# Precious Stones/Chapter 4: Artistic Employment of Precious Stones

CHAPTER IV.
ARTISTIC EMPLOYMENT OF PRECIOUS STONES.
Some acquaintance with the less obvious characters and qualities of precious stones, and especially with the distinctive properties of those kinds which remain practically unrecognised and unappreciated, may serve more than one good purpose. Not only may the jeweller's art receive new impetus and suggestion, but the buyers and connoisseurs of bijouterie may learn to appreciate more highly well-conceived design, new combinations, and exquisite workmanship. Most admirable and pleasant colour-combinations may be attained by the aid of materials which in many instances are now by no means costly. Curious and delicate hues of luminous and refined quality, preserved in enduring substance, may be arranged and grouped in forms of endless beauty and variety. Neither silks, nor paints, nor even enamels can ever equal the colours of precious stones in durability, or in brilliancy and pulsating variety of hue. And it cannot be doubted that when knowledge of the true nature of any art material (such as precious stones) becomes more intimate, exact, and diffused, a more intelligent and lively interest will be created in examples of good work wrought in the substance in question. Every connoisseur or collector of artistic objects must have shared in experiences of this kind. He may have been once quite dead to the peculiar merits of certain works, say in bronze, not even glancing at any specimens falling in his way. Then some casual circumstance, perhaps an exciting contest for a fine piece of work at a sale ​between two enthusiastic collectors, or perhaps the gift of a choice specimen, may have drawn attention, not perhaps to the merits of such specimens, but at least to the esteem in which they may be held. Curiosity—it may be an intelligent curiosity—is excited. Investigation, more or less searching, follows. The hardness of the metal, its provenance, its designer, its age, the mode of manufacture, whether by casting or hammering; the manner of decoration, whether by chasing, engraving, or inlaying; the colour and texture of the surface, the presence or absence of patina; and not a few other points of interest, constitute the materials of complex study. Study provokes observation, and observation study, so that before long the neglected group of artistic bronzes exerts a kind of fascination upon the new votary. If his knowledge be superficial and inaccurate, or if he be merely an ameteur or collector just because it is a fashionable pursuit to gather together or to admire certain classes of artistic objects, well then, he does not really know what and why he admires. Forgeries delight him just as much as genuine works, so long as he is not sure that they are forgeries; but he has not sufficient patience for the mastery of, or sufficient insight into, the characteristics of true productions to discriminate them from those that are false. It often happens thus with the amateur of precious stones. He knows nothing of the optical elements, say of surface lustre, and the pleochroism which go to make up the tout ensemble of any particular gem, and is quite satisfied with a well-cut bit of paste, or a cleverly contrived doublet. No doubt, in some cases, even an educated keenness of vision does not suffice to distinguish the true stone from the false, although the durability of the genuine specimens will ultimately prove their superiority. But it is not difficult to learn to appreciate the peculiar and essential characters of the majority of the species of precious stones. The few simple pieces of apparatus and the appliances described in the second chapter, will serve to supplement and correct the deductions of a ​trained eye and touch. And with a spectroscope, a polariscope, in addition to a good hand magnifier or pocket lens, such an array of evidence may be marshalled that there can remain but few cases in which the identity of a stone shall continue doubtful. But for the purpose of the artistic employment or appreciation of precious stones such a table as that given on pages 5 and 6 will prove more useful than any recondite method of inquiry. Some of the uses of that tabular arrangement of conspicuous optical qualities may be gathered from the following examples. Referring to the shape of stones we note that their boundaries are either plane or curved. Now if we have to use, in any piece of personal ornament, stones having curved surfaces, it will not answer in general to associate with them other curved surfaces, like those of the en cabochon moonstone; and especially is this the case where the size of the stone, as well as the character of the curved surface, is nearly identical; but a happier result will be attained by combining a step-cut stone with one having a curved surface. Again, citing an example from the series of adjectives expressing qualities of surface, it will be found that gems having an adamantine lustre assort better with those which present the less brilliant surface known as waxy, than they do with those which show a nearer approach to the adamantine surface, and which are called resinous. The diamond and the jargoon do not improve or bring out each other's qualities, for they have too many points in common; but the diamond accords well with the pearl, and the jargoon with the turquoise, that is, the adamantine with the pearly, and the resinous with the waxy. Looking, now, into the substance of stones, rather than on their surface, their relations to the transmission of colourless light furnish many illustrations of wise and unwise, or effective and defective combinations. For example, chatoyant stones, like cat's-eyes, do not associate well with translucent stones, like the chrysoprase and the chalcedony—the translucency of the latter confuses, because it resembles too closely, the chatoyancy ​of the former. But transparent stones accord well with all those which interrupt the passage of light by such internal reflections. The diamond, on this account, combines admirably with the cat's-eye and the pearl, but it affords too strong a contrast, especially when of large size, with the turquoise, to associate pleasantly with this nearly opaque stone. From amongst the qualities pertaining to the colour of stones, examples of the utility of the table may be cited. When a stone has much "fire" in it—that is, when its refractive and dispersive actions upon light are high—and it shows prismatic hues, then it looks best if associated with gems in which this property is less developed. Again, monochroic stones, which in all directions transmit beams of the same colour, should be associated with pleochroic stones, which exhibit two or more hues, while the latter should not be mixed together.
