POPULAR SEARCHES:   rings  cut stones  diamond ring  tourmaline  yellow supphire  beryl  
 
This chapter is tagged (labeled) with: 

Crystallus, Rock-crystal

Crystallus, Rock-crystal Page of 453 Crystallus, Rock-crystal Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
182
CRYSTALLUS.
detected by the touch. A veiled bust of the Madonna thus treated and set in a ring which lately came under my notice was a remarkable example of this curious illusion, the head appear­ing in high relief, though upon a really plane surface.
From the very commencement of the Revival, Crystal was employed once more for its ancient destination, the formation of vases in the most elegant and varied forms ; as early as the close of the fifteenth century, Camillo Leonardo particularizes this as the sole use of the material. This branch of industry, so emi­nently artistic in its character, flourished to a vast extent for the two following centuries, as the sight of the older European cabi­nets fully attests ; and its productions, when remarkable for magnitude or skill, commanded then (and even now) the highest prices. The works in Crystal belonging to the Crown of France are valued in the inventory drawn up in 1792 at 1,000,000 francs, comprising vases of numerous different shapes, fifteen candle­sticks, statuettes, a Death's Head, &c, and a ball ·165 m. in dia­meter (6-1/2 inches), valued at 10,000 francs; a galley,· -335 m. (12 inches) long, at 24,000 francs; and a square coffer formed of six plaques, at 4000 francs.
Such objects will find their value augment with the progress of time in the same proportion as their rarity ; for in our days this elegant art is entirely extinct. It has been completely driven out of the field by the invention of Strass, of Flint-glass, and of artificial Crystal ; substances superior to the natural in colourlessness, purity, and lustre, and only yielding to it in point of hardness. Although the refractive power of the Crystal is but a third of that of the Diamond (being as 10-5 to 30), yet the Cinque-cento jewellers had found a way so to cut it into a pyramid, that, when mounted in the favourite " tower-rings" of that period, it presented the iridescence and much of the lustre of the gem it was designed to counterfeit.
Crystals are sometimes found with a cavity in their sub­stance containing a few drops of water, which moves about as the stone is turned. This is Pliny's Enhydros or Enhygros, " always perfectly spherical, colourless, and polished, but, when moved, something fluctuates about within it like the liquid in an egg." This was regarded by the ancients as a most won-
Crystallus, Rock-crystal Page of 453 Crystallus, Rock-crystal
Table Of Contents bullet Annotate/ Highlight
King. Natural History of Precious Stones.
Suggested Illustrations
Other Chapters you may find useful
Other Books on this topic
bullet Tag
This Page