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Ch. 13: Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire.

Ch. 13: Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire. Page of 401 Ch. 13: Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire. Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
254
PRECIOUS STONES.
is not exclusively an orientalist, since it has been discovered
in the itacolumite of Brazil, and in various localities in the
United States. It is a native of Australia, where the miners
have given it the name of garnet, from misunderstanding its
true character. There are other red gems which may easily
pass for the ruby when judged by sight only, as the spinel and
the garnet, detected by holding the stone up to the light,
when it appears dark and opaque if it is a garnet, but if the
gem is a true ruby it will be transparent and exhibit the conventional pigeon's-blood tint. Nearly all the great historic
rubies now extant have been pronounced spinels by modern
mineralogists, but is there not some doubt about the accuracy
of this sweeping condemnation, except in instances where
the nature of the gem has been subjected to the strictest
tests? Rubies were imitated in paste by the ancients, with
remarkable skill, as they are at present, even to their flaws.
Parisian jewellers impart to a pale, valueless specimen the
richest color by filling the inside setting with ruby enamel.
The rubies in ancient jewelry were polished but not often
faceted or engraved, on account of the repugnance of the
artists to the waste necessarily involved, and it has been
supposed there were no antique engravings on this gem, but
King says, though they are very rare, yet a few examples are
known, and mentions as illustrations the head of Hercules,
in the Webb cabinet ; the head of Thetis with a helmet, a
work of the Cinque-cento period, in the Herz collection ; and a
Bacchante crowned with ivy, in the Fould. An intaglio bearing the head of M, Aurelius, belonging to this writer, which
had been considered a ruby, proved to be a balas. A ruby engraved with the names of several Indian kings was owned by
Runjeet Singh, and one in the Persian treasury, described by
Chardin, a traveller and dealer in gems, is represented to have
Ch. 13: Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire. Page of 401 Ch. 13: Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire.
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