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 Copyright, 
 
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 By JAQUES & MARCUS. 
 
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INTRODUCTION. 
 
 A STRONG tendency to individuality has of late years 
 manifested itself throughout the great Art universe in 
 the renunciation cf old conventionalities, and in a de- 
 termined stride in the direction of free taste. 
 
 A complete revolution has overturned the old prov- 
 ince of aesthetics, and forced a decided change in 
 every department of Art productions. 
 
 To realize this new condition in the material world, 
 it is only necessary to consider the present style of 
 house furniture and decoration, and contrast it with 
 that of less than a quarter of a century ago. 
 
 We are a people given to extremes, and eager en- 
 thusiasm for novelty is but too liable to overstep the 
 bounds of moderation. 
 
 Still, this same tendency to impatience under re- 
 straint, and to audacious independence, if directed in the 
 right channel, would in time develop a national taste 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 both daring and original. The fashions of the day 
 tend to the encouragement of decided personaHty in 
 dress, and the question naturally suggests itself : If 
 in apparel, why not in articles of adornment ? 
 
 This leads to the consideration of the scope afforded 
 us for originality in the selection of jewels for personal 
 use and enjoyment, in the stones that are here introduced. 
 
 There is a large class of gems of rare beauty, color 
 and brilliancy, among which there are many instances 
 of stones that it is almost impossible to duplicate. 
 
 Strange to say, these gems have until recently 
 been entirely neglected, overlooked perhaps through 
 ignorance of their very existence, certainly through 
 ignorance of their beauty. 
 
 Why should not jewels, possessing such attractive 
 properties and unlimited variety, be more sought after 
 by the public ? 
 
 A more general knowledge of their beauty would un- 
 doubtedly insure their popularity, and consequently in- 
 crease the demand. It is only because they are so 
 little known that few specimens are at present found 
 in the market. 
 
IN TR on UC TION, 5 
 
 As far as scarcity is concerned, many of these 
 stones are even rarer than the diamond or sapphire — 
 the green garnet and the blue and pink tourmalines may 
 be mentioned as instances. 
 
 Others might also be cited, but they are left to ap- 
 pear under their own special classification, without fur- 
 ther introduction. 
 
SOMETHING ABOUT 
 
 NEGLECTED GEMS. 
 
 TtlE ZIRCON. 
 
 The names Hyacinth and Jacinth are applied indis- 
 criminately to the red variety of this family ; whereas 
 the yellow, gray, brown and green specimens are 
 termed Ja7^goons. 
 
 It is difficult in many instances to distinguish at a 
 glance the members of this family from some of the 
 other precious stones ; but classification can always be 
 determined by the specific gravity, which is greater in 
 the zircon than in any other gem. 
 
 The ancients showed a marked predilection for the 
 Hyacinth on account of a pleasing superstition that it 
 Would induce sleep, and procure for the wearer wis- 
 dom, honor and riches. Evil spirits were supposed to 
 
8 SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS, 
 
 have a particular aversion to the stone, and to flee the 
 presence of the possessor. 
 
 The Hyacinth is particularly well adapted to intagl- 
 ios, the grain being fine, and the stone showing dis- 
 tinctly all the lines of the engraver. Even stones 
 that have a dull center are susceptible of great beauty, 
 as the design covers the dull portion, while the edges 
 remain full of nre and brilliancy. 
 
 Gems of various kinds are placed in the hands 
 of the engraver, who forces even the hard sapphire to 
 yield to the merciless diamond point of his tool, and 
 receive the image, now of an ancient warrior now of a 
 mythological deity. 
 
 THE CHRYSOBERYL. 
 
 This is the name of the crystal most resembling the 
 sapphire in hardness, but differing entirely from it in 
 color. 
 
 The several varieties of the chrysoberyl family are so 
 totally unlike in appearance that one would never rec- 
 ognize as sisters the Oriental Catseye and the Alexan- 
 drite of the Ural Mountains. 
 
SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 9 
 
 The latter is a most mysterious and fascinating gem, 
 changing its whole aspect when taken from daylight 
 into the presence of a Hghted candle or gas-jet. By 
 day the stone is green, with a slight tinge of olive, re- 
 sembHng somewhat a tourmaline, though of greater 
 brilliancy ; but by artificial light the green entirely dis- 
 appears, and in its place a reddish luster, bordering on 
 purple, pervades the whole jewel. 
 
