Those from Brazil are at present most prized because they are most beautiful.
The
aquamarina of Saxony is a variety of quartz very little valued, and in
that country it takes its name from the different stones whose colour
it resembles; thus, the bluish is called aquamarina; the yellow, topaz
; and the olive, chrysolite. Great crystallizations of Western
aquamarinas are found. That which was exhibited in London in the year
1855 was very beautiful. Caire possessed one which weighed five hundred
and forty carats.
Fine
and beautiful aquamarinas are worth from four to five hundred lire *
the ounce ; those which are beautiful, but small, are valued at but
twenty-five.
The
ancients used the aquamarina in its natural state, and also engraved,
and they tell us of several celebrated intagli on that stone. They knew
it under the generic name of aquamarina, and perhaps they often
confused it with the beryllus, of which Pliny says, " It has the same
nature as the emerald, and is of a green colour." * A lira is about
equal to 8-3/4d.
