Quantcast
  Due to a new server, slow response may occur for which we apologize Portal logo
Login/Register
Bactrian Gold Treasure from Afghanistan, coming soon....
/gemstones/king-natural-history/page_065 - 2
 

Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet

Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet Page of 453 Alabastrites Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
56
ALABANDICUS.
Our Garnets and Carbuncles, aluminous silicates coloured by iron oxide, are now supplied in vast quantities from the mines of Zoblitz in Silesia, from the Tyrol, and from Hungary. These are all inferior, both in beauty and hardness, to those from Siam, which sends stones of the richest red, tinged with yellow, besides its peculiar purple-tinted Almandines. The latter also come in abundance from Ceylon; hence their popular name of Ceylon-rubies, by means of which our jewellers obtain a better price for them from the ignorant. In spite of this abundance, even now a stone of a certain size, of a fine rich tint, and free from flaws, is of considerable value, ranging from 81. to 10l But its estima­tion has greatly fallen since the days of Mary Queen of Scots, the pendent carbuncle to her necklace worn at her marriage with the Dauphin being worth 500 crowns—an enormous sum in that age. Thus De Boot, about the year 1600, states (II. 36) that small Bohemian Garnets, up to the bigness of a pea, were found abundantly in the fields around Prague, but that one the size of a hazel-nut would equal a Ruby in value. This kind he prefers to the Indian. The latter he estimates at 2 thalers per carat up to 20 carats ; then at 3 up to 40 ; at 4 up to 60; and at 5 up to 100. But in De Laet's time, fifty years later, they were all of little value.
Alabandicus, Almandine, Garnet Page of 453 Alabastrites
Suggested Illustrations
Other Chapters you may find useful
Other Books on this topic
bullet Tag
This Page