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Jaspis, Jasper, Quartz-gems

Jaspis, Jasper, Quartz-gems Page of 453 Jaspis, Jasper, Quartz-gems Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
204
JASPIS.
phirine Calcedony appears from another circumstance : the finest and bluest specimens of that stone are to be found in the cylinders and the conical seals of the Persians. That from the Thermodon was azure, the Phrygian crimson, the Cappadocian azure mixed with crimson, and of a dull, lustreless tint. What stones are intended by these latter designations, unless, as above remarked, the modern Amethysts, it is im­possible to discover.
There were many other sorts : the general defect of all was to be sky-blue, or like rock-crystal that is deficient in colour, or to resemble the myxa-plum (a dull yellow ?), all defects belong­ing to our coloured quartz. To this species belonged the gems called Sphragides, par eminence, as making the best seals—" supre­macy over all other signet-stones being awarded them on that account by public favour;" and Theophrastus says (23) the stones out of which signets are made 'for their beauty alone are the Sard, the Jasper, and the Lapis-lazuli.4 Plato (Phaîdr. 210) has " the gems admired by the Greeks—Sards, Jaspers, Emeralds," arranging them apparently in the order of their value. But here another difficulty arises ; intagli of the Greek period never occur upon the green translucent or pale blue calcedonies, properly the ancient Jaspis. The conclusion therefore cannot be resisted that this name was given to those bright yellow Sards the favourite material of the Greek gem-engraver, but which went entirely out of use under the Romans. Such a colour the Greeks termed χλωρός equally with the green, for their ξανθός was orange, being the term applied to hair which we call red. But in fact these yellow Sards (to keep) to the modern incorrect termi­nology) often have a green shade, and sometimes darken into the
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