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38
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PRECIOUS STONES.
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they
are passed again under a careful lapidary's hands. The improvement thus
effected is marvellous. The value of the pearl, whether its " orient "
be luminous with prismatic hues, or whether it be a warm soft white
merely, is too well known to be more than named in this connection. But
we may be permitted to say one word in deprecation of the extravagant
expenditure of time, of ingenuity, and of costly materials, which the
attempt to convert large irregular pearls into structures resembling
figures has so often caused. The result is nearly always most unhappy.
Red Stones.—The
ruby may fitly be considered before other coloured stones. It, with the
sapphire, and all the transparent varieties of corundum, ranks next to
the diamond in hardness. It is, moreover, a stone of great beauty.
Probably the experts in jewels are right in assigning the highest value
to those rubies which possess a " pigeon's blood " colour—this is the
orthodox hue. But the paler colours, and those which verge upon pink
and crimson, and even violet, are capable of being so treated by means
of association with white and black enamel or with dark stones, like
olive-green tourmalines, as to lend themselves to the production of
very beautiful decorative effects. The great mistake commonly made in
the treatment of the paler rubies lies in the attempt to treat them in
the same way as the deeper coloured stones.
It
is difficult to describe the peculiar colour quality of the ruby in
words. In fact, our nomenclature of colours is neither ample nor
accurate. Our appreciation of delicate differences between colours is
growing, but the language by which we endeavour to describe the hues
which we have learned to appreciate is either stationary, or else
receives additions from time to time of unsatisfactory words, derived
from the caprices of French fashions. The time has really arrived when
a standard series of hues of all sorts should be constructed and
appropriately named ; but, in the case of the ruby, the question of
pleochroism comes in, and renders
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