We are led from the study of these examples of associations of gem-stones to inquire into the principles which underlie artistic combinations. Probably we are satisfied with arrangements of precious stones in which the leading motif is either identity, or seriation, or contrast. When stones match, when they are graduated, or when they offer a distinct but not startling contrast, the resulting effect is at least capable of being made satisfactory. When we speak of identity, seriation, and contrast, as expressing the elements of decorative association in the mounting of precious stones, we use words into which we are compelled to import special meanings. By identity, we mean that very close resemblance which selected specimens of choice stones of the same kind will exhibit; seriation expresses the orderly sequence of tones or colours with the presence of a pervading and dominant element; contrast implies an effect of change rather than of passage, and may include contrast of tone and of lustre as well as contrast of colour. Instead of further discussing the question of the artistic employment of precious stones in precise accordance with the three principles of association before laid down, a more useful and ​generally available plan will be to follow a classification according to colour. For as the ornamental or artistic employment of precious stones conveys primarily, if not wholly and ultimately, an appeal to the eye, it is clear that such optical properties as can be comprised in the terms lustre, light, and especially colour, should be our first consideration. After all, as, on the whole, the prominent feature of precious stones is their colour, so the easiest way of considering their colour is to adopt the order of succession of the colours in the ordinary rainbow or prismatic spectrum, beginning with the white light, which contains them all, and originates them all.
White Stones.—The diamond naturally takes the first position if we consider its hardness, its remarkable composition, and its strong refraction and dispersion of light. Its properties, so far as they appeal to the eye, differ much from those belonging to the majority of other stones, and it forms, partly in consequence of this peculiarity, as good a border or setting to other gems as a gold frame generally does to a picture. Of course much depends upon the quality of the diamond, and much upon the shape which is given to it by the lapidary. The flat plates of lasque diamonds, and, in less degree, the step-cut stones with broad tables, exhibit the unique and splendid lustre which is peculiar to the polished surface of this stone; these forms also permit the transparency and the total internal reflection of light to be well seen. Even the form of the diamond crystal, the regular octohedron, when its surfaces are really planes, well exhibits the transparency and reflection of the stone. Next to the diamond we may place the colourless zircon or jargoon, then the phenakite, then the white sapphire, the white topaz, and the white beryl. Rock crystal will come below these in point of beauty and brilliancy. The colourless zircon sometimes approaches near in prismatic brilliancy to a diamond; so, at night especially, does the rare and curious mineral phenakite. There is, however, always a sort of difficulty in finding ​an appropriate use for colourless, yet lustrous, stones in any article of jewellery intended for personal adornment. The more lustrous and prismatic they are—the more they resemble the diamond, in fact—the less available are they for the usual purpose to which gems are put. Still, there are peculiar qualities in these stones which need not be lost to artistic employment, if the white stones in question be judiciously associated with materials which prevent their being mistaken for diamonds. A white diamond should rarely or never be bordered by green tourmalines, but these stones would form an agreeable combination with a white zircon, a phenakite, or a white topaz. In the white sapphire there is often a faint suspicion of milkiness, and in the white beryl a cool greenish tint, which prevent these stones from resembling the diamond so closely as to be taken for imitations of that gem. But many of these colourless stones, notably the topaz and rock crystal, in all probability are most appropriately used when set as bosses in vessels and other large pieces of metal work, or employed in the form of plaques for engraving or etching. It is scarcely necessary to justify such uses of these minerals, and this is not the place to enter upon the question, particularly as it is only by a rather wide use of the term precious that I am able to include these materials, and some others which I shall have to discuss presently, amongst precious stones. Of two other white materials employed in jewellery, the moonstone and the pearl, a few words may be introduced here. The moonstone forms an excellent substitute in many combinations for the pearl, but it does not associate so well as the latter with the diamond. With deep-coloured amethysts, spinels, and tourmalines, few colourless gems look more refined than the moonstone. But these stones, which fetch a shilling or so apiece only, should always be accurately recut and highly repolished before being used. Their forms are too irregular and their surfaces too imperfect, as imported from Ceylon, to show off their moonlight sheen with half its intensity, unless ​they are passed again under a careful lapidary's hands. The improvement thus effected is marvellous. The value of the pearl, whether its "orient" be luminous with prismatic hues, or whether it be a warm soft white merely, is too well known to be more than named in this connection. But we may be permitted to say one word in deprecation of the extravagant expenditure of time, of ingenuity, and of costly materials, which the attempt to convert large irregular pearls into structures resembling figures has so often caused. The result is nearly always most unhappy.
Red Stones.—The ruby may fitly be considered before other coloured stones. It, with the sapphire, and all the transparent varieties of corundum, ranks next to the diamond in hardness. It is, moreover, a stone of great beauty. Probably the experts in jewels are right in assigning the highest value to those rubies which possess a "pigeon's blood" colour—this is the orthodox hue. But the paler colours, and those which verge upon pink and crimson, and even violet, are capable of being so treated by means of association with white and black enamel or with dark stones, like olive-green tourmalines, as to lend themselves to the production of very beautiful decorative effects. The great mistake commonly made in the treatment of the paler rubies lies in the attempt to treat them in the same way as the deeper coloured stones.
It is difficult to describe the peculiar colour quality of the ruby in words. In fact, our nomenclature of colours is neither ample nor accurate. Our appreciation of delicate differences between colours is growing, but the language by which we endeavour to describe the hues which we have learned to appreciate is either stationary, or else receives additions from time to time of unsatisfactory words, derived from the caprices of French fashions. The time has really arrived when a standard series of hues of all sorts should be constructed and appropriately named; but, in the case of the ruby, the question of pleochroism comes in, and renders ​the difficulty of describing the colour quality of this stone greater. There is also some prismatic "fire" in the stone, and much internal reflection of light, while its surface lustre lies between resinous and vitreous. These four properties give to the red of the ruby a peculiar richness, which the two other species of precious stones—the spinel and the garnet—which come nearest to it in colour, do not equally possess. The two reds which make up the colour transmitted by the ruby do not differ much, but yet they help to impart, to a properly cut stone, a delicate variation of hue which is not present in any other red stone, nor in any imitative substance. The dichroiscope, consequently, never fails to discriminate between a ruby on the one hand and a spinel or a garnet on the other. The two latter stones are, of course, softer than the ruby, and the former is always lighter, that is, of less specific gravity. For the ruby and the whole of the corundum family of stones have the specific gravity of 4, and a hardness which is nearly, and in some cases quite, 9 on the mineralogical scale.
One of the happiest uses of the ruby is in the form of an inlay, in certain gold vessels of Indian origin. The external surface of these vessels is covered with a system of interlacing ridges and furrows. The rubies, generally small, oval, and cut en cabochon, are set along the furrows. Thus they are much protected from the chance of dislodgment, while the effect they produce, of a rich deep crimson groundwork over which a gold netting has been thrown, is in perfect harmony with the materials and their workmanship. For, naturally, the metal gold, when pure, or nearly pure, throws a ruddy tint when light is reflected from surface to surface; witness the interior of gilt vessels. The same thing occurs in the golden furrows of which we have spoken, where the rubies seem to rest in a golden sheen, of a hue in which the yellow, and orange, and red elements, now one and now another, appear to prevail. The gold should not be burnished where much contrast between the metallic surfaces and the rubies is desired, but ​the stones themselves should be as brightly polished as possible, in order not only to develop the full beauty and variety of their colour, but also the very considerable surface lustre which the ruby possesses. There is another kind of Indian jeweller's work to which most of the remarks I have just made apply. A perforated plate or disc of delicate arabesque or radiated work is found decorated with ruby beads, round or oval, attached to the circumference of the ornament, or else introduced into its midst in concentric circles. Here dull dead or "matt" gold is particularly appropriate, as affording a pleasant contrast to the rich, smooth, and soft transparency of the rubies, which, from the manner of their mounting, may be looked through. The refinement of the slender gold-work, which, in this class of jewellery, approaches the delicacy of filigree, sets off by its minuteness of detail the simpler and bolder forms of the plain, smooth, rounded stones, which give it colour and warmth. We must dwell for a moment or two upon another Eastern method of dealing with the ruby—the use of this stone as an inlay or onlay—that is, an incrustation—upon jade, both white and green. It is not so much here a beautiful contrast of colour that is attained, although the greenish grey, or olive green of the jade, enhances the redness of the ruby; but it is a contrast of textures, a contrast of surfaces, a contrast of translucencies. You see but a little way into the jade, though it is illuminated by a soft diffused light; but you see through the clear deep-toned rubies, with their flashing beams of crimson.
Now compare with these examples of the artistic employment of the ruby the ordinary mode in which this stone is set by English jewellers. Look at the half-hoop ruby ring, with five rubies well matched in colour, and graduated exactly in size, set close together in a regular row. You see, perhaps, a little speck of gold appearing here and there at each end of each stone, but nothing is made of these pieces of gold. You accept them because you know they ​are necessary to hold the stones in their places, but you find neither invention nor beauty in these little bits of gold claws. In fact, they are frequently prepared by the gross, ready for the mounting of any stones, provided the shape of the latter be suitable. Rubies, sapphires, diamonds, garnets, and emeralds are all set in the same way, not an attempt being made to adapt the amount of gold surface or its form to the specific nature of each gem. But why should not some variety and some appropriateness of mounting be secured for all stones? How exquisite, and yet how strong, were the gold and enamel settings of precious stones in the cinque-cento time in Italy! Let those patrons who desire the rather barbaric splendour of masses of rubies gratify their taste by means of jewels in which the setting is not seen at all. But surely a fine stone is worthy of a fine and originally designed setting—proportioning the latter in form, in amount of work and surface, and also in colour, whether red, or green, or yellow gold, or enamel, to the shape and the hue of the stone to be set. And even small stones become quite beautiful when arranged with taste and judgment, in accordance with the conditions just named, and with the further condition as to collocation of individual stones in accordance with their size and shape. In pendants, and necklets, and lockets, and brooches there is room for the expression of some definite and intelligible design. The mere alternation of rubies with diamonds in rows or chequer work may, in some instances, achieve all that is needed. But a design of more definite form may often be preferable, especially where the stones at one's disposal are of differing colours and sizes. Then one may construct a suitable bit of leafage or flowerage, duly conventionalised, in accordance with the nature of the available materials, into forms of more or less geometrical severity. It should be noted that moonstones and white sapphires, in which there often lurks a faint opalescence, accord well with rubies; but it must be kept in mind that the size of the colourless stones which are to be associated with ​rubies in such designs as those named is a matter of much moment. It is a mistake to attempt to match the colourless and the coloured stones in respect of size, and generally of shape also. One should be smaller than the other. Large rubies with small moonstones, or small rubies with large moonstones, and similarly, square stones with round, and oblong stones with round, generally produce happier effects than square with square, and oblong with oblong. Pearls accord with rubies, not only by reason of their colour relations, but also on account of their shape. In the case of rubies cut en cabochon, brilliant-cut or square step-cut diamonds will be found to yield very satisfactory combinations. A border of small brilliants or roses is a usual and a useful mode of setting off the qualities of a ruby. The colour of the pale stone is heightened by contrast with the colourlessness of the diamonds; the richness of a rich stone is enriched, and a small stone, if surrounded by stones still smaller, becomes magnified in proportion.
Next to the ruby, amongst the red stones, comes the spinel or balas ruby, an entirely different mineral species, without any pleochroism, and inferior in hardness to the true ruby. The scarlet, aurora-red, and flame-coloured spinels are the most beautiful, those which verge upon crimson, purple, and violet, looking dull and black at night, but showing very delicate and often rare hues by day. Red spinels accord well with small brilliants, or with larger pearls or moonstones. A fine aurora-red spinel looks well when surrounded with delicate foliage of white, orange, and black enamels. Step-cutting, similar to that employed for emeralds, accords best with the optical qualities of this stone. A biconvex lenticular form may be so adapted to this stone as to throw a good deal of soft and rich colour into a specimen which would otherwise have had little beauty to recommend it. What richness of hue the finer examples of red spinel may show is to be studied in two specimens in the Townshend collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, Nos. 1326 and 1327.
​From spinels the passage to garnets is easy. But it is not really difficult to discriminate between the two species, even when the colours seem the same. If you have a ruby, a spinel, and a garnet together, the first will scratch the second and the second the third. The ruby will show two colours in the dichroiscope, the spinel and the garnet only one. The spinel will exhibit no black bands like those belonging to the almandine garnet, when viewed with the spectroscope. And there is a blackness, due to much absorption of light, in many of the facets of a garnet, as seen from the "table" of the stone, which will not be observed in the spinel. The garnet, unless of remarkable size or quality, will hardly be deemed worthy of being mounted in the same costly way as the ruby or the red spinel, but it may be said that the same general treatment suits all these red stones. Yet there are two ways in which garnets have for long and in many places been treated, to which I may legitimately refer here. The plates of garnet so largely found in Anglo-Saxon and Celtic jewels have remained, in the majority of cases, intact to the present day. They afford, in their breadths of soft rich colour, a pleasing contrast to the minute filigree, granulated and enamel work with which they are generally associated. The other employment of the red garnet (and it may be traced back to a far earlier date than that just cited) is as a carbuncle—not necessarily foiled at the back. Cut en cabochon, slightly hollowed behind, and laid on a plain gold surface, the light, as of a glowing coal, quivers in the midst of a good stone. There is a lovely disc of antique gold set with five carbuncles in the Gold Ornaments room at the British Museum. In the centre is a round carbuncle boss; then four long pointed arms, much like elongated pears, radiate from this centre, alternately with a somewhat similar series of repoussé arms, beaten up from the disc of gold, and bordered with knurled wires onlaid. There is not much work in the piece; the intrinsic value of gold and garnets is quite small, but the effect is delightful; simple, yet rich; solid, yet elegant. Can the same ​praise be honestly given to modern garnet-work? Can we feel a genuine satisfaction either in the design, the execution, or the effect of a compound big carbuncle of eight lobes, with an eight-rayed star riveted into the midst of it, the aforesaid star being of hard, poor, glittering, much alloyed gold, and containing a number of irregular fragments of defective diamonds? The star soon gets loose, and later on the diamonds begin dropping out. But we will not pursue the history of the piece any further, and will refrain from calling attention to other obnoxious modes of using carbuncles, as in a ring with a sham gold knot on either side.
Orange and Yellow Stones.—Amongst orange and yellow stones we may assign the first place to the yellow zircon—a stone which is sometimes found of a hue which may be aptly described as that of transparent gold. Next to this comes the yellow sapphire, afterwards the cinnamon stone, or hessonite; and then we may place the rich sherry-coloured Brazilian topaz—that kind which yields when heated the finest rose-pink stones. Then the chrysoberyl follows, and, at some distance, the yellow beryl. Few colour combinations have been attempted with these yellowstones; puce-coloured spinels associate with the yellow sapphire very happily, but there are some enamels which answer equally well. Generally a design of pale bluish-grey enamel, with minor details wrought in buff and white, develops the richness of gold-coloured stones. Here mention should be made of the very rare gem, the spessartite of Ceylon. It is of an orange-red hue, and is of most fiery brilliance, but is very seldom met with in commerce. The North American spessartites are inferior.
Green Stones.—There are four green stones about which something ought to be said—the emerald, the tourmaline, the peridot, and the zircon. Some persons regard the green of the emerald as vulgar. It is too easy to construct a vulgar, coarse ornament out of emeralds, even if they be of fine quality. But the emerald, step-cut, and judiciously and quietly mounted, possesses a rich and refreshing ​colour, just sufficiently dichroic to show passages of bluish-green with the green. Green tourmalines are much more markedly dichroic, and it is much to be regretted that, with rare exceptions, the patrons of the jeweller's art still remain ignorant, not only of the peculiarly rich and varied qualities of the colour of the tourmaline, but even of the existence of this gem-stone. With moonstones, or with grey and ivory-white enamel, long prismatic tourmalines, carefully cut, afford a delightful colour-combination peculiarly fitted for larger pieces of personal adornment, such as pendants and brooches. The so-called green garnets of the Urals, especially those which are of an olive or pistachio green, are lustrous and fiery stones, but their softness precludes their use in rings. The same objection holds good with regard to that lovely stone the peridot; but this species occurs frequently of large size, and so is well adapted for employment in jewels not subject to much attrition. It is a dichroic stone; it accords well with small puce, violet, or indigo spinels, also with black and white enamel; small dark-coloured almandine garnets may sometimes be associated with peridots of fair size advantageously. The most beautiful of all green stones are those choice green zircons which show a full velvety leaf green. These always have a low density not exceeding 4·15, and often no more than 4. They have the merit of appearing particularly bright by artificial light. White enamel, or a border of very small green zircons, enhances their beauty.
The aquamarine and other pale varieties of the beryl are stones which lose nothing of their brilliancy at night. Their beauty may generally be greatly enhanced by the judicious use of creamy white enamel, with delicate arabesques of black or indigo blue. It is not often that the hue of the beryl is such as to bear the juxtaposition of other coloured stones.
Blue Stones.—Of these there are four that claim notice in this place—sapphire, blue spinel, iolite, and lapis-lazuli. Rich yellow dead-gold settings suggest themselves for most of these materials. ​Pearls or diamonds enhance the colour of the paler sorts of sapphire, spinel, and tourmaline, but afford too striking a contrast with very richly and deeply tinted stones. A fine indicolite, step or cabochon cut, accords well with pearls or moonstones arranged as a bordering or in some conventional form; the gold work may well receive an enrichment in the form of grey or olive green enamel. In the case of the sapphire, the twin beams of diversely-coloured light which this stone transmits—the one azure blue, the other greenish straw—contribute to produce the peculiarly rich quality of its velvety softness. There is a glittering coldness in all the imitations of the sapphire—the timbre of their colour, to borrow a word from music, is harsh and unsatisfactory. So a recent imitation, a kind of lime-spinel made artificially, exhibits apparently the right colour, but it is flat and uninteresting. To my eye, the difference between a true sapphire and a false one is the analogue of the difference between a piece of leafage in wrought iron, and the same piece in cast iron. As to the arrangement of the sapphire in jewellery, so much depends upon its depth of colour and its precise hue, that a general rule would be fallacious. Unless it be pale, when certain green tourmalines go well with it, the sapphire may be most safely associated with pearls, diamonds, moonstones, or white topazes, the cutting and size of the stones being carefully studied.
Violet and Purple Stones.—The amethyst, the oriental amethyst, and the almandine garnet cannot, as a general rule, be safely associated with stones having strongly marked contrasting hues. The paler sorts of peridot may, however, be combined with deep-coloured amethysts or almandines, provided the latter be small in comparison. The use of opaque fawn-coloured, olive green, and brown enamel with violet and purple stones sometimes yields happy effects.
In devising arrangements of coloured stones a mere water-colour sketch will not suffice. It is always desirable to study with the aid of the actual materials themselves—stones, gold, silver, ​enamel—the sum of the effects due to lustref texture, form, size, etc., as well as the balance and distribution of colour.
In any treatment, however cursory, of the topic of this chapter, the artistic employment of precious stones, some reference ought to be made to the materials used by the gem-engraver. Nearly all the minerals employed for intaglios and cameos will be found mentioned in a subsequent chapter. Most of them are varieties of silica coloured by small quantities of iron-compounds. Such are the sards, cornelians, onyxes, chalcedonies, amethysts and jaspers in which the great majority of antique gems were wrought. An intaglio well engraved in one of the more transparent or translucent of these stones, say, on a rich golden of blood-red sard, shows effects of beautiful colour when viewed by transmitted light which will be sought for in vain in any faceted specimen. And then the cameos of later dates, wrought in onyx and sardonyx, present delightful contrasts of tone and hue in their different strata, utilised as these layers often were in the building up of a relief-picture. Of other minerals employed for engraving in classic times mention may be made of beryl, garnet and plasma; the harder and rarer stones were, however, little used until medieval and later days. It is well to remember that the jacinth, properly so-called, that is, the orange brown or brownish red zircon, has never yet been found with an engraving of classic date upon it; that the steatite of catalogues of engraved gems is for the most part serpentine, a harder mineral having an essentially different constitution; and that under the conventional term "plasma" several other minerals are included, such as jade and smaragdite, both varieties of hornblende, and even the beautiful rich green variety of serpentine known as antigorite.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930.
This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse