the learned Abbé Haüy.
Beautiful transparent beryls have been found among the granite hills of
Oxford County in Maine; and the late Governor Lincoln, nearly half a
century ago, possessed a splendid crystal, quite three inches in length
and of great purity and brilliancy. Some very beautiful transparent
blue crystals of beryl have recently been found in the western part of
Oxford County, Maine, which have yielded gems of considerable value.
Probably active search for this mineral in this region will bring to
light some charming specimens.
New Hampshire is famous for its gigantic beryls; and the localities
of Acworth and Grafton have yielded some enormous crystals. One was
removed by Mr. Alger, of more than a ton in weight; and a still larger
one was observed by Mr. Hubbard, who estimated its weight at two
and one half tons. These gross specimens are generally opaque, with
patches of translucent or even transparent mineral on their sides.
The regularity of their crystalline forms is also much impaired or
distorted.
At Haddam, in Connecticut, beautiful crystals of beryl have been
discovered; and one of these of fine green color, an inch in diameter
and several inches in length, was preserved in the cabinet of Colonel
Gibbs. Professor Silliman possessed another fine one, seven inches in
length.
The mountains in Colorado have yielded some fine specimens. But the
finest of the beryl species come from Russia. In the Ural Mountains
the crystals are small, but of fine color; in the Altai Mountains they
are very large and of a greenish-blue; but in the granitic ledges of
Odon Tchelon in Daouria, on the frontier of China, they are found in
the greatest perfection. They occur on the summit of the mountain
in irregular veins of micaceous and white indurated clay, and are
greenish-yellow, pure pale-green, greenish-blue, and sky-blue. The
chief matrix of the beryl all over the world is graphic granite, but it
may occur in other rocks. The light green stones of Limoges, in France,
appear in a vein of quartz traversing granite. At Royalston we observed
them to spring seemingly from the felspar and project into smoky
quartz, becoming more transparent as they advanced into the harder
stone.
The beryl possesses the same crystalline form and specific gravity
as the emerald, but its hardness, especially in the blue and white
varieties, is sometimes greater. They are both silicates of alumina,
and the only perceptible difference in the two stones is in the
color. Cleaveland thought that as the emerald and beryl had the same
essential characters, they might gradually pass into each other; and
Klaproth, finding the oxides of both chrome and iron in one specimen,
was led to take the same view. The crystals of true emerald are almost
always small, with the exception of those found in the Wald district
in Siberia, whilst those of the beryl vary from a few grains to more
than a ton in weight. The crystals of both are almost invariably
regular hexahedral prisms, sometimes slightly modified. Those of the
beryl we sometimes find quite flat, as though they had been compressed
by force; then again they are acicular and of extraordinary length,
considering their slender diameter. Sometimes their lateral faces are
longitudinally striated, and as deeply as the tourmaline, so that the
edges of the prism are rendered indistinct. Other crystals are curved,
and some perforated in the axis like the tourmaline, so as to contain
other minerals. Sometimes they are articulated like the pillars of
basalt, and separated at some distance by the intervening quartz. These
modified forms give rise to curious speculations as to their formation
and origin. If we admit the action of fire (which is improbable), then
the separation may be easily explained; but if we insist that they were
deposited in the wet way and by slow process, how can we account for
the dislocation? “By electricity,” whispers a friend,--“by telluric
magnetism, that wonderful unexplained and mysterious force which has
caused the grand geological changes of the globe, and is still at work.”
Sometimes the crystals of beryl are of two distinct colors, but
generally they are of one color, often shading into white at either
extremity. They may exhibit the richest golden-yellow, or a light
cerulean blue, or a clear sea-green like those described by Pliny, now
called aqua-marines. “Qui viridatem puri maris imitantur.”
One distinction between beryl and quartz is afforded by the appearance
of its fracture. A crystal of beryl breaks into smooth planes, the
faces of which are at right angles to the axis of the prism; while the
fracture of the surface of broken quartz is invariably conchoidal.
Blue beryls were highly prized by the ancients. Beautiful specimens
are found in the glens of the Mourne Mountains in Ireland. But finer
gems are brought from the granite district of Nertschinsk, in Siberia,
and also from various localities in the Uralian and Altaian Mountains,
where the Romans were supposed to have obtained them in early times.
Its name is derived from the Persian “belur,” which the Romans changed
into “beryllus.” Sometimes it occurs of a rose color. A few have
been found at Elba and one at Haddam by Colonel Gibbs. One of the
most beautiful specimens of beryl known was discovered in Siberia.
It consisted of a magnificent crystal of smoky quartz, in the base
of which appeared several fine crystals of beryl, of an exquisite
yellowish-green and greenish-blue.
In the princely collection of Mr. Vaux, of Philadelphia, may be seen a
crystal of beryl from the Mourne Mountains of Ireland, two inches in
length by five eighths of an inch in diameter. It is of a celestial
blue color, much deeper in hue at one extremity than at the other. But
the gem of this collection among the beryls is a specimen purchased
in Russia, in 1875. It is a six-sided prism nine inches in length and
six inches in circumference. The color is of a rich oily green, and
several inches of its upper extremity is transparent, while the rest
is translucent. It rests upon a mass of granite, and is a specimen of
extraordinary size and beauty.
Mr. Clay of the same city has a remarkable prism of Siberian beryl two
inches in diameter, which exhibits a tint of celestial blue externally
but which appears of a decided green hue in its interior.
At the Centennial Exhibition Brazil exhibited a fine crystal of a warm
celadine green color. Russia displayed some very beautiful specimens of
the yellow, green, and blue beryls from Siberia. Some very beautiful
crystals of emerald, both solitary and fixed in the matrix, were also
exhibited from the same country.
Several of the mineralogical cabinets of Europe possess fine suites
of the emerald and beryl in a great variety of forms and degrees of
perfection. Those of the École des Mines at St. Petersburg, the Jardin
des Plantes at Paris, and the British Museum, are of very great
commercial value and mineralogical interest.
At the French Exposition in 1867, the celebrated jeweller, Froment
Meurice, exhibited a beautiful specimen of modern glyptic art cut in
beryl. It comprised the bust of the Emperor Napoleon III. carved in
pure aqua-marine. The image was placed upon a miniature pedestal of
blood-red jasper, before which the imperial eagle spread his wings and
perched upon a base of red jasper, which was studded with stars of
topazes, bosses of pearls, and bordered with roses formed of minute
amethysts.
A beautiful blue stone adorns the summit of the crown of England, and
has been described as a sapphire of unusual purity. But mineralogists
affirm, that the gem is a blue beryl, and it is surmised by others that
it is the identical and famous stone which Edward the Confessor wore
in a ring. It is of a lovely color, oval in form, and measures 2¹⁄₁₀
inches in length by 1¹⁄₂ in width, and 1¹⁄₅ in depth.
A superb aqua-marine formerly adorned the tiara of Pope Julius II.
and was considered as one of the most celebrated in the world,
notwithstanding it exhibited a slight flaw. This gem, which was of
an exquisite sea-green color, was 2¹⁄₁₀ inches in length and 2²⁄₅ in
depth. After having been kept in the Museum of Natural History in Paris
for more than three hundred years, Napoleon presented it to Pope Pius
VII.
The Asiatics, and especially the Turkish officers, prize the prisms of
beryl as handles to their scimetars and daggers. This fondness for
decoration of sword-blades and arms is by no means confined to the
soldiers of the East. The officers of Napoleon’s armies exhibited the
same taste. Murat adorned the hilt of his sword with one of the finest
beryls ever seen in Europe. Another famous aqua-marine formed the
handle of the sword of the poet Moncrif, who, like another celebrated
swordsman, the painter Caravaggio, compelled admiration of his works at
the point of his sword. This blood-stained gem bore as inscription the
epitomized history of the author, a quotation from the poet Theophile,
“Tous mes jours sont des Mardis-gras.”
One of the most beautiful beryls known is that purchased by the English
banker, Mr. Hope, and placed in his collection of gems. It weighs six
and one half ounces, and cost its princely owner nearly twenty-five
hundred dollars. It is reported to have come from the mine of Cangazum,
in the district of Coimbatoor in India, a locality which has been long
famous for its fine beryls.
The most magnificent aqua-marine described in history is that belonging
to Dom Pedro. It was found in the diamond districts of Minas Geraes,
in Brazil. In form and size it resembles the head of a calf. Only on
one side does it preserve any trace of a crystalline form; the rest
is water-worn. It is said to be of a fine color, without a flaw, and
perfectly transparent.
