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Vitrum Annulare, Pastes

Vitrum Annulare, Pastes Page of 384 Vitrum Annulare, Pastes Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
326
NATURAL HISTORY OF GEMS.
about Rome wherever the soil is disturbed), whilst the roughness of the surface entirely depends upon the coarse­ness of the matrix, which may be obtained at pleasure. As for the iridescence on which some amateurs set such store, I more than suspect it is often produced by chemical means (fluroic acid). But indeed bits of bottle-glass, after a few years' exposure to the acids of a garden soil, often turn up with surfaces fully as iridescent as the most indubitable antique.
As counterfeits of precious stones, Pastes can be traced back to the most remote ages of antiquity. Herodotus describes the pendants put in the ears of the sacred croco­diles, under the name of* "fused gems," a curious yet accurate periphrasis. Such pendants, in blue or green transparent pastes, figure much more frequently than real stones in those elegant and elaborate ear-rings that carry us back to the early ages of Greek and Etruscan prosperity. They also decorate the necklaces of the same period of art. Though their surface be now dulled by Time's corroding tooth, yet doubtless, when first sent out
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