Pearls
or diamonds enhance the colour of the paler sorts of sapphire, spinel,
and tourmaline, but afford too striking a contrast with very richly and
deeply tinted stones. A fine indicolite, step or cabochon cut, accords
well with pearls or moonstones arranged as a bordering or in some
conventional form ; the gold work may well receive an enrichment in the
form of grey or olive green enamel. In the case of the sapphire, the
twin beams of diversely-coloured light which this stone transmits—the
one azure blue, the other greenish straw—contribute to produce the
peculiarly rich quality of its velvety softness. There is a glittering
coldness in all the.imitations of the sapphire—the timbre of
their colour, to borrow a word from music, is harsh and unsatisfactory-
So a recent imitation, a kind of lime-spinel made artificially,
exhibits apparently the right colour, but it is flat and uninteresting.
To my eye, the difference between a true sapphire and a false one is
the analogue of the difference between a piece of leafage in wrought
iron, and the same piece in cast iron. As to the arrangement of the
sapphire in jewellery, so much depends upon its depth of colour and its
precise hue, that a general rule would be fallacious. Unless it be
pale, when certain green tourmalines go well with it, the sapphire may
be most safely associated with pearls, diamonds, moonstones, or white
topazes, the cutting and size of the stones being carefully studied.
Violet and Purple Stones.—The
amethyst, the oriental amethyst, and the almandine garnet cannot, as a
general rule, be safely associated with stones having strongly marked
contrasting hues. The paler sorts of peridot may, however, be combined
with deep-coloured amethysts or almandines, provided the latter be
small in comparison. The use of opaque fawn-coloured, olive green, and
brown enamel with violet and purple stones sometimes yields happy
effects.
In
devising arrangements of coloured stones a mere water-colour sketch
will not suffice. It is always desirable to study with the aid of the
actual materials themselves—stones, gold, silver,
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