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Sandaster, Aventurine

Prasius, Plasma Page of 453 Sandaster, Aventurine Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
SANDASTER.
291
SANDASTER : Aventurine (?).
A gem so called from the locality in India that produced it; sometimes also known as the Garamantica, as coming from the interior of Africa. It was likewise found in Southern Arabia. It is described by Pliny as related to the Anthracitis (a sub­stance like fossil charcoal, and probably Jet) ; but its value consisted in the circumstance that a fire shone enclosed within it, with golden drops glittering like stars, and these always within the substance of the stone, not upon its exterior, (xxxvii. 28.)
Hence De Laet, and most mineralogists after him, pronounce the Sandaster to have been our Aventurine (then newly brought from India), a reddish-brown translucent quartz, filled with in­numerable particles of gold-like mica. It takes its present name froni the fact that the Venetian imitation of it, so often seen in brooches, &c, was found out " per aventura," by good luck ; from the accidental admixture of brass filings with melted glass.
But the innumerable specks of gold, the chief beauty of the Aventurine, prove of themselves that this was not the San­daster : because the latter was held a sacred gem, as bearing an affinity to the heavenly bodies, on account of the stars within it being arranged as the Hyades stand in heaven, and in the same number—that is, only five. Besides, the golden specks in the Aventurine would not have been described by Pliny as stars, implying a certain definite form, but as aureus pulvis, the terms he uses of the similar appearance in the Lapis-lazuli.
The brilliancy of the Indian kind was so great as to injure the sight, if viewed too long. Another character mentioned by Ismenias, that this gem could not be polished in consequence of its tenderness, and therefore brought a high price in its native condition, does not by any means suit the Aventurine, a hard
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Prasius, Plasma Page of 453 Sandaster, Aventurine
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