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Chrysolithus, Oriental Topaz

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166 CHRYSOLITHUS.
seems also intended by his Melichrysus, " transparent like pure honey shining through gold," an Indian stone, hard yet brittle. Also to the same family belong the Xanthi (orange), " a vulgar gem in that country " (India).
On the other hand, his Pontic Chryselectri, amber-coloured, and recognised by their lightness (the Oriental Topaz being the heaviest of stones), some of them hard and reddish, others soft and cloudy, were no more than Rock-crystals variously tinged with yellow, orange, or brown (Rauch Topaz—Cairn-gorum) Their exact nature is settled by the fact quoted from Bocchus as to the magnitude of one, found in the Crystal-mines in Spain, which weighed twelve pounds; a sufficient proof that he is speaking here of those smoked Crystals, often improperly called European Topazes, which sometimes attain an incredible size r although we must accept with certain reservations De Boot's record of a Bohemian Topaz (presented to his patron Budolf II.), two ells long by one and a half broad.2 Yet an elegant shell-formed cup (Renaissance) in this material, large enough to con­tain a half-pint, has come under my own notice.
Chrysolithi were, when of the first quality, set a jour (funda perspicua), almost the sole exception to the then universal custom of backing the stone with gold : the inferior were foiled with aurichalcum, a red foil of gold, much alloyed with copper. Trans­parent gems, when extracted from the remains of their original iron rings, are frequently found backed by a leaf of rod gold, of quite a different standard to the pure metal used in the jewelry of the same period. Pliny also mentions the backing of Car­buncles with a silver foil, a method still in use, and the most advantageous when the stone is of fine quality. The use of coloured foils is merely to deceive, and to impose upon the unskilful by thus imparting to an inferior gem the finest colour belonging to its own class.
Chrysolithi, whatever they may have been, were in high esteem with the Romans. They are ranked with Emeralds
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
     
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