Among the crown-jewels of France, is a very valuable set
of agates,—ten cups and sa.ucers, four urns, four chandeliers,
four busts, two ewers, two basins, two vases, two bowls, two
salvers, one decanter, and one candlestick ; the whole set is
valued at 500,000 francs.
At
the French Exhibition in 1S55, a magnificent Oriental agate, by Froment
Maurice, belonging to the Princess Mathilde, was exhibited, having the
engravings of the three infatuations,—the amorous, the poetical and
sad, most tastefully represented. It is the Benvenuto Cellini of our day.
The
most celebrated cameo in Oriental agate, is the bust of Alexander the
Great, which is a perfect gem; the head is quite independent in color
from the base of the stone, and the execution without a blemish.
The
Orleans collection contained two agates: one representing the death of
Cleopatra, as a half-body; the other, Lysimachus, the head girdled with
a diadem.
A
large black agate, particularly remarkable for its perfection and .the
complication of its workmanship, represented a captive followed by two
generals on horseback, and several other persons, one showing a trophy,
and another a laurel branch.
An intaglio of Neptune, belonging to the Sabatini Museum, was also exhibited.
Agate
is found in gangues, in gneiss, porphyry, or amygdaloid ; also, as
.boulders and pebbles, in rivers, &c. It is found in Baden,
Oberstein, Saxony, Bohemia, Hungary, the Faroe Islands, Siberia, the
West Indies, and in the United States, (Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
New Jersey, Indiana, Missouri, Maryland, Georgia.) Those occurring-in
amygdaloid are mostly in the form of geodes, or balls, hollow inside,
and coated with quartz or amethyst; when the rock begins to
disintegrate, these balls, becoming
