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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
ALABANDICUS.
17
lits, occur in this admirable material.* Closely ap­proximating to the Jacinth in colour, a pure, pale orange, and therefore usually confounded with it, is the Essonite, or Cinnamon-stone, although in its composition a true Garnet. It comes to our jewellers exclusively from Ceylon, but the Vesuvian-garnet, found in small crystals in the cavities of the lava flowing from that mountain, is exactly identical with it, both in appearance and constitution. The Common Garnet is precisely of the colour of Burgundy wine, more or less diluted, according to its goodness. The Pyrope differs slightly from this chemically (magnesia replacing in it the peroxide of iron), but not in appearance, except in being clearer and blighter. The Carbuncle is somewhat darker than the last, and is, in fact, the common Garnet cut " en cabochon," or " tallow-drop," to use the genuine old English term, that is, into a very convex form on the upper surface, whilst the base is hollowed out more or less to give trans-lucency to the stones ; for in their native state they are so dark in tint as to be nearly black until held against the light, when the red becomes visible. Many antique Car­buncles are found with the back hollowed out, precisely in the modern manner; but, if the quality of the stone allowed it, the ancients preferred cutting the under side of the gem to a plane surface, instead of increasing the risk of fracture to so brittle a material by diminishing its substance. The Vermilion Garnet, or Vermeille, so called from its unmixed red tint, is only a jeweller's name for the Pyrope, the Bo­hemian Garnet.
Garnets seem to have been little employed by the Greeks for engraving upon, but were largely in favour with the Romans of the Empire, though not at a very early date, as may be concluded from the frequent occurrence of splendid
* A still rarer shado of the Almandine, but also known to the an­cients, is of a pale rose-colour, much resembling the Balais, now exactly imitated by the burnt Brazilian Topaz.
(a) "                                                                            C
Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet Page of 384 Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet
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