For many ages the shrine of the Abbey of St. Denys, at Paris, received
rare and valuable gems as offerings; and at the time of the French
Revolution the collection had become very valuable. The iconoclasts
ordered it to be separated and sold. It brought 80,000 francs, and
was scattered along the commercial highways of the world, never again
to be reunited. One of the finest aqua-marines, mounted in sapphires
and pearls, and engraved with the portrait of Julia, the daughter of
Titus, was fortunately rescued, and may now be seen in the collection
of the National Library of France. This splendid gem is of the unusual
magnitude of 2¹⁄₂ inches by 2¹⁄₈. For quite a thousand years it formed
a part of a golden reliquary celebrated as “l’escrain de Charlemagne.”
History relates that it was presented by the great Emperor before his
death to the Abbey of St. Denys. This is one of the finest specimens of
an ancient intaglio carved upon beryl that has survived the destructive
pillage of armies and the wreck of time since the early days of the
Roman Empire. It is said that specimens of antique engraving upon this
gem are about as rare as those carved upon the emerald, and their
rarity is believed to be due to their great value, as well as to their
scarcity in the gem markets in ancient times.
Several royal relics of the lower Empire containing emeralds are still
preserved, to attest the use of the gem in those days as well as the
esteem in which it was held. The famous Iron Crown of Lombardy, made
perhaps before the sixth century, contains several emeralds. This
renowned relic is simply a circlet of gold, covering an iron nail
of the cross, beaten out thin. The crown of the queen of one of the
Gothic kings of Spain, of the seventh century, was recently exhumed
at Toledo, and also exhibits emeralds among other gems. And there are
other examples to prove the use of the emerald in mediæval times for
ornamental purposes.
No other gem has been counterfeited with such perfection as the
emerald; and in fact it is utterly impossible to distinguish the
artificial from the real gems by the aid of the eye alone; even the
little flaws, which lull the suspicions of the inexperienced, are
easily produced by a dexterous blow from the mallet of the skilled
artisan. Not only emeralds, but most of the gems and precious stones,
are now imitated with such consummate skill as to deceive the eye; and
none but experts are aware of the extent to which these fictitious gems
are worn in fashionable society, for oftentimes the wearers themselves
imagine that they possess the real stones. There is not one in a
hundred jewellers who is acquainted with the physical properties of the
gems; and very few can distinguish the diamond from the white zircon or
the white topaz, the emerald from the tourmaline of similar hue, the
sapphire from iolite, or the topaz from the Bohemian yellow quartz.
Jewellers are governed generally by sight, which they believe to be
infallible, whilst hardness and specific gravity are the only sure
tests.
Artificial gems, rivalling in beauty of color the most brilliant and
delicately tinted of the productions of Nature, are now made at Paris
and in other European cities. The establishments at Septmoncel in the
Jura alone employed a thousand persons, and fabulous quantities of the
glittering pastes were made there and sent to all parts of the world.
A fine specimen of prase, when cut, affords a fair imitation of
the emerald. The green fluor-spar which Haüy called “emeraude de
Carthagène” may also be substituted, but the application of the file
detects the trick with ease. Some of the green tourmalines approach the
emeralds in hue very closely, and by artificial light it is impossible
to distinguish them from each other. Fragments of quartz may be stained
by being steeped in green-colored tinctures. The Greeks stained quartz
so like the real gem, that Pliny exclaimed against the fraud, while
declining to tell how it was done. The Ancona rubies at the present day
are made by plunging quartz into a hot tincture of cochineal, which
penetrates the minute fissures of the rock.
But notwithstanding the high art reached by modern glass-makers, they
are yet far behind the ancients in imitating the emerald in point of
hardness and lustre. Many emerald pastes of Roman times still extant
are with difficulty distinguished from the real gem, so much harder and
more lustrous are they than modern glass. The ancient Phœnician remains
found in the island of Sardinia by Cavalier Cara, in 1856, show fine
color in their enamels and glass-works. The green pigment brought home
from the ruins of Thebes by Mr. Wilkinson, was shown by Dr. Ure to
consist of blue glass in powder, with yellow ochre and colorless glass.
From Greek inscriptions dating from the period of the Peloponnesian
war, we learn that there were signets of colored glass among the gems
in the treasury of the Parthenon.
Of all the emerald imitations that have descended to us from antiquity,
none are more remarkable, none more interesting to the antiquary and
historian, than the famous Sacro Catino of the cathedral of Genoa. This
celebrated relic is a glass dish, or patera, fourteen inches in width,
five inches in depth, and of the richest transparent green color,
though disfigured by several flaws. It was bestowed upon the Republic
of Genoa by the Crusaders, after the capture of Cæsarea in 1101, and
was regarded as an equivalent for a large sum of money due from the
Christian army. It was traditionally believed to have been presented
to King Solomon by the Queen of Sheba, and afterward preserved in the
Temple; and some accounts relate that it was used by Christ at the
institution of the Lord’s supper. The Genoese received it with so
much veneration and faith, that twelve nobles were appointed to guard
it, and it was exhibited but once a year, when a priest held it up in
his hand to the view of the passing throng. The State, in 1319, in a
time of pressing need, pawned the holy relic for 1,200 marks of gold
($200,000), and redeemed it with a promptness which proved its belief
in the reality of the material, as well as in its sanctity. And it
is also related that the Jews, during a period of fifty years, lent
the Republic 4,000,000 francs, holding the sacred relic as a pledge
of security. Seven hundred years passed away, when Napoleon came; and
as he swept down over Italy, gathering her art treasures, he ordered
the “Holy Grail” to be conveyed to Paris. It was deposited in the
Cabinet of Antiquities in the Imperial Library, and the mineralogists
quickly discovered it to be glass. It is due to the memory of Condamine
to state that he was the first to doubt the material of the Sacro
Catino; for, when examining it by lamplight in 1757, in the presence
of the Princes Corsini, he observed none of the cracks, clouds, and
specks common to emeralds, but detected little bubbles of air. In
1815, the Allies ordered its return to the cathedral of Genoa. During
this journey the beautiful relic was broken; but its fragments were
restored by a skilful artisan, and it is now supported upon a tripod,
the fragments being held together by a band of gold filigree. This
remarkable object of antiquity, which is of extraordinary beauty of
material and workmanship, furnishes a theme over which the antiquaries
love to muse and wrangle.
Another of the antique monster emeralds, weighing twenty-nine
pounds, was presented to the abbey of Reichenau, near Constance, by
Charlemagne. Beckman has also detected this precious relic to be
glass. And probably the great emerald of two pounds weight brought home
from the Holy Land by one of the dukes of Austria, and now deposited in
the collection at Vienna, is of the same material. Another, more than
eight inches long, was preserved in the chapel of St. Wenceslaus at
Prague. The hardness of our glass is yet far inferior to that of the
ancients; and even the ruby lustre of the potters of Umbria, which was
so precious to the _dilettanti_ of the Cinque Cento period, has not
been recovered.
The enormous emerald dishes and statues and obelisks described
by Herodotus, Theophrastus, Appian, and others were undoubtedly
constructed of glass, and exhibited to the ignorant multitudes as
formed of monster emeralds.
One of the most curious of these impositions was the sculptured lion
on the tomb of Hermias on the island of Cyprus, which had emerald eyes
which shone so brightly as to frighten away the fish in the sea near by.
The wonderful “Table of Solomon” which formed a part of Alaric’s Roman
spoils, and was taken by his Goths to Spain, where it was captured by
the Arab invaders and afterwards sent to Damascus, was probably another
specimen of the ingenuity of the glass-workers of Alexandria or Tyre.
It is described by one of the Arabian historians as of a marvellous
beauty, being formed of a single slab of solid emerald, encircled with
rows of pearls, and supported on many feet composed of gems and gold.
The famous Barberini vase, found in one of the tombs of the Roman
emperors, and exhibiting white figures upon a dark-blue ground, was
long thought to be carved from some variety of sardonyx, but proved
in modern times to be of hard antique glass. Of similar material
the unique ewer in the Brescian Museum and the vases in the Palace
Borbonico are composed, and all of these are of great antiquity. The
sapphire cup of Theolinda, the once celebrated Queen of Lombardy, now
preserved in the Cathedral at Monza, is glass.
There are but very few stones whose colors resemble that of the
emerald, and therefore frauds are easily detected. A well-selected
specimen of prase may be passed as an inferior emerald, as well as
the translucent stones cut from the Chinese jade; but their want of
transparency offers a serious objection to them as a gem. The green
tourmaline, when it approaches the emerald in hue, is of equal value.
The green zircon and the green spinel would be far superior to the
emerald in brilliancy, and therefore of greater value to the amateur.
The chrome-green garnet of Hungary and the emerald-green garnet of
Siberia would command a high price, if of pure color, as they surpass
the glucina emerald in eclat and are moreover exceedingly rare. The
peridot may assume the exact hue of the Granada emerald. The glass
imitations are almost _fac-similes_ in hue, and are far superior in
brilliancy to the mineral itself; but their softness, which readily
yields to the file, betrays their nature without difficulty.
