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Smaragdus, Emerald

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SMARAGDUS.
325
no less than three ; indeed they are of tolerably frequent occur­rence. But true Emeralds, with really antique intagli upon them, are amongst the rarest of the rare, and appear none of them referable to an earlier date than the luxurious age of Hadrian. In fact, the best stones, both as to quality and the style of art, examined by myself, presented, one, this Emperor's head ; the other that of his consort Sabina ; a third the heads of both facing each other. It is curious so large a proportion of the works in so rare a material should belong to this prince's reign. Perhaps his love for Egyptian ideas, and long sojourn in that country, may have stimulated the workings of the Zubara mines, the main source of the supply. This transient revival of the Egyptian religion has also produced a miracle of the glyptic art, embody­ing one of its ideas : a head of the Solar Lion, the Alexandrian Cneph, giving in its impression a lion's head standing out in full relief, with gaping jaws full of life and fury ; the stone itself of the finest colour, purity, and lustre, and in itself of considerable intrinsic value (Fould, the late). The Devonshire Parure also possesses (Bandeau, No. 11) a large and beautiful stone cut into a gorgon's head in high relief, which has every mark of being an antique work of the same period : in fact it is hardly possible to conceive a modern hand venturing to convert into a material for art an ornamental stone so costly as this unusually large and pure example. The baser specimens from the Zubara mines—cloudy, full of flaws, almost opaque, aptly compared by Mohammed Ben Mansur to green soap—were in favour for amulets. Pliny quotes the impudent pretence of the Magi, " made in contempt and ridicule of mankind," that Emeralds engraved with figures of eagles or beetles possessed mighty virtues in conciliating the favour of princes, and in averting tempests. One of the most singular of these amulets belonged formerly to the Praun Gems—a head of Jupiter within a coiled serpent resting upon a crocodile, surrounded by emblems of the planets ; and bearing much analogy to those Alexandrian medals of Antoninus Pius, the devices on which are supposed to indicate the commencement of a Sothiac Period. The same Cabinet also possessed a Gnostic legend of several lines upon a similar material.
Smaragdus, Emerald Page of 453 Smaragdus, Emerald
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