Heliotrope or Bloodstone.
Another green stone is the heliotrope or bloodstone, and
is identified by the presence of minute bright red spots disseminated
throughout the green jasperoid base; hence its name of bloodstone.
There is in the .Royal collection in Paris a bust of Jesus Christ
executed in this material, the red spots being so arranged that they
stand out like real drops of blood. There is a tradition, believed in
the age of superstition, that at the crucifixion the blood of Christ,
falling upon a dark green jasper, produced the red spots.
The
stone was used as a talisman by the Egyptians, and was in great request
during the Byzantine and Renaissance periods. Egyptian and Babylonian
intagli have been found cut in this stone, but engravings are rare. The
name heliotrope is from the Greek, and was so named because of the idea
that when immersed in water it changed the image of the sun into
blood-red. Pliny states that the sun could be viewed in it as in a
mirror, and that it made visible its eclipses. Marbodus, in the
eleventh century, iu his poem on gems, also speaks of it as having this
property. It is found in large quantities in India, Bokhara, Siberia,
Tartary, and in many other places. It is a favourite stone with
engravers, and crests and monograms are engraved upon it. It is largely
used for signet rings. Cups and other ornamental objects of art are
also made of it. It is much used for pendants and small articles of
this character.
Jasper.
This
is the opaque variety of quartz, presenting a compact texture, and
destitute of any crystalline structure. In colour it ranges from green
through the reds and browns, and from yellow to grey and bluish. It
takes a fine polish. It was a favourite material for engravings in
ancient times. The breastplate made for the high priest of the
Israelites contained an engraved jasper. Nine portraits of the Roman
Emperors were cut in this stone, including that of Nero. The head of
Minerva, in jasper, belonging to the Vatican collection, is considered
to be the finest intaglio in existence. The Imperial seal of China is
made of jasper, and in almost all countries articles are manufactured
in this stone for use or adornment. Jasper should be opaque on the
edges of thin splinters, and be infusible before the blow-pipe flame.
The Egyptian jasper, characterised by intense red or ochre-yellow tints
passing into chesnut brown, and sometimes spotted with black, was found
near Cairo, and extensively used in ancient times. Yellow jasper is
found near the Bay of Smyrna, in Greece, and is used in the Florentine
mosaic work under the name of pieira dura. The red jasper, so
largely used by the lioman engravers, came from Argos, in Greece. Five
hundred years before the Christian era a writer speaks of the "
grass-green jasper which rejoices the eye of man and is looked on with
pleasure by the immortals." The emeralds spoken of by the Soman and
Greek authors are considered to be green jasper, because pillars of
their temples were cut out of one piece—a work not likely with the
emerald. An old writer states that if a jasper be hung about the neck
it will strengthen the stomach.
A
large quantity of jasper is cut and polished for articles of adornment,
the value in Europe in the rough ranging from Is. up to 50s. a pound,
the price depending upon the evenness of texture and the colour. A
variety, beautifully banded with different shades of brown, is known as
ribbon jasper ; the original came from Egypt. If agate and
jasper are combined in the same specimens, they are agate-jasper or
jasper-agate, according to the
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