Since the time of the Spanish Conquest, New Granada has furnished the
world with the most of its emeralds. The most famous mines are at
Muzo, in the valley of Tunca, between the mountains of New Granada
and Popayan, about seventy-five miles from Santa Fé de Bogota, where
every rock, it is said, contains an emerald. At present the supply of
emeralds is very limited, owing to restrictions on trade, and want of
capital and energy in mining operations.
Blue as well as green emeralds are found in the Cordillera of the
Cubillan. The Esmeraldas mines in Equador are said to have been worked
successfully at one period by the Jesuits. The Peruvians obtained many
emeralds from the barren district of Atacama, and in the times of the
Conquest there were quarries on the River of Emeralds near Barbacoas.
Emeralds of a poor quality are found at Limoges in France, and also in
Norway. In some of the felspar quarries in Finland they occur in large
thick crystals, several feet in thickness, of a fine color, but not
transparent.
Emeralds are found in Siberia, and some of the localities may have
furnished to the ancients the Scythian gems which Pliny and others
mention. In the Wald district magnificent crystals have been found
embedded in mica-slate. One of these--a twin-crystal, now in the
imperial cabinet at St. Petersburg--is seven inches long, four inches
broad, and weighs four and a half pounds. There is another mass in the
same collection which measures fourteen inches long by twelve broad
and five thick, weighing sixteen and three-quarter pounds troy. This
group shows twenty crystals from a half inch to five inches long, and
from one to two inches broad. They were discovered by a peasant cutting
wood near the summit of the mountain. His eye was attracted by the
lustrous sparkling amongst the decomposed mica where the ground had
been exposed by the uprooting of a tree by the violence of the wind. He
collected a number of the crystals, and brought them to Katharineburg
and showed them to M. Kokawin, who recognized them and sent them to
St. Petersburg, where they were critically examined by Van Worth and
pronounced to be emeralds. One of these crystals was presented by the
Emperor to Humboldt when he visited St. Petersburg, and it is now
deposited in the Berlin collection. Quite a number of emeralds are
now brought from the Siberian localities, and it is believed that
enterprise and capital would produce a large supply of the gem.
Near Salsberg, in the Tyrol, the emerald occurs in a mica-slate which
appears on the face of a very steep precipice difficult of access,
and about 8,700 feet above the sea-level. They are of good color, but
much impaired in their transparency by foreign matter and imperfect
crystallization. Some of the finest stones yielded by this locality
were exhibited as cabinet specimens by the Emperor of Russia at the
Paris Exposition.
The supply of emeralds from South America is very limited, and
may be ascribed to want of skilful mining, as well as to climate,
the political condition of the country, and the indolence of its
inhabitants. The localities cannot be exhausted, for they are too
numerous and extensive. The elevated regions in Granada admit of
scientific exploration by Europeans, and at the present day the
only emerald-mining operations conducted in South America have been
prosecuted near Santa Fé de Bogota by a French company, which has paid
the Government $14,000 yearly for the right of mining, all the emeralds
obtained being sent to Paris to be cut by the lapidaries of that city.
In the Atacama districts, and along the banks of the River of Emeralds,
the physical obstructions are difficult to overcome; and pestilential
diseases of malignant character forbid the long sojourn of the
European. Yet the introduction of Chinese labor may prove successful
and highly remunerative, since the coolie reared among the jungles and
rice-swamps of Southern China is quite as exempt from malarial fevers
as the negro.
Hassaurek was surprised not to find emeralds for sale at Guayaquil,
as they had been found in abundance in Equador at the time of the
Conquest. The Alcalde of the region around the River Bechile gave
Stephenson, the traveller, three emeralds which were found in the sands
at the mouth of the river.
Concerning the emerald mines whence the ancients drew their supplies
of gems, there remains but little positive information. They were
undoubtedly established in Arabia, Africa, and Scythia, but all record
of them is lost. As regards the Egyptian mines, modern travellers have
proved their existence. At the ancient mines at Gebel Zabara, which
were worked in the time of the Ptolemies, M. Callaud found the tools of
the miners as they had left them, and also many inferior emeralds among
the _débris_ of the pits. Mehemet Ali attempted to reopen them, but was
unsuccessful, as the matrix of the gem proved to be exhausted. This
discovery establishes the truth of Pliny’s remark concerning some of
the localities of the emerald. They are the same gems whose beauty was
praised by the Persian poets. We have no evidence of ancient mines of
emeralds in Asia; and Tavernier, who sought in vain to discover them,
ventured to state that he believed that some of the emeralds he saw in
India must have come from Peru, by way of the Philippine Islands, long
before the Conquest by the Spaniards.
Other mines undoubtedly were worked in Africa; and we know that in the
time of Justinian, the Abyssinians searched the coast, even as far as
the equator. The African emeralds were not of the first quality; and at
a later period of Roman history the Scythian emeralds were reckoned as
the first in value and beauty, the Bactrian second, while the African
were classed as third. About the fourth century the throne of the White
Huns was famous for the splendid Scythian emeralds which adorned it.
The price of the emerald has no fixed and extended scale, like that
of the diamond, and the fluctuations of its value during the past
three centuries form an interesting chapter in the history of gems.
In the time of Dutens (1777) the price of small stones of the first
quality was one louis the karat; one and a half karats, five louis;
two karats, ten louis; and beyond this weight no rule of value could
be established. In De Boot’s day (1600) emeralds were so plenty as
to be worth only a quarter as much as the diamond. The markets were
glutted with the frequent importations from Peru, and thirteen years
before the above-mentioned period one vessel brought from South America
two hundred and three pounds of fine emeralds, worth at the present
valuation more than seven millions of dollars. At the beginning
of this century, according to Caire, they were worth no more than
twenty-four francs (or about five dollars) the karat, and for a long
time antecedent to 1850, they were valued at only $15 the karat.
Since this period they have become very rare, and their valuation has
advanced enormously. In fact, the value of the emerald now exceeds that
of the diamond, and is rapidly approaching the ratio fixed by Benvenuto
Cellini in the middle of the sixteenth century, which rated the emerald
at four times, and the ruby at eight times, the value of the diamond.
Fine stones (the emerald is exceedingly liable to flaw, the beryl is
more free, and the green sapphire is rarely impaired by fissures or
cracks) of one karat in weight are worth at the present day $200 or
more. Fine gems of two karats weight will command $500; while larger
stones are sold at extravagant prices.
Most of our aqua-marines come from Brazil and Siberia, and small stones
are sold at trifling prices. Some of them, however, when perfect and
of fine color, command fabulous sums. The superb little beryl found at
Mouzzinskaia is valued by the Russians at the enormous sum of $120,000,
although the crystal weighs but little more than one ounce. Another
rough prism preserved in the Museum at Paris, and weighing less than
one hundred grains, has received the tempting offer of 15,000 francs.
THE OPAL.
“What radiant changes strike the astonished sight!
What glowing hues of mingled shade and light!”
FALCONER.
THE OPAL.
What is the composition of this wonderful stone, which displays such
wondrous hues? What is the nature of this remarkable mineral, which
seems to concentrate within its substance all the glories of the
rainbow, and which rivals in its hue the finest gem of the mineral
world? The Turk believes that it falls from heaven in the lightning’s
flash, and it is often regretted by the mineralogist that the theory
cannot be sustained. Surely a gem so beautiful, so delicate and so
pure ought to be of celestial origin, and free from the impurities and
imperfections of the earth. Alas, we have but one precious stone that
comes to us from the far-off region of celestial space,--olivine,--and
that as yet has been found only in minute grains.
But if we cannot ascribe the origin of our beautiful gems directly to
the stars and other bodies in space, we may affirm that their birth or
development in the bosom of our earth may be due in a great measure to
extra-terrestrial influences. And as regards the precious opal, if we
cannot prove it of divine origin, we can with truth affirm that there
is a deep mystery connected with the mineral both in its composition
and its physical properties. The liberal-minded physicist to-day finds
himself somewhat baffled when attempting to explain the phenomena of
the gem in accordance with our imperfect knowledge of natural laws.
Apparently it is nothing more than hydrated silica or quartz; but it is
of a lower specific gravity, and some of its varieties are so tender
and delicate in structure as to be at the caprice of the atmosphere.
