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Sandaster, Aventurine

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SANDASTER..                                    269
SANDASTER : Aventurine (?), Matrix of Opal (?).
A gem so called from the locality in India that produced it; sometimes also known as the Garamantica, because coming from the interior of Africa. It was likewise found in Southern Arabia. It is described by Pliny as related to the Anthracitis (a substance like fossil charcoal, and probably Jet) ; but its value consisted in the circumstance that a fire shone forth inclosed within it, with golden drops glittering like stars, and these last always confined within the substance of the stone, not showing upon its exterior, (xxxvii. 28.)
Upon these data De Laet, and most mineralogists after him, pronounce the Sandaster to have been our Aventurine (then newly brought from India), a reddish-brown trans­lucent quartz, filled with innumerable particles of gold­like mica. It takes its present name from the fact that the Venetian imitation of it, so often seen in Italian jewelry, as a ground for mosaics, and in earrings, brooches, &c, was found out per aventura, " by good luck ; " from the acci­dental admixture of brass filings with melted glass.
But the innumerable specks of gold, the chief beauty of the Aventurine, prove of themselves that this was not the Sandaster : because the latter was held a sacred gem, as bearing an affinity to the heavenly bodies, on account of the stars within it being arranged as the constellation the Hyades stand in heaven, and in the same number—that is, only five. Besides, the golden specks in the Aventurine
Prasius, Plasma Page of 384 Sandaster, Aventurine
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