 This was the favorite gem of Alexander II., Em- 
 peror of Russia ; hence the derivation of the name. 
 
 The Catseye is almost too well-known to be described, 
 but it may be mentioned that the value does not de- 
 pend upon any one of the many colors in which it oc- 
 curs — yellow, gray, brown or green — but upon the beauty 
 and distinctness of the stripe which traverses its surface. 
 
 For many years the true catseye was supposed by 
 jewelers to be a sapphire, and was named sapphire cats- 
 eye in contradistinction to the qicartz catseye of the 
 Hartz Mountains, and to the crocidoUtes of the Orange 
 River in Africa ; but the real chrysoberyl catseye can be 
 readily distinguished from these last by its extreme 
 hardness and translucency. 
 
lo SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS, 
 
 Old superstitions attribute to this stone, as to the 
 hyacinth, various forms of good-luck, asserting that the 
 eye of Fortune was bound to keep ever a constant 
 vigil over the life and undertakings of the possessor. 
 
 THE TOURMALINE. 
 
 Superstition might with equal reason have attached 
 itself to the Tourmaline on account of its wonderful 
 magnetic property. 
 
 This stone, when placed in hot ashes, will alternately 
 attract and repel them ; and if in this heated condition 
 it be embedded in cold ashes, it will continue to affect 
 them in the same way, the electricity being generated 
 by difference of temperature. 
 
 The tourmaline, when first brought to Europe by the 
 Dutch, was named Aschentrekker on this very account. 
 
 Saxe Holmef makes use of this electric property as 
 the foundation of a short story entitled, " My Tourma- 
 line ; " but he has greatly exaggerated the magnetic 
 power of the stone. 
 
 Although found in various quarters of the globe, the 
 
SOME THING ABO UT NEGLECTED GEMS. 1 1 
 
 tourmaline rarely exists in a clear and perfect state, 
 suitable for the purposes of the jeweler. 
 
 The ordinary stone, ranging in color from pale apple- 
 green to dark olive, and even black, is frequently met 
 with in Maine and in several other of the United States ; 
 but the Brazilian Indicolite, of a rich blue tint, and the 
 red, yellow, brown and gray varieties, the production of 
 the Ceylon mines, are of extreme rarity. Fine red 
 tourmalines are of especially uncommon occurrence, 
 and are as beautiful as costly rubies. 
 
 When grouped together tourmalines produce most 
 gorgeous effects and brilliant harmony of color, rivaling 
 in splendor the time-worn emeralds, sapphires and 
 diamonds. 
 
 They rarely require a diamond setting to develop 
 their charm, but appear to the best advantage when 
 grouped with the other members of the same family. 
 They are chiefly composed of alumina or crystalized 
 clay (the material of the sapphire), with silica, and the 
 color varies according to the presence of foreign 
 minerals. The green tourmaline is shown to contain 
 a proportion of potash and protoxide of iron ; whereas 
 
12 SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 
 
 the red has none, but, instead, small quantities of lime, 
 soda and manganese. 
 
 Among the natural crystals, which are usually long 
 and narrow, an occasional parti-colored stone may be 
 seen, combining red and green, and sometimes yellow, 
 red and brown. One specimen in the British Museum 
 shows five distinct varieties of color. 
 
 THE OPAL. 
 
 The precious or noble Opal is one of the most ex- 
 quisite gems in existence ; all the colors of the most 
 beautiful jewels being here united in one. When held 
 between the eye and the light it appears of a pale, 
 milky-reddish blue, but when seen by reflected light it 
 displays all the colors of the rainbow, in flakes, flashes 
 or sparks. When the colors are in small flakes, it is 
 termed, by jewelers, " harlequin " opal, on account of 
 the resemblance to the motley tints of the harlequin's 
 dress. 
 
 AVhfen fine these are much prized, but some persons 
 prefer stones having the colored fire in large flashes. 
 
SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS, 13 
 
 THE SAPPHIRE. 
 
 K Few persons are aware, even those who possess sap- 
 phires, that the stone is found in any other color than 
 blue ; but many different tints are familiar to the 
 mineralogist — white, yellow, green, pink, red, blue, black, 
 violet and opalescent. 
 
