Portal logo
Login/Register
Bactrian Gold Treasure from Afghanistan, coming soon....
/gemstones/king-natural-history/page_174 - 2
 

Chrysolithus, Oriental Topaz

Chrysoprasius, Chrysoprase Page of 453 Chrysolithus, Oriental Topaz Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
CHRYSOLITHUS.
165
The Chrysolithus of Pliny (42), or at least his best sort, the Indian, was the gem now wrongly styled the Oriental Topaz, a yellow variety of the Sapphire, and of equal hardness and rarity. The ancients obtained it from Ethiopia (a vague term for the remote East), together with the Hyacinthus (Sapphire) : a natural companionship, both being Corundum but differently coloured—the blue and yellow Jacut (whence Hyacinth) of the Persians. The description, " transparent, with golden lustre," applies to no other gem so exactly as to this. Such is its bril­liancy that when De Boot wrote it was considered superior to the Sapphire for imitating the Diamond, after the colour had been extracted by heat. In the first class were placed the Indian, and those brought from Tibara, if not cloudy (turbidae). The test of their quality was that their intense yellow should make gold compared to it look as pale as silver itself. This golden lustre is a conspicuous quality in the Oriental Topaz, the Brazilian, on the contrary, being betrayed by a vinous tinge. The Arabian Chrysolithi were most probably the modern Jacinths, for Pliny's account of them applies exactly to the latter gem : " They are in least esteem of the whole class, being turbid and of different shades; and even when limpid their lustre is marred by a cloud of spots, as if they were filled up with their own dust" (scobe) ; an evident allusion to that porousness or granular and even bubbly texture so conspicuous in the Jacinth. Besides, a gem so much in fashion with the ancients as our Jacinth was could not have been omitted from Pliny's list, and here alone is a description to be found at all applicable to it.' The same gem
Chrysoprasius, Chrysoprase Page of 453 Chrysolithus, Oriental Topaz
Suggested Illustrations
Other Chapters you may find useful
Other Books on this topic
bullet Tag
This Page