Quantcast
  We apologize for any slow response. This will be fixed before October 31st Portal logo
Login/Register
Bactrian Gold Treasure from Afghanistan, coming soon....
/gemstones/king-gems-decorative-stones/page_216 - 2
 

Lapis Nephriticus Jade

Lapis Nephriticus Jade Page of 384 Lapis Nephriticus Jade Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
LAPIS NEPHRITICUS.                           207
must be submitted to a similar jury of professionals, and if not judged satisfactory, the carver has to lose his head. But inasmuch as twenty years are required for the completion of such a task, during all which the engraver receives a handsome salary from his employer, the very remote con­tingency of failure and punishment tends little to damp the ambition of the competitors for the job.*
No satisfactory evidence has come to my knowledge as to this mineral having ever found its way to ancient Rome, as it possibly might have done along with the other pro­ductions of the remotest East. No pieces of Jade ever come to light stamped with the unmistakeable impress of classic art, although 1 have seen a few intagli in a waxy calcedony f that might easily have been mistaken for it. Pliny indeed mentions the Adadu-nephros, " kidney of Adad," the Syrian Belus ; but as he also specifies the " eye " and the " finger" of that deity, in the same way as he does the " Idaei Dactyli," Jove's fingers, it is evident that such names denote only the natural configuration of certain fossils, not their medicinal relation to the same members of the human body. Similar parts of other deities were espied by the fanciful Magi in the accidental shapes or markings of different stones. Most curious of all was the Hermuaidoion, so called, " ex argu­menta nominis," from its representing the organ, that deity's
* In Jade we have the most remarkable monument, taken all in all, that the Glyptic art of any ago or nation has ever produced. This is the immense Tortoise found in the bank of the Jumna, and now dis­played in its appropriate place in the mineralogical gallery of the British Museum. It is carved with exact fidelity to nature, and per­fectly polished, out of an unparalleled block of fine olive-green, agreeably clouded with lighter shades.
t Mr. H. M. Westropp informs me that he possesses a bit of Jade picked up in an excavation on the Palatine ; and that the stone goes in Rome by the name of verde dt Turquinia. But this very appellation, indicating it to be a native of that locality, throws great doubt upon its identity with the Oriental species.
Lapis Nephriticus Jade Page of 384 Lapis Nephriticus Jade
Suggested Illustrations
Other Chapters you may find useful
Other Books on this topic
bullet Tag
This Page