It has been maintained that the peculiarities of the opal depend in
a great measure upon the quantity of water it contained, and which,
mixed mechanically with the silica, varies from three to twenty per
cent. But some chemists who have interested themselves in the study
of the composition of the mineral do not regard the presence of water
as absolutely essential for the development of the varied flashes of
color. We will only state in this brief sketch that there is certainly
a mystery connected with the part water plays in producing and
perfecting the beauty of the opal. This quantity or factor of water
varies greatly in the different varieties of opal. Apparently when heat
is applied to the mineral the brilliancy of its hues is increased,
either from evaporation of its water or some structural change. But
if the degree of heat is too great, or its application too prolonged,
the hues of the opal vanish and cannot be recalled by human skill. The
same results from the effects of heat may be noticed in other gems
of greater density and hardness, as the emerald, the topaz, and the
tourmaline. It has been maintained that a faded opal may be restored to
beauty by immersion for a time in water, with the view of restoring the
fancied loss by evaporation; but we fear that the experimentalist will
be often disappointed with his results. However, there is one singular
variety of the mineral known as the hydrophane, which does not exhibit
colors until after it has been immersed for a time in water, and when
removed from its bath and becomes dry again its hues vanish. Therefore,
we may justly affirm that there is a mystery in connection with the
influence of water in producing the color of the opal. The optical
properties of this mineral do not afford decisive distinction, and it
never crystallizes in regular and definite form like quartz, neither
does it exhibit a trace of double refraction.
We will say no more at present concerning the composition of this
interesting substance except to allude briefly to the experiment of
Damour, who found the opal to turn black when sulphuric acid was
applied to it; hence he inferred that the substance contained some
organic matter, but precisely what he could not determine, although
he suspected the presence of bituminous matter. Similar foreign
bodies have been detected in many other precious stones. In fact,
many of our gems are impaired by impurities; and so generally, that
a stone of absolute purity is of rare occurrence. Even the diamond,
which is regarded as the emblem of light and purity, is reckoned by
microscopists as one of the foulest of gems.
Werner divided the opal into four sub-species, and Jameson has
separated it into seven varieties. The principal divisions, however,
may be classed as follows: precious or noble opal, presenting refulgent
tints; fire opal, with fire-like reflections; girasole, with reddish
reflections when exposed to the sunlight; common opal, translucent
and without reflections; wood opal or petrified opal, possessing the
characters of common opal; hyalite, clear and colorless as glass.
There is another kind of opal which we have never seen, but which is
described as the asteriated opal. We are not able to give a minute
description of its appearance or draw a comparison between it and that
of asteriated quartz, sapphire, or garnet. It is said to display great
beams of light which undulate over its surface like the flashings of
lightning piercing the storm cloud. The variety known as the moss opal
sometimes displays in its interior dendritic crystallization of a dark
substance resembling delicate mosses, ferns, or trees. And the gleam of
the colored rays flashing amidst these miniature forests and groups of
foliage often present charming effects.
The grand characteristic which gives to the gem its value and renown is
the wonderful play of the colored reflections which it displays, and
which embrace all of the prismatic tints of the solar spectrum. As we
view its vivid rainbow flashes when the gem is held in the sunlight,
we must admit it to be the most magnificent of gems, and join with the
Latin philosopher, who remarked that it was made up of the glories
of the most precious stones. For as the light falls upon it in varied
directions, its reflections recall the lively green of the emerald, or
the tender blue of the sapphire, the rich yellow of the topaz, or the
gorgeous red of the ruby.
This mineral has not only been an object of delight to the fashionable
world, but it has also been a wonder and a perplexity to the
philosophers. In admiring its beauties and attempting to account for
its phenomena, Newton was led to the series of experiments and to that
train of sublime reasoning that gave to science the most brilliant
and extraordinary of his discoveries. The colored refractions of the
gem reminded the philosopher of the iridescence of the soap-bubble,
and the soap-bubble suggested the undulatory theory of light. Newton,
after long study of the opal, is said to have declared that its hues
were produced by the refractions and reflections of light at the
numerous minute fissures which traverse the stone in all directions.
But this theory is denied by many at the present day, and especially by
Mohrs, who maintains that the thin films of air filling the cavities
of the stone would produce iridescence only. Other opticians believe
the colored reflections to be due to laminæ formed by incipient
crystallization, as seen in the equally remarkable mineral known as
labradorite. Babinet believes the brilliant colors of the opal to be
due to the narrow fissures in the stone, like those produced in the
partial fracture of glass or quartz. He also refers for example to
the colors of thin transparent plates, and believes that the colors
of flowers are produced in like manner from the overlaying of the
transparent tissues of which the petals are composed. This, then,
according to the French philosopher, is the secret of the gorgeous
hues of vegetation from their first development to the period of their
final decay. The diamond, when cut in a regular form, displays the most
magnificent flashes of the prismatic hues by artificial light; and
although the mineral is composed of an infinite number of laminæ, no
one maintains the theory that the color is produced by thin films of
air like those in the soap-bubble. We also may observe the same hues
sparkling among the dew-drops in the morning sunlight, and likewise
in the artificial diamonds, which are composed of solid glass and
apparently homogeneous.
In examining the interior of an opal, we often fail to perceive any
cause for the reflections of color, especially in the limpid varieties.
The flashes appear when the light enters the stone at a certain angle,
but when viewed in any other direction the gem presents the usual
appearance of common transparent quartz. In other varieties of the
mineral, however, especially the milky or translucent, a cause for
the colored reflections is easily observed. We have under observation
the beautiful opal known as the “Oberon,” and beneath its translucent
surface appear thin films of a faint reddish hue suspended at different
depths within its interior. They are so well defined that their edges
may be recognized, and they lie like thin clouds suspended in a hazy
sky. But as the gem is turned so that the light strikes the film at a
different angle, the scene is instantly changed, and a mass of flame
replaces the sombre tint. It is a little curious that some of the films
exhibit the different colors of the spectrum as the angle of light is
changed, while others display only the green and blue color, no matter
how the light strikes them. In fact, the films or patches, which are
apparently alike, produce different results from the same rays of
light; and some display the continuous spectrum, while others exhibit
but one color. It is a little singular that all transparent minerals
when fractured do not exhibit alike in their fractures the prismatic
gleams displayed by quartz and glass. We have before us a beautiful
transparent white crystal of adularia or moon-stone from St. Gothard,
and although it is fissured and fractured in a thousand places, yet we
observe little iridescence in it even when exposed to the sunlight.
The localities where the precious opal is now found are but few, and
none of them were probably known to the ancients. All record of the
old opal mines is now lost; but there were undoubtedly deposits of the
mineral in Arabia, Syria, and in Asia, whence the ancients derived
their gems. The famous Hungarian mines were not discovered until late
in the fifteenth century, and the country was quite unknown to the
Romans.
The principal mines explored at the present day, and whence most of our
opals are now derived, are those of Hungary and Honduras. The Hungarian
mines are of great extent and are now scientifically explored, but
those of Central America are undetermined and but rudely mined. It is
believed that there are other mines in Central America besides those of
Honduras, for the natives at times bring fine specimens to the coast
from localities widely separated. It is quite true that most of the
opals of America are less hard than the Hungarian, but they are no
less brilliant, and some of them withstand atmospheric effects and the
wear of time quite as well. The Honduras opals are found near Gracias
a Dios in porcelain earth, and are extracted in irregular masses,
sometimes uniform or globular concretions, with rough and deeply
indented surfaces. These masses do not exhibit the least tendency to
crystallization like quartz, and they are generally quite small. Their
natural colors are pale, and vary from brown to a pearly gray. They
often exhibit a rich and varied play of the rainbow hues, even in their
natural and rough condition. But sometimes, when this rough exterior is
removed by the lapidary’s wheel, and the gem is highly polished, the
colors vanish as if by magic. The polished stone no longer displays
a single ray of the brilliant fires which illuminated every angle of
the stone when in its rough state. This singular disappearance may be
explained by the theory that the surface has been too highly polished,
and the substance of the stone is rendered too transparent to permit
the requisite degree of reflection, for when the surface is slightly
roughened the play of colors again returns. The finest specimens
are therefore those which are translucent, or those which, being
transparent, are backed by an opaque ground which refracts the light.
The opal-bearing districts in Central America are far more extensive
than is generally supposed. The Province of Honduras abounds in them,
and we have evidence of others occurring in the State of Guatemala on
the Pacific coast. The following descriptions of some of the opal mines
of Honduras were published by Dr. J. Le Conte, in 1868, in his report
of the Inter-oceanic Railroad survey:--
“Extensive beds of common opal and semi-opal are seen along a belt
extending through the central part of the department of Gracias; but
these varieties, though very beautiful and possessing high interest
to the mineralogist, are without commercial value from the ease with
which artificial products may be made which precisely resemble them.
The localities worthy of exploration are those in which the opal
forms veins (not beds) in compact but brittle trachyte of a dark
color. The veins, as will be seen, are not confined to such rock, but
seem to have their origin in it, and are probably not found except
in connection with it. The best-known mines of precious opal are in
the department of Gracias; several localities have yielded valuable
gems, but they are all remote from the line of road. Some are in the
vicinity of the town of Gracias, others near Intibucat; but the most
important are at Erandique. The working is now carried on in a very
small way; but the locality is extensive, and in my opinion mining
on a large scale would be attended with profit. The country near by
abounds with beds of common opal, as in many other places, but the
gems occur in somewhat irregular veins running in a northeast and
southwest direction, and with a nearly perpendicular dip. The veins
are not continuous, but branch off and disappear at short intervals;
neither are the contents of uniform quality, but the valuable parts
are usually in belts in the vein, and limited on each side by portions
of ordinary opal without play of colors. These lines of light are
sometimes numerous and narrow, alternating with the common opal
forming a very beautiful gem. Many again, even of large size, are
uniform in structure, and exhibit a play of colors as brilliant as the
finest opals from Hungary. The hill in which they are found is about
two hundred and fifty feet high, and two or three miles in length, and
for a width of half a mile for its whole length opals have been found
wherever excavations have been made. The rock in which they occur is
a hard, brittle trachyte of a vitreous lustre, and splintering into
acute fragments when struck; a bed several feet in thickness overlying
this rock is of a gray color and soft consistence, and also contains
opal veins; it is probably a trachyte changed by atmospheric action.
“Other localities within two leagues of Erandique have furnished very
fine opals, but as they are not now worked I did not visit them. Many
places on the road between Intibucat and Las Piedras appear favorable
to the existence of opal mines; but only careful scrutiny by a number
of explorers can discover them. I would mention as most worthy of
future attention the vicinity of Lepasale and of Yucusapa and the
ascent of the great mountain of Santa Rosa. Greater expectations and
indeed almost certain success will attend the search for opal mines
in the valley leading from Tambla towards the pass of Guayoca, nearly
on the line of the proposed road. Within half a mile of Tambla are
immense beds of common opal of various shades of color. Near Guayoca
are banded opals of alternate layers of opaque and semi-transparent
white, having the appearance of onyx; these occur in a red vitreous
trachyte and sometimes in contact with the masses of petrified wood
which strew the ground for a considerable distance. Veins of a
pearl-colored opal, with red reflections, are also found here; they
have no commercial value, but serve as indications of better things in
the neighborhood.
“Between the two localities mentioned (that near Tambla and that of
Guayoca), Mr. W. W. Wright, chief assistant of the survey, has, by
following some obscure indications, arrived at a vein of very pretty
glassy opals and yellow fire opals, not of great value, but serving to
strengthen the opinion expressed of the ultimate discovery of precious
opals in the vicinity. Near Choluteca are found fire opals, some of
which I was told possess merit. One (not of the best) given me is
precisely similar to those obtained by Mr. Wright near Tambla. Within
one league of Goascoran, as I am informed by Fernando Gaillardo, a
resident of that town, is a mine producing opals with a good play of
colors.”
Another remarkable deposit of opal was found by Mr. Wright about five
miles east of Villa San Antonio in the plains of Camayagua. Though not
of high value, it may be of use for ornamental purposes, being of a
fine red color with transparent amethystine bands. It occurs in veins
in gray porphyry, sometimes several inches thick, and may be procured
in large quantities. Precious opal has been discovered in the iron
mines at Barcoo in Queensland, and a number of specimens were exhibited
at Philadelphia, at the Centennial. Some of these specimens were very
fair, and gave promise of choice gems. The blue tints displayed by some
of them were of great purity. They appeared to be of the hard variety,
and therefore less liable to be affected by the ravages of time, or
influence of exposure.
We will not fatigue our readers with a long dissertation on the
formation of the opal. We will however, quote one theory which all may
understand.
The boiling waters of the Iceland geyser are projected into the air
at a considerable height, and are heavily charged with silica. As the
waters fall upon the earth, large piles of earthy and stony material
are formed in process of time. When these silicious masses are broken
open, translucent and transparent portions of silica are found,
exhibiting the colored reflections of the noble opal as long as they
remain hydrated, or, in other words, as long as they retain a certain
quantity of water in their composition. This observation has led
M. Descloizeaux to the belief that opals found in volcanic rocks or
igneous rocks have had their origin in phenomena analogous to those of
the Iceland geysers. The matrix of the opal is a varied one. The gem is
not only found in porcelain earth, but it occurs in fissures and seams,
in what appear to be old igneous rocks. It has also been deposited in
recent periods, as in the limestones of the argillaceous beds, and even
in the formations of the silicious waters of the hot springs of the
present time. The decomposed cement of the old Roman ruins around the
hot springs of Polombieres, uniting with certain chemical properties of
the waters, has changed into opal and hyalite. Trees within historic
times have been transformed into opal or semi-opal; and on the island
of Unja one may see blocks and trunks of trees (some even showing the
marks of the hatchet) converted into opal. Silicified trees forty or
fifty feet in length, may be seen stretched from Cairo to Suez. In many
other parts of the world trees and plants have been transformed by the
mysterious processes of nature into a silicious substance possessing
the characters of opal; but none of these vegetable metamorphoses
exhibit the rainbow hues to any marked degree. Quartz, when flawed in
the interior, sometimes exhibits a remarkable iridescence, and may
imitate the opal, especially if viewed at a distance. Such specimens
of iridized quartz are called “iris,” and they may be artificially
produced by a sudden blow upon the stone, or by heating it and
suddenly dropping it into cold water. The superb iris ornaments worn by
the Empress Josephine were of remarkable brilliancy and play of colors.
In ancient and mediæval times, iridescent quartz was held in great
esteem; and fine specimens mounted in antique jewelry are preserved at
the present day. It is described in the “Lapidarium” of Marbodeus as
follows:--
“By the Red Sea the swarthy Arabs glean
The iris, splendent with the crystal’s sheen;
Its form six-sided, full of heaven’s own light,
Has justly gained the name of rainbow bright.”
The fire opal occurs in its greatest perfection in the porphyritic
rocks at Zimapan in Mexico. It is generally of a translucent
hyacinth-red color and flashes forth dazzling beams of fiery
carmine-red with yellow and green reflections. This Mexican gem is the
most beautiful and gorgeous of all the varieties of opal; but, alas!
it is also the most sensitive, and is frequently irreparably injured
by water or exposure, or even by sudden atmospheric changes. So easily
affected are the opals by the vicissitudes of the weather that they
are almost always brighter in summer than in winter. But there are
some varieties that are not so easily influenced, and are not injured
by contact with water. The fact that this variety of opal is injured
in course of time by contact with moisture or careless exposure is not
remarkable when some of the harder gems undergo a change from similar
exposure. The hard amethystine quartz, when worn as a finger ornament,
will completely bleach out and become colorless in a few years. The
black opal is the product of art, and for this purpose harlequin opals
are used. The harlequin opal is simply the matrix of other gems spotted
here and there with flakes of color dispersed over an opaque ground,
and its name was suggested by the resemblance to the motley tints of
the harlequin’s dress. Masses of the matrix, with fragments or specks
of opal interspersed in its substance, are soaked for a time in a
saccharine solution, and afterwards in diluted sulphuric acid. The
porous parts of the matrix absorb a minute quantity of the solution,
which is afterwards charred by the sulphuric acid; while the solid and
transparent parts remain unchanged and exhibit an increased play of
colors upon the black ground.
The ancients undoubtedly obtained their opals from Syria and Arabia
or other Eastern countries, for the Hungarian mines which now supply
the world with most of the finest gems were not discovered until the
fifteenth century. The famous mines are situated on a mountain which
is one of the spurs of the Carpathians. They belong to the Seignory
Peklin, and are near the village of Czernizka. In the early days of
their discovery, and for a long period afterwards, they were explored
casually and from time to time. At the present day, however, the
explorations are conducted with regularity and the appliances of
skilled labor. The surface of the mountain has been removed to a great
extent during this long-continued search of many centuries, but as yet
no explorations have been attempted into the interior of the ledges.
The true matrix appears not to be more than four to eight yards in
depth below the alluvial soil. It is arranged in continuous beds of
little hardness, but resembling porphyry in color. The opal formation
appears to extend to a considerable distance beyond the flanks of the
mountain; for, in the cultivated fields below, the laborers often find
beautiful gems washed out by violent rain-storms from the exposed and
superficial soils.
The opals from these mines are the hardest and most enduring of all the
known localities of the earth, yet they have to be carefully tempered
to heat and moisture before they can be utilized. M. Frangoll Delius,
the Commissioner of the Austrian mines, states that these opals, when
first extracted from their rocky beds, are soft, friable, and tender,
and not in a condition to be worked. But after they have been exposed
to the air and sunlight for some days or a definite time, they become
harder, and the stones also become decidedly smaller from contraction.
