The New York herald., 1871-12-03


There are very few who have any idea Of
the amount Of wealth expended on ornaments;
and not one out of hundred Of those who
wear the most costly kind would believe what
large proportion of them are spurious. 1t
would be impossible to show in one article
now innocent the world is in this respect but
1t IL our Intention that such of the readers of
the HERALD as take any interest in the sub
ject shall have their eyes opened. at least to
some extent In regard to it. Even in the
space which wa occupy to-day some facts will
befound which, if duly considered, will prove,
useful. Let those who consider this merely a.
sensational remark pause for a moment. We
appeal in advance to chemistry, geology and
history for the truth of the statement, that
thousands are enriched in all the wealthy
nations of the world by means of spurious
gems sold and worn as genuine.
Nor is the traffic one Of the s'modern inn
provements." It was source of wealth
among the ancient Egyptians. As for the
Greeks, they carried to perfection the art of
counterfeiting the finest gems. Yet they con-
sidered it dishonorable to wear the spurious.
SolOn tells his brother-in-law that he would
not believe man on his oath who would bs
guilty Of such an imposture. ''At best" he
says, cit is a species Of deception, and he
who would deceive merely to crafty his vanity
would not hesitate to do so in order to crafty
his avarice or his cupidity."
That the Jews were acquainted at an early
age with the traffic in false gems, il not with
tho a ri Of ms mn "a TN rim Thorn Ia hovond cuoo-
ton. There are learned historians who are
ill-natured and heterodox enou ,h to insinuate
that, in speaking so often of gems in the PEN
tateuch, Moses had an eye to the worldly pros
perty of some of his friends. Be this as it
may, the great lawgiver was always rather
fond of recommending costly ornaments in
one form or other. Take the breastplate Of
Aaron for example :-s'And thou shalt set it
in settings of stones, even four rows of stones.
The first row shall be sardius, topaz and
a carbuncle; aud the second row shall be an
emerald, sapphire and diamonds and the
third row figure, an ag ste and an amethyst;
aud the fourth row beryl and an onyx and a
jasper" This is sufficiently plain. Nor did
Moses merely recommend the precious things.
In the same chapter Exodus xxviii.) he
adds :-''And the stones shall be engraved
with the names of the children of Israel,
twelve, according to their names, like the en-
cravings of sgnet" Bishop Colenso is not
the only critic who remarks that, if all the
gems the Jews are said, by their historians, to
have possessed had been real, they would have
left none bat spurious gems to the rest Of the
world.
Had we no other proof of the skill of the
Greeks in the art Of coultcrfeting precious
stones but their mosaics the latter would be
sufficient. Many engraved stones to be seen
at the principal art galleries of Europe were
regarded for ages as real gems it is but
recently that some of them have been proved
to be nothing more, after all, than artificial
crystal Almost everybody has heard of the
celebrated Portland Vase now in the British
Museum. This was long regarded as the
finest porcelain; and finally of the most
eminent living chemists had considerable dif:.
ficulty in proving even to connoisseurs that
the precious article was composed of deep
blue glass. Nor is it merely the composition
of the vase that shows wonderful skill. s'The
sculpture" says the poet Rogers sis in the
greatest perfection; all of the figures full Of
grace and expression; every stroke as fine,
sharp and perfect as any drawn by pencil"
Yet the Portland vase is not Greek, but
Etruscan. Exquisite as it is it does not ap-
proach many of the Greek canoes as speci-
men of ancient art
Now, can we of the present age boast of our
numerous discoveries and inventions, and at
the same time deny that the moderns can im:
tate gems so as to deceive four-fifths Of those
who buy such articles? This question can be
the more easily answered If it be borne in
mind that science has much more to do with
the work than art. There is not schoolboy
we meet who will not tell us how much better
the moderns understand chemistry and geology
than the ancients did. If this be true-and
we do not deny 1.-THE moderns can initiate
the precious gems more successfully than the
ancents.
Nowhere has chemistry-the science most
essential for this purpose-been brought to
greater perfection than in France. Accord
ingly none have attained more skill in the art
of initiating gems than the French. If the
revenue that Paris has derived from this
source alone for the last quarter of a century
were stated in plain figures it would seem
more fabulous than any story in the "Arabian
Nights" But it would seem worse than fabu-
lous to say that three-fourths of those gems
which are worn daily, or at least nightly, in
New York, Philadelphia and Boston, including
those that sparkle on the bosoms of some of
our great men, have contributed to that
revenue, in proportion to their size and other
characteristics. Yet it would really be no
exaggeration of the fact.