The
Western sapphire is a blue quartz, but it is found of very varied
tints, as some stones of the kind are of a greenish blue; many of a
dark blue somewhat inclined to amethyst; others almost a white, but
slightly bluish.
They
receive different names. Thus, French and leaden sapphires are called
water sapphires ; but all the stones called Western sapphires are not
really such. And I remember that Count Lavinio Spada stated that he had
never seen a clear blue quartz, because all the stones that had been
shown him under that denomination, if really clear, ought rather to
have been known as dicroites.
The
Western sapphire is more frequently dark, and it always has a resinous
light. In general its specific weight is 2-580, and its hardness equals
that of other quartz. It loses colour under the action of fire.
Bluish
quartz is found in Silesia, Bohemia, Alsatia, and France, but it also
comes from the East, and especially from Ceylon. For ages it has been
known that France produces Western sapphires, and even in 1753 a
countryman of the village of Expailly obtained a precarious livelihood
by seeking these gems in the neighbouring brook called Eiouppezzouliou.
There has been much discussion as to what the ancients understood by the name of sapphire.
Aristotle and Theophrastus described the zapphiros as a blue gem, covered with spots and veins of gold,
Pliny, by the word sapphirus, similarly describes a gem " which shines with gold spots. Sapphires are blue,