This exposure is required to be carefully regulated lest the stone
become fissured by sudden contraction. When exposed to the effects of
artificial heat, colors appear sooner than when it is submitted to the
action of the sun’s rays. It is curious to watch the gradual unfolding
and the display of these beautiful hues. At first the stone is limpid
and rayless as pellucid quartz. But as the quarry water is evaporated
by the effect of heat or time, and the stone contracts in volume, the
iridized reflections then begin to appear, increasing in perfection and
variety, until the requisite degree of moisture is expelled. If this
evaporation is carried too far by heat the splendors of the gem vanish
completely, never to be recalled. It is a singular fact that exposure
to the sun’s rays gives the opal much finer hues than the action of
artificial heat. And it is also a remarkable circumstance that of
all the variety of prismatic hues displayed by this gem, the violet
invariably appears the first, according to M. Delius.
The ancients rarely engraved upon the opal, influenced perhaps partly
from its enormous value in those times, and partly from its soft and
fragile nature. They imitated the gem, however, with such perfection
that Pliny declared that it was almost impossible to distinguish
the false from the real. Modern gem imitators have utterly failed
in producing anything approaching the precious opal in beauty. The
assertion of Pliny in regard to the imitation of the glories of this
gem has always been received with incredulity by the moderns on account
of the failures of our most skilled artisans; but the discoveries among
the ancient Phœnician tombs in the island of Cyprus by Di Cesnola
rather strengthen Pliny’s remark.
In this collection we may view a great and elegant variety of
glass-ware exhumed from the tombs of the Phœnician nobility who
lived three thousand years ago or more. Many of these vessels gleam
with what appear to be iridescent tints of gold, blue, red, and other
colors of the loveliest tints, recalling to mind the most beautiful and
gorgeous reflections of the opal. Some of the articles are entirely
of one color, while others are composed of patches of various hues
resembling enormous opals with broad gleams of pure color. Peligot
maintains that these superb colors are clue to the effect of great
age; and the substance of the glass being separated into laminæ, the
colors may be explained by the law of iridescence. But we are half
inclined to believe that they may be due to the skill of the artisan in
a great measure,--hence the variety of color in different vessels of
the same age. In the famous collection of Signor Castellani there is a
solid glass ring quite two inches in diameter taken from the ancient
Etruscan tombs. This interesting relic exhibits patches of color as
bright as the prismatic gleams, and they do not appear to arise from
any disintegration of the material, but rather to be produced by the
design of the workman. We surely will not ascribe to effect of age
the decided iridescent glaze which we see in the Maiolica pottery of
Hispano-Moresque objects of the thirteenth or fifteenth centuries, or
in the Gubbio products of the sixteenth century.
The famous opal of history was that which was worn in a ring by the
Roman Senator Nonius in the days of the Triumvirate. Its size scarcely
exceeded that of a hazel-nut, yet its beauty and perfection were such
that it was considered a marvel among the _dilettanti_ of Rome, and
valued at the enormous sum of nearly a million dollars. Marc Antony,
remembering the sacrifice of the matchless pearl by Cleopatra, and
still enslaved by her irresistible charms, sought to obtain the opal,
intending it as a present to the siren queen of Egypt. But Nonius
refused to part with the treasure which was the idol of his heart,
and sought safety in flight. The beauty and charm of the gem may be
estimated by the fact that banishment then to a Roman was worse than
death. History makes no further mention of this wonderful opal, and
even if preserved among the spoils of ancient Byzantium its glories
have probably vanished ere this, yielding to the destructive effects of
time.
The finest opal of modern times was that which was worn by the Empress
Josephine in the days of Imperial splendor. It was indeed a magnificent
gem. Its flashing beams of light were so strong and vivid as to
give the appearance of living flames of fire, and hence the name of
_l’incendie de Troie_,--“the burning of Troy,”--was bestowed upon it.
The base of this opal was completely opaque, but the superior portion
was perfectly transparent, and through it were reflected a multitude of
fiery gleams of red light. The fate of this beautiful gem is unknown.
There are two splendid opals still to be seen among the Crown jewels
of France, notwithstanding the frequent change of dynasties. One is
placed in the centre of the Order of the Toison d’Or, and the other
forms the clasp of the royal mantle.
In the imperial cabinet at Vienna is exhibited the grandest specimen of
this gem yet discovered. It was found in the mines of Hungary in 1770,
and purchased by the Austrian Government. It measures 3³⁄₄ inches in
length, and is 2¹⁄₂ inches in thickness. Its weight is about seventeen
ounces, and its value is estimated at about $300,000. Although it
is injured by several cracks and fissures, it possesses a brilliant
play of color, and is justly regarded as the finest specimen known,
even surpassing the beautiful fire opal brought home from Mexico by
Humboldt, and which is still preserved in the museum at Berlin.
At the close of the last century, but before the Revolution broke out
in France, Mons. D’Auguy, a financier of Paris, came in possession
of a most remarkable opal of the harlequin variety. It was of oval
form, ⁷⁄₈ of an inch in length by ⁵⁄₈ in breadth. This gem was of
wondrous beauty, and was pronounced perfect by the connoisseurs. It
is now in the hands of the family of Count Waliski. At the same time
the well-known amateur Fleury owned a rival to Auguy’s opal, which it
exceeded slightly in size.
Another magnificent opal is described by Jackson as having been
exhibited at Vienna. It was nearly an inch in length, and was of the
harlequin order, having three longitudinal bands from which flashed
resplendent flames of light and color. It was pronounced by the
virtuosi of Dresden and Vienna to be the third in rank of all the fine
opals then known.
In the Musée de Minéralogie of Paris may be seen a splendid opal which
has been carved into a bust of Louis XIII. when a child. King very
properly exclaims against the barbarism and extravagance where work and
material mutually destroy each other’s beauty and value. The Spanish
historians, in their marvellous stories of the wonders seen in Mexico
at the time of the Conquest, describe the image of the mystic deity
Quetzalcoatl (God of the air) on the great pyramid of Cholula, as
wearing a mitre waving with plumes of fire, and which was supposed to
have been produced by masses of the fire opal.
Dr. Le Conte brought home from his geological surveys in Honduras, a
number of beautiful opals from the mines in that country. They have
since been cut and mounted in gold with diamond settings, in the form
of a necklace, which is regarded by connoisseurs as one of the most
valuable jewels in the United States.
At the Centennial Exhibition of the United States, Austria exhibited
some very beautiful opals of various kinds, both polished and in the
natural state. One of the polished gems was two inches in diameter and
valued at $25,000. It was of a faint milky white tint, like most of
the Hungarian opals, and displayed a charming arrangement of colors.
The splendors of the opal are best seen when exposed to the direct rays
of the sun, and viewed through a magnifying glass of low power. The
dazzling scene has no equal in art or nature, for the vivid hues of the
solar spectrum are here displayed with the most charming effect. The
colors are in broad patches and not blended with their complementary
hues as seen in the continuous spectrum, and the effects of the pure
green, red, blue, and yellow, flashing forth in perfect purity and
intensity, without definite arrangement, remind the observer of the
brilliancy of the kaleidoscope. In this fascinating display of hues one
might expect to see the colors pass into each other as in the solar
spectrum, and as the field of view is changed; but such is not always
the result. The red may exhibit a tinge of yellow, or the green a shade
of blue before they disappear from view; but generally the patch of
color ends abruptly, preserving its purity of tint to the last.
The alternate and irregular flashing of all these varied hues always
presents a harmonious spectacle, such is the wondrous power of Nature
in all her arrangements and groupings. The stone, when arranged by
the art of the lapidary, is almost always cut with a convex surface.
However, when the opal is attached to an opaque substance which serves
as a reflector to the rays of light, the stone may then have its
surface cut almost flat. The colors displayed by this gem embrace
quite all of the tints seen in the solar spectrum, and they are as
pure. The shades of green, blue, yellow, and red will bear comparison
with the hues of the solar spectrum, and the gems of other minerals
are rare that can bear this decisive test. Sometimes but one color is
visible in the stone, and then it is called emerald or golden opal,
according to the tint exhibited.
The purchase of opals in the rough natural state is attended with
danger, for often the glittering mass, after being shaped and polished
by the lapidary, is transformed into a transparent but hueless stone.
The cutting of the opal is always a hazardous operation, from the
fragility of the material and the special tact required in determining
the shape to be given the gem. We will relate an instance to illustrate
the history of the whole.
A traveller from Central America brought home a splendid rough fire
opal which dazzled the eye with its fiery reflections. We took it to
an honest lapidary, who received it with a doubtful look. The next day
the opal was returned, having been shaped into the usual oval form,
but only a faint gleam of any of the colored rays flashed from its
surface, or the interior. “Is this the gem we gave you yesterday?” we
demanded of the artisan. With a smile the lapidary took the transparent
stone and roughened its finely polished surface upon the wooden
wheel. In an instant the lost fire returned as if directed by magic’s
wand. The perfect transparency of the gem, with its high polish,
had allowed the rays of light to pass directly through it, and there
was but little refraction, but on roughening the surface the light
was interrupted and the peculiar property of the mineral displayed.
