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Chalcedonius, Calcedony

Chalcedonius, Calcedony Page of 384 Chrysocolla, Carbonate of Copper Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
CHALCEDONIUS.
87
originally one of those boy's (Horus) heads in a rude style, so much in vogue under the Lower Empire for phalerœ, for the usual perforation through its thickness is still per­ceptible. Some good hand of the Cinque-cento, however, tempted by the unusual beauty of the Calcedony, has entirely re-worked and improved the relievo, and by the addition of a pair of folded wings and an elegant open­work border in gold, has converted it, new christened into a cherub, into the most graceful pendant that ever adorned the neck of a Medicean princess.
That our two commonest species of the stone were the Lencachates and the Cerachates, White and Wax Agates of the ancients, can hardly admit of a doubt. Dionysius describes the Choaspes as carrying down in his torrents the beautiful Achates torn by the wintry rains from the mountains, and experience attests the almost exclusive use of the Calcedony for signets by the Persians of his age.
In consequence of the abundance of this stone in Europe, (almost the solo fitting material for the Glyptic Art pro­duced by this region of as fine a quality as by the East), a larger number of Eenaissance and modern works in relief will be found in Calcedony than in any other stone ; whereas genuine antique Camei in this single-coloured material are much rarer than upon the stratified species of the Quartz family. De Boot has (ii. 88), "In our times (the close of the Cinque-cento period) cups, figures of princes, chaplets of beads, and an infinity of other things are made out of Calcedony. Its chief use, however, is for seals, because the wax (i. e. the soft wax then used) does not stick to it." To the correctness of the last remark ample testimony is borne by the large number extant of clever intagli of this date in common white Calcedony, a stone never touched by a good master in antique times.
Chalcedonius, Calcedony Page of 384 Chrysocolla, Carbonate of Copper
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