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Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet

Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet Page of 384 Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
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NATURAL HISTORY OF GEMS.
The precious varieties, according to Pliny, were the Indian, the Garamantic or Carthaginian, the Ethiopie, and the Alabandine. The last were so called because, though found in the Orthorian rocks, they were worked up (per-ficiuutur) at Alabanda. This was the sort called by Theo-phrastus the Milesian, both places being in the same province, Caria. The Almandines of the moderns are the finest species of Garnet, of a beautiful crimson tinged with violet, and are brought from Siriam in Pegu, hence they are vulgularly called Syrian Garnets. These were the Amethystizontes of Pliny, then, as now,' considered the best of the whole species, though it is probable he, or at least his Greek authorities, included the Balais under the same designation. He notices how some amongst the males pos­sessed a more liquid, others a darker fire ; how some were lighted up with a colour not their own, and shone more than others in the sunlight. The description he quotes from Archelaus of the Carthaginian sort exactly applies to our best Indian Garnet, " that it was of a daikish aspect, but kindled up more brightly than the others when held and turned about in the light of the fire or sun. In the shade within doors the colour was purple ; in the open air flamy ; the wax sealed with such a gem would melt even though in the cool."
These descriptions of the several varieties of the ancient Carbunculus will be rendered more intelligible by a brief account of the various Garnets known to the modern lapi­dary. First in value comes a rarer sort, the Almandine, already described. It is a splendid stone, of great lustre, and, when of the first quality, can with difficulty be dis­tinguished from the purple Spinel, which indeed usually passes under the same name in its antique specimens. Fine Roman intagli frequently, and sometimes imperial
Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet Page of 384 Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet
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