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Ch. 6: Opal

Ch. 6: Opal Page of 515 Ch. 6: Opal Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
302
A POPULAR TREATISE ON GEMS.
opal, playing in the red color, was sold for two to three hundred ducats ; and one playing in both red and green colors, about five lines long, was sold at Paris for two thousand four hundred francs ; and lately a single opal, of fine colors, and the size of a dollar, was sold near the locality for three hundred thousand florins; in this country precious opals are sold by the importers at the rate of four to ten dollars per carat, and single specimens, suitable for pins or rings, from two to twenty dollars. The mother of opal is, however, much cheaper ; one of five lines size is sold for three to five dollars.
All experiments for imitating the precious opal have hitherto proved fruitless ; they were made either by pre­paring an enamel and adding several metallic oxides, or by aiSxing to the back of a clear or common opal or enamel, a polished thin plate of the mother of pearl, which may some­times deceive the ignorant.
• The precious opal, when large and exhibiting its peculiar play of colors in perfection, is a gem of considerable value ; it was used as an ornament among the Greeks and Romans, and was called opalus ; also paederos (παιδερως), in allusion to its color and lustre as expressed in the Orphic poem : " Ιμερτον τερενα χρόα παιδος,—having the delicate com­plexion of a lovely youth." The most magnificent Hunga­rian opal in the London Exhibition, called " the mountain of light"—a very appropriate name—weighed 526 1/2 carats, and was estimated at 4000 pounds sterling.
From Honduras, at Gracias a Dios, large quantities of opals have been imported into this city for the last ten years, at first by the late Mr. De la Raye, and latterly by Mr. Aaron C. Burr ; and many large and beautifully cut speci­mens are in the possession of Mr. B. Palmer, of this city; they are by no means inferior to the Hungarian opal. A very large opal, cut and polished by himself, which he
Ch. 6: Opal Page of 515 Ch. 6: Opal
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