The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-11-03
Subscribe for The Herald, %%s%% G195 Per Mon

the Orient, chiefly from the Ratnapura
district in Ceylon, and from the Semla
Pass of the Himalayas, where they
were brought to light by the landslide
of 1882. Some are found with the ru-
bies of Burmah and Siam; few nave
been cut from material obtained In
North Carolina. and quite number or
light-colored stones are now yielded by
the gravel bars of the Upper Missouri
river, near Helena, Mont. These latter
are varied in color-pale blues and
reds, light greens and blue greens. yell
low and colorless. Many Of them make
bright and beautiful gems, but not
dark enough to have the highest
value, and all rather small. When
finely cut, some of them have a lustre
like FURNISHED metal, peculiar to sap
phires from this locality. From them
remarkable piece of jewelry has been
made, consisting Of a crescent two
inches long, one end of which was of
red sapphire, and the other blue, grad
uating into each other between,
through all the intermediate tints. By
artificial light they all changed to
brilliant red. Some of the more beau
tiful green ones have been cut into
true oriental emeralds, though the
tints are usually rather too light.
are lightened in color by heating; this
is the case with some from Epailly in
France, and such stones are often ex-
posed to fire by lapidaries to render
them more brilliant.
Some Famous Rubies and Sapphires
The name Brazilian sapphire is ap-
piled to the blue variety of tourmaline
called indicolite. Among gems of tho
group that are especially noted, the fol-
lowing may be mentioned: Three ru-
bies among the crown jewels of
France, one of them weighing $40 car
ats, having formed part Of the dowry
of Catherine di Medici on her marriage
to Henry II, and the two others having
been reset for Marie Stuart. There is
among the English crown jewels a cell
ebrated stone known as the Black
Prince ruby, but, unfortunately, it is
not true ruby, but a red spinel.
The sapphir merveileuz, sixty-six
carats in weight, and known as the
wooden spoon sapphire because
found by Ceylonese wooden spoon
dealer. was lately in the Hope collec-
ton. It is celebrated as the stone that
figures in the Tales of the Castle" by
Madam de Genlis. remarkable violet
sapphire, quite red by artificial light.
Other blue sapphires are one of 1872
Jardin des Plantes at Paris; one large
rose-cut stone in the British museum; a
very large pear-shaped one. two inches
long, on the top of the German I'm
perial crown; a similar one on the
Austrian crown, and another on one of
the Russian crowns at Moscow. These
date back to a period between the
tenth and eleventh centuries, and may
have come to these various monarchs
fr;I
There are two yellow sapphires of es-
pecial note, each nearly two inches
long. One of them forms the top of a
Russian crown in the Kremlin at Mos
cow; the other is an oblonp nearly two
inches in greatest length beautifully
set with border of large brilliants;
it is among the Austrian jewels, and
used to be worn on a black velvet rnuff
by the jewel-loving Empress Maria
Theresa when Sleigh riding.
The Finest Green Sapphire in the
World.
The finest green sapphire in the
world is a transparent nodule of natur-
al crystal in the cabinet Of Clarence S.
Bement Of Philadelphia. 1t is from
Franklin. Macon county, North Caro-
lima, and would cut into a magnificent
deep green gem of thirty l1arats.
The purple or violet sapphire is form
ed by minute interlamination of red
ruby and blue sapphire. This enter
mixture of different colors in the same
crystal is frequent in corundum. In
the Tfffany-Iorgan collection in tho
American Museum of Natural History
in New York there is a large specimen
from North Carolina composed Of many
alternate layers of blue and yellow. In
London a fine large ruby. valued at
SIC, 900 was slightly reduced in weight
by cutting to improve its brilliancy,
whercupon it developed a blue tint, 1e-
sulting in a loss Of about $4,000 to the
dealer.
Some celebrated European jewels
have been preserved in their original
East Indian workmanship. not facetted
but simply polished and sometimes Per
forated The pendant sapphires in the
votive crowns of the Guarrazar treas
ure of the seventh century, now at the
Cluny Museum i'm Paris. and those OF
the Pala d. Orc in the church Of SAINT
Amlaeglo at Milan. of the eighth CEN
tury, are of this kind.
Historic Engraved Rubies.
A very large and remarkable perfor-
ated ruby of similar workmanship. now
in the possession of a noble lady in
Ireland has evidently had long and
eventful history. 1t Is over AN men
and a half in Gength, and nearly an
inch wide. and weighs $50 karats. Upon
1t are sharply engraved, in Arabic char
acters, the names of four successive
rulers of great note in East Indian
history, viz: Ahbar, mis- son Jahangir
his son Shah Jehan, and his son, Au-
rungzebe, covering together about the
first two-thirds of the seventeenth cen
fury This was bought some years age
! in Teheran, and is doubtless one of the
| jewels before referred to as carried
! from India to Persia in 1889 by Nidal
Shah. and scattered and lost after his
! death. Another ruby, larger than this
one, of which a model and impression
still exist, had the same four names
engraved upon it, but the stone has
been recut-a piece Of historical van
dalism that is objectionable. Its pres
emit whereabouts are uncertain.
Another ruby engraved with the
name of Aurungzebe. is said to have
been among the jewels of his son; ano
a diamond that had been cut since, also
had the engraved names of Jahangil
and Shah Jehan.
The Kaaba at Mecca, said to have
! been built by Abraham. encloses a sa
cred Black stone seven inches long
called a Ruby from Heaven" but il
reality believed to be a meteorite.
| Next to the diamond and ruby ths