 These are all known as the corzmdum jewels, being 
 crystalized clay, as the diamond is crystaUzed carbon. 
 But the latter stone, though produced by nature in many 
 colors, always retains its name, whereas every variety of 
 sapphire has a different appellation. 
 
 The blue is the well-known sapphire, the red is the 
 ruby, and the others are named after the stones they 
 most resemble, as oriental amethyst, oriental emerald, 
 oriental topaz, etc., but they are all true sapphires. 
 
 Many persons improperly, and through ignorance, 
 apply the term oiHental at random to choice specimens 
 of every stone, whereas the name belongs exclusively 
 to. varieties of the sapphire family. 
 
 It might here be mentioned that the mines where 
 these stones are found, produce also the most beautiful 
 
14 SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 
 
 specimens of the ruby, and are the monopoly of the 
 King of Burmah. 
 
 They are rigorously guarded and worked by the 
 natives^ no European being allowed to approach them. 
 Fine stones can be removed from the country only by 
 smuggling, as the order is imperative to retain all for 
 the king's treasury. 
 
 When a particularly large ruby is discovered, it is 
 the custom to send out a procession of grandees with 
 soldiers and elephants to escort it Math honor to the 
 palace. 
 
 One of the titles of the King of Burmah is Lord of 
 the Rubies. 
 
 A strange variety of corundum is the star sapphire, 
 which has the appearance of a six-pointed star when 
 held in the sun-light. The lines crossing in the center 
 suggest a catseye striped in three directions. The 
 color of these stones is usually gray, though pink and 
 blue specimens are occasionally met with. 
 
 Quite as rare and unfamiliar to the public are the 
 many varieties of fancy colored sapphires, before al- 
 luded to. These stones should generally be associated 
 
SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 15 
 
 with diamonds, as their delicate tints, more especially 
 in yellow and pink, are thereby thrown into greater 
 prominence. 
 
 THE GARNET. 
 
 Under this head the ordinary red garnet at once sug- 
 gests itself, and few of the uninitiated know that the 
 green Uwm-oimte, the yellow Essoiiite^ the purple Alman- 
 dme, and the brown Colophonite are identically the same 
 stone, differing only in color. 
 
 Garnets are found in large quantities in as many as 
 one hundred localities in the United States ; but fine, 
 pure crystals in any other color than red are extremely 
 rare. The green variety is particularly beautiful, being 
 far richer in tone than the emerald, and possessing great 
 brilliancy. All the fancy garnets are, as a rule, exceed- 
 ingly lustrous, unusual care being taken in the cutting 
 to produce the best possible effects. 
 
 The ancients confounded the garnet with the ruby, 
 and attributed to it the same happy influence with which 
 the latter was supposed to be invested. 
 
 In former times red stones of every kind were termed 
 
1 6 SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 
 
 Carbuncles, but the term should be limited to the red 
 garnet when cut without facets, smooth on top, and flat 
 or concave beneath. 
 
 THE BERYL. 
 
 Bej^yl is the scientific name for the emerald and aqua- 
 marine. The stones are identical, with the exception of 
 the color ; the emerald, which is well-known, being green, 
 and the aqua-marine of a pale blue or light sea-green 
 tint, as the name implies. 
 
 THE PERIDOT. 
 
 Olivine or Peridot is the name of another variety of 
 green stone, resembling in appearance the tourmaline, 
 but readily distinguished by its non-electric properties 
 when heated. It belongs to the family of chrysolites, 
 although the chrysolite proper is of a light greenish 
 yellow. The peridot is the more beautiful stone, how- 
 ever, and is sometimes found of great size and entirely 
 free from flaws. 
 
 These gems come from Brazil and Ceylon, but do not 
 exist in large quantities. 
 
SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 17 
 
 , THE SPINEL. 
 
 Red spinels are now being largely sold in place of ru- 
 bies. The latter stones have become so scarce that few 
 choice specimens can be fomid, and on account of 
 their great rarity bring extravagant prices. 
 
 The spinel ruby is light in color and shows an admix- 
 ture of yellow, by means of which it is easily distin- 
 guished from the ruby proper. When the red spinel is 
 heated it becomes brown, but if allowed to cool slowly, 
 it changes to green, then passes into an almost colorless 
 state, and finally resumes its pristine color. The fancy 
 colored spinels are blue, green, violet, black, and white, 
 and all the innumerable tints shading from these colors. