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Ch. 6: Carbunculus, Ruby

Ch. 6: Carbunculus, Ruby Page of 377 Ch. 6: Carbunculus, Ruby Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
       
     
 
CÄRBUNCULUS.
233
  
 
 
  
 
natural surface rudely polished, occur both inserted into pieces of antique jewelry, and set in rings dating from the earliest times. In the Hertz Collection was a necklace formed out of native Rubies and Emeralds of fine colour and as large as horse-beans, drilled through and elegantly linked together with strong twisted gold-wire, in a similar manner (though much more substantially) to the Sapphire necklace from Rutupiaa noticed under " Hyacinthus." Such a mode of employing these very hard gems was long main­tained. De Laet, writing in 1647, states that Rubies were then very generally set unpolished both in rings and in ladies' ornaments ; for, " unlike the Diamond that hath no beauty save when shaped and polished, the Ruby charms without any aid from art." He remembered when it was still the custom (and an ancient one) for the gentleman to present the lady on their betrothal with two rings, the one set with a Diamond, the other with a Ruby table-cut. This gift went by the French name " Mariage."
The Ruby, though of the same chemical composition as the Sapphire, slightly yields to it in hardness ; the Spinel, again, into which a small proportion of magnesia enters, is still softer ; nevertheless, antique works in either are even more uncommon than "on the Sapphire itself. As in modem, so in ancient times, the Ruby was far the rarer of the two, and therefore to violate its beauty by an engraving was regarded as the extreme of imperial extravagance. In fact, the experienced Lessing (A. Br. lxxix.), and later the Count de Clarac (' Cat. des Artistes Gr. et Rom.'), altogether deny the existence of any really antique intagli in these harder gems ; but the instances to be adduced under "Smaragdus" and "Hyacinthus" sufficiently prove that this rule, although generally true, yet admits of some, though rare, exceptions. Here is the place to remark that engravings on any of the "Precious Stones" are always to
  
 
 
  
       
Ch. 6: Carbunculus, Ruby Page of 377 Ch. 6: Carbunculus, Ruby
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