Quantcast
  Due to a new server, slow response may occur for which we apologize Portal logo
Login/Register
Bactrian Gold Treasure from Afghanistan, coming soon....
/gemstones/king-natural-history/page_317 - 2
 

Sardonyx

Sardonyx Page of 453 Sardonyx Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
308                                      SARDONYX.
variable thickness ; proof demonstrative that they were arranged by the hand of Nature as we now behold them.
The Romans, however, like their descendants of our day, imitated the Sardonyx by the fusing together three pieces of coloured opaque glass, so as to represent the natural stone, with surprising accuracy.5 These, when worked over and polished like a gem, can only be detected by the test of the file. The Portland Vase, and the yet more elegant Amphora of the same description, entirely covered with vine foliage (Naples), were imitations of Onyx vases, and manufactured in this manner : the designs being cut out in the white crust fused upon the coloured body of the vase. Such imitations are aptly termed by Mar­tial "pocula diatreta," that is, ornamented by the drill. It is curious however to notice that the same idea as to the arti­ficial origin of the Sardonyx appears to have prevailed in the days of Theophrastus ; at least this seems the natural interpre­tation of the passage (61): "Earthy minerals: these assume all kinds of colours by reason of the diversity of the subject-matter, and of the influences acting upon it ; of which, some they soften by fire, some they fuse and pound, and so put together those stones that are brought from Asia."6 Now it must be remembered that both the Murrhina (porcelain Jasper) and the gemma, of which the huge draughtboard (carried in Pompey's triumph) was made, were unknown in Rome before the conquest of Asia, nearly three centuries after the times of Theophrastus : well therefore
Sardonyx Page of 453 Sardonyx
Suggested Illustrations
Other Chapters you may find useful
Other Books on this topic
bullet Tag
This Page