Unfortunately the lesson was not concluded here. At the last touch
of the wheel the beautiful gem flew into two parts, and its glories
departed in an instant. Saddened with the day’s experience, we took
the two fragments, cemented them together, and tossed the stone into a
drawer which contained other mineral specimens of no great value. Some
months after, while searching for a misplaced mineral, a gleam of light
suddenly flashed out as we opened the drawer. It was the neglected and
abused opal, which now gleamed with the energy of a living coal of
fire. It had recovered its beautiful reflections, and still adorns,
notwithstanding its fracture, a most cherished jewel.
Whence this mysterious change? the reader may ask. We can only say that
the complete transparency of the stone had been lessened, and perhaps
the change was due to the action of some of the ingredients of the
cement with which we united the fragments of the broken gem.
Some of the Central American opals have the reputation of fading and
becoming translucent and opaque in course of time, or according to the
circumstances of exposure. We will relate an instance which forms a
part of our experience and education in the study of gems.
A few years ago, two Spaniards arrived in New York with a bag of rough
opals brought from Central America, but from what particular locality
we never learned. The specimens varied in size from that of a bean to
that of an English walnut, and were extremely beautiful. They had a
fresh appearance, as though they had been recently extracted from the
mines, and many of them had portions of the soft sandy matrix still
attached to them. They excited suspicions of not having been properly
tempered and hardened by exposure; but their beauty, which reminded
one of the perfect glow-worm, or lumps of phosphorus moistened with
oil, did not allow the spectator to hesitate about the purchase of
them, especially as they were offered at a moderate price. We invested
in the purchase of several charming specimens, and never wearied in
examining their exquisite effects. Still, we felt a vague suspicion
of the enduring qualities of our newly acquired treasures. The most
beautiful stone, the size of a small almond, we carried in our pocket
for a long time, not only for our gratification but for the purpose of
studying the effect of the atmosphere upon its reflections. Soon after
our acquisition, we fancied a slight shadow or nebulosity appearing
in one end of the stone. We carefully watched it, and before long an
indistinct cloudiness began to appear, like the dim and distant haze
of a summer sky on the commencement of a storm. Even then we thought
it might be mere fancy on our part. But when the shadow changed
to opacity, and the transparency of the gem, with its beautiful
reflections, vanished, never to return, we were compelled to admit that
even substances of the mineral kingdom had their diseases as well as
forms of the organic world.
This is indeed but one example to illustrate a theory; but most of
those we purchased at that time of the Spaniards have altered in
appearance, and some of them quite as seriously. Therefore we have
arrived at the conclusion that recently mined opals should be bought
with caution; and that the perfection of a rough opal as a gem cannot
be safely estimated until after it has been cut by the lapidary.
No definite idea can be given in relation to the price of the opal,
so much depends upon the degree of its brilliancy and play of colors.
The gem is not sold by weight, but its value is estimated by its size
and the perfection of its charms. An opal half an inch in diameter
exhibiting fair colors may be worth $5, and another of the same size,
of greater perfection, may bring $5,000, or more. The palmy days of the
opal were during the period of Roman luxury, as the beauties of the
diamond were not then fully revealed, and the opal flashed forth its
marvellous beams of color both by daylight and artificial light. The
gem then commanded enormous prices. According to the tables of Dureau
de la Malle, the opal of Nonius was valued at twenty million sesterces,
or about eight hundred thousand dollars. Enormous as this sum of money
appears, Catherine of Russia would have given as much for the gem, if
its beauty had been in keeping with its reputation.
The commerce of the opal affords a curious example of credulity and
superstition, which is in singular contrast with the progressive ideas
of our advanced civilization. In times past the changes that sometimes
occur in the opal from physical causes have impressed the minds of
some excessively superstitious people as due to supernatural causes.
And from these trivial fancies the most beautiful and _recherché_ of
all that Nature has offered to us in the mineral kingdom has been
placed under ban. This superstitious dread may be of ancient origin,
and whence its source we know not. But it is a matter of history that
the opal was the favorite gem among the Romans in their best periods
of intelligence and refinement. So far from being feared at that time,
it was eagerly sought for, as it was supposed to possess the power
of warning against disaster, and exhibiting the rosy herald of joy.
Hence it has been thought that a feeling of superstition as well as of
avarice influenced Nonius when his paragon was demanded of him.
It is possible that the dread of the opal may be derived from the
superstitious fancies that have descended to us from neolithic times,
like the superstitions connected with the ancient stone implements
which are now called in Western Europe elf-stones. In Scotland at the
present day the ancient arrow-heads of stone are known as elf-bolts
or fairy shots, and believed to protect the wearer from disease or
misfortune. Thus it appears that stone weapons of an extinct race
are used as ridiculous charms by later nations far advanced in
civilization. History shows us how elves and fairies were created in
the popular imagination from neolithic sources, and how weapons and
ornaments of stone, amber, and metal became invested with mystic powers
as objects of handicraft of the elves themselves. These objects are
not only regarded as fairy charms among the races of the East, but the
belief in their powers and use is quite as strong and tenacious among
the Celtic portions of Europe. In other countries these primitive
ideas of fairies and charms have become modified, and blossomed into
poetic fancies to please chiefly the innocence of childhood. Some of
these the genius of Shakspeare and other poets have made beautiful,
and to these we offer no objection. Poetic license may sometimes
invest an object with a positive effect which eventually may assume
the appearance of fact. Thus the allusion to changes in the beauty of
the opal in connection with misfortune, which was made by Sir Walter
Scott, in his novel “Anne of Geierstein,” was taken to heart seriously
by many of his readers, and the gem was placed under ban. The popular
imagination became so strongly affected that the commerce of the opal
in England became very seriously injured; and even at the present
day many a timid maiden hesitates over the selection of the opal for
ornamentation. Every mineralogist and man of science will rejoice to
learn that Queen Victoria exhibits sterling good sense in selecting the
opal among her choicest family gifts, thereby presenting a pleasing
contrast to the superstitious and foolish fancies of the Empress
Eugénie.
To the amateur who loves the rare and beautiful, with a feeling
untrammelled by any of the misty traditions of the past or the caprices
of fashion of the present, the opal is the dearest of all the gems. For
it is not only rare, but it displays the glories of all the other gems;
and it is the only one that defies the skill of the modern artisan to
imitate. Its flash instantly betrays its character, and places it above
suspicion, while quite all of the precious stones regarded as gems are
now imitated so perfectly as to require close and careful inspection,
and sometimes the application of scientific tests.
When we recall the phenomena of the opal, and the wonders of its
reflections, with their strange and sudden disappearance, we may pardon
the credulity of the Arabian romance writers in ascribing to the gem
supernatural powers. It was a beautiful theory with them that it falls
from heaven in the lightning’s flash, and is the veritable Ceraunia.
Its charming and mysterious play of colors suggested to their ardent
imaginations the glories of Paradise, and hence they invested it with
wonderful talismanic properties, and believed it to be the abode of
afreets and genii. Alas for romance! Science clearly demonstrates that
many of the phenomena which puzzle the superstitious are simply due to
atmospheric influences and to the natural laws which regulate the decay
of organic and inorganic forms.
THE SAPPHIRE.
“The azure light of sapphire stone
Resembles that celestial throne,
A symbol of each simple heart
That grasps in hope the better part,
Whose life each holy deed combines,
And in the light of virtue shines.”
MARBODEUS.
THE SAPPHIRE.
The colored varieties of sapphire were probably known to primitive
man, and were gathered in their rough state to serve as rude ornaments
long before the diamond, with its less attractive natural appearance,
was recognized as a treasure or a gem. The mountain torrents, laying
bare the superficial strata of the gem beds, early exposed to view
the sapphires of bright and attractive colors, which readily caught
the close, observing eye of the savage; while the diamond, lustreless
within its apparent crust, was unnoticed and unknown until civilization
became far advanced and revealed the hidden splendors of the gem by the
application of art.
We may therefore infer with a reasonable degree of probability that the
colored sapphires, though perhaps not the most ancient in mineralogy,
were in reality among the earliest gems known to man. The researches
of the antiquary and the archæologist rather strengthen this view, for
specimens of these stones are found among the ruins of the ancient and
long-forgotten cities of Arabia and Persia, while the diamond is not.
This beautiful mineral has been known in the land of its birth from
time immemorial as “korund;” and under this harsh name were included
all those beautiful gems known to commerce as the Oriental ruby, topaz,
emerald, and sapphire. The ancients in the days of Pliny bestowed upon
the blue variety the more euphonious name of “hyacinthus.” Modern
nomenclature, however, has adopted the term “sapphire” for all the
transparent forms of the mineral, reserving the name “corundum” for the
opaque and translucent or non-crystallized varieties.
In making use of this word, we have another illustration of the strange
adoption of a term which is destitute of any relationship to the
characters of the object it is intended to describe. The “sapphirus” of
the ancients referred to lapis-lazuli, a blue opaque mineral spotted
with minute metallic flakes; and the only significance it bears in
connection with any of the forms of corundum is the simple fact that
it means azure. If we follow the antiquaries still farther into the
mists of early language, in seeking the etymology of the name, we
shall probably find even less satisfaction. The nature of this gem, as
well as most of the other precious stones, was mere conjecture to the
ancients, and they formed their estimate of them chiefly from their
hardness and color.
Among the early Greeks, Theophrastus strove in vain to discover some
satisfactory basis of arrangement for these minerals, and to explain
their forms, their constituents, and the manner of their creation. But
his efforts and those of his contemporaries were of little avail; and
so Ictinus, when he constructed the marvellous façade of the Parthenon,
and Phidias, while he adorned it with immortal statues of marble and
other stones, were alike ignorant of the nature of the materials
they employed in their work. Several centuries later the treatises
of the Latin philosopher Pliny show that science had made but little
progress in this respect. The people of India and of the valley of the
Euphrates, however, undoubtedly studied at a very early period the
internal structure of the precious stones, and the revelations thus
obtained had some effect in shaping their religion and their views of
civilization.
In searching for the mysterious in the gems, the Assyrians discovered
the cuneiform crystals in the interior of transparent sapphires, and
adopted the forms for their own use, believing them to be the language
of the genii. We have little doubt but that the cuneiform character
which now reveals the history of the extinct Oriental empires had
its origin from the wonderful crystallizations sometimes seen in the
internal structure of the sapphire. These crystals are sometimes
visible to the naked eye; but when the polished surface of the mineral
is exposed to a magnifying lens of even low power, they appear with
startling distinctness, and exhibit forms of perfect arrow-head shape
of all colors. The field of vision may at first include but a single
arrow-head crystal of perfect symmetrical outline floating in the
azure of the stone; but as the field is shifted myriads of crystals may
suddenly come into view, presenting a scene of such remarkable beauty
and fascination that the observer ceases to wonder at the credulity of
Arabian superstition. These crystallizations may occur in sapphires
of any hue, and then again we may search in vain for them in many
other specimens of the same mineral. Some specimens may contain a very
few of these arrow-head forms, while others seem to be composed of
multitudes and masses of them. One large red sapphire of four karats
weight submitted to our inspection appears to be composed of clouds
of these cuneiform crystals; and under the magnifying power of about
twenty diameters it presents fields of arrow-heads flashing forth the
most brilliant hues, and changing into new scenes of startling and
transcendent beauty as the focus is varied. Whatever startled the
imagination of the ancients with a new and mysterious beauty was at
once invested with supernatural power.
In connection with this theme it is interesting and instructive to
trace back the history of the gems and precious stones even within
the period of the past two hundred years, and read the descriptions
and definitions bestowed upon them by mineralogists. Some of the most
gifted of men, like Linnæus and Wallerius, labored diligently to place
them correctly in science; but their efforts to define and arrange them
properly seem at the present day like schoolboy fancies. Daubenton
conceived the brilliant but erroneous idea of arranging them according
to their color, taking the solar spectrum for a standard. His idea
was to place them in seven genera, according to the seven principal
prismatic colors, and constitute species according to the different
shades. This able man was not then aware that the sapphire and the
tourmaline exhibit quite all of the colors of his seven genera.
Romè de L’Isle was the first mineralogical writer who classed the gems
systematically; but it has since appeared that the amateur, Chevalier
Baillou, preceded him in his crystallogical ideas; for in 1747 this
observer described, in the catalogue of his collection, his views in
relation to the properties of gems, and how their characters might be
readily ascertained by the tests of hardness and specific gravity,
and also by the form of their crystallizations. The distinguished and
learned Abbé Haüy became interested and even fascinated with the study
of the history and physical properties of the gems and the precious
stones; and to his genius we are indebted for much of the information
we have at the present day on this subject. He was deeply interested
in the nature and characteristics of the Oriental precious stones;
and being dissatisfied with the harsh term and the vague synonomy of
“korund,” as applied to some of them, he proposed the more elegant
name, “telesie.” But science, often disdainful of new terms, finally
adopted the name proposed by Wallerius; and at the present time all of
the fine and transparent varieties of corundum are called sapphire.
This remarkable mineral is found in mineralogical specimens in China,
Siberia, America, and other parts of the world; but all of the fine
gems, with perhaps few exceptions, come from Burmah, Pegu, Siam, lower
Bengal, and Ceylon.
The island of Ceylon is the most famous of all the localities thus
far known, and it is in reality the most wonderful gem deposit in the
world. It was known in the period of the Roman Empire, as the land of
the luminous carbuncle. This island, which is situated at the southeast
extremity of the peninsula of Bengal, and separated from it by a broad
but shallow strait, is about as large as England in its area. In the
southern centre of the island a group of lofty mountains appears,
rising to the height of about 8,000 feet above the level of the sea.
On one side this great upheaval descends in successive ranges of hills
until the flanks of the mountains subside into the alluvial plains;
whilst on the other side the mountain range is characterized by abrupt
precipices sometimes of several thousand feet in height. The great
gem-producing districts of the island extend along the base of this
mountain range for about fifty miles; and the central and richest part
is considered to be located around Ratnapoora, which is scarcely two
hundred feet above the level of the sea. This want of elevation in the
Ceylon gem strata or placers becomes a marked feature when considering
the high plateaux in which the diamond occurs in other parts of the
world, also coupled with the fact that the two gems are not found
together in the same placers. Here are situated the celebrated mines
which have yielded vast quantities of the sapphire, especially the
blue variety, for an indefinite period of time. They are not small and
trivial deposits, but extend over large areas. Some of the plains which
cover the deposits are more than thirty miles in extent, and form a
large tract of country. Among them are the Kondapalle, Elk, Tolapella,
Horton, Bopatalava, Moonstone, Newera Ellia, and many others.
The amount of labor expended in excavations on these plains is
stupendous, and evidences still remain which indicate vast operations
and remunerative labor in far distant times. The eastern portion of
the plain at Newera Ellia furnishes a good example of the extent of
the explorations. This region is still called the vale of rubies, and
was mined on a grand scale by the ancient kings of Kandy. Many acres
of this plain have been completely upturned, and the surface is still
indented with numberless pits of large size, varying from three to
seventeen feet in depth. The period of these extensive operations is
unknown, and is so far distant as to be beyond the mention of history
or tradition.
Most of the gem-bearing districts are classed as wild lands, and belong
to the English Crown. As yet the authorities have never bestowed a
thought upon their value as a source of revenue, and the search for
gems is free to the world. Although much territory has been mined in a
rude manner in past times, the fields are by no means exhausted, and
offer excellent inducements to skilled labor. If some of the energy and
determination now exhibited in the South Africa diamond mines could be
transported to Ceylon, the gem marts would soon display the splendors
of ancient times.
Ratnapoora, which is the gem mart of Ceylon, and situated in the midst
of the mines, means literally the city of rubies. The mines adjacent to
it and in the district of Saffragan are the principal ones now worked
in the island, but the gems are found under the western plains that
extend from Adams Peak to the sea. The plains and valleys southeast of
Ratnapoora are all gem fields; and the beds of the torrents sometimes
contain so great a quantity of broken fragments of sapphire, garnet,
zircon, etc., that the sifted sands are used by the lapidaries in
polishing gems.
The mining operations are generally carried on by the native Cingalese,
who labor in the light of a pastime and only during intervals of their
agricultural employments. Some few, however, undertake the labor as a
regular business, but they belong to a low and dissipated class, and do
not work systematically or with regularity. Therefore, the gem-mining
of Ceylon cannot be regarded as a fixed and permanent business.
When an exploration has been determined upon, a small party of
villagers set out for the promising region provided with the implements
of mining and the means of camping out. The times selected for the
operations are after the heavy rains which prevail in June and October,
and the floods have subsided. The beds of rivers or smaller streams
are often chosen as easier of access than the plains. If the river-bed
is selected, the first act of the explorers is to seek for the proper
locality where the gem-bearing strata may be found. To ascertain
this, the Cingalese thrust a long iron rod of ten or twelve feet in
length into the earth, and test the nature of the sub-soil. By means
of long practice, the natives can adroitly penetrate the earth to a
considerable depth, and, by the resistance to the movement of the rod,
can detect the gem deposit of which they are in search.