worth
from 1878 to 1S8S. Brazilian pebbles worth $65,000 have been cut or
sold ready for regrinding since 1878, and less thau $3,000 in the ten
years preceding.
Ten
years ago few of our jewelers carried more than the following stones in
stock: Diamond, ruby, sapphire, emerald, garnet, and occasionally a
topaz or aquamarine. The gem aud mineralogical collections contained a
large series of beautiful stones, hard, and of rich color, but known
here as "fancy stones" and by the French as pierres de fantasie. Since
then considerable interest has centered in these fancy stones, and any
leading jeweler is not only expected to be familiar with, but to keep
almost all of them in stock. This change may be partly referred to the
fact that since the Centennial Exhibition art matters have received
more attention among us than before.
The
Duke of Connaught gave his bride elect a cat's-eye ring as an
engagement token; this was enough to make that stone fashionable and to
increase its value greatly. The demand soon extended to Ceylon, where
the true chrysoberyl cat's-eye is found, and stimulated the search for
them there. Iu the chrysoberyl cat's-eye the effect is the result of a
twinning of the crystal, or of a deposit between its crystalline layers
of other minerals in microscopic inclusions. If the stone be cut across
these layers en cabochon, or carbuncle cut, as it is called, a
bright line of light will be noticed on the dome-like top of the stone.
In price they range from $20 upwards; exceptional stones have sold at
from $1,000 to $8,000.
In
the search for these chrysoberyl cat's eyes an endless series of
chrysoberyls has been found, of deep golden, light yellow, yellow
green, dark green, sage green, yellowish brown, and other tints. They
are superb gems, weighing from 1 to 100 carats each, ranking next to
the sapphire in hardness. They gave a great surprise to the gem
dealers; for it was found that the darker leaf green or olive green
stones possessed the wonderful dichroitic property of changing to
columbine red by artificial light, the green being entirely subdued and
the red predominating. They were in fact alexandrites, a gem which had
formerly been found only in Siberia, and even there of poor quality;
though found in large crystals, a perfect gem of even 1 carat was a
great rarity. Here, however, fine gems but rarely under 4 carats were
found and an exceptional one weighed 67 carats. They can be numbered
among the most remarkable gems known. Strange to say, among this
alexandrite variety a few have been found which combine the
characteristics of the cat's-eye and the alexandrite and were
accordingly named the alexandrite cat's-eye.
Moonstones
also from this same province of Kandy, Ceylon, were brought to light by
this search for cat'seyes. It would not be an overestimate to say that
100,000 of these stones have been mounted here in the last four years.
They vary in size from one-eighth of an inch to nearly 2 inches long
and 1 inch thick, and many of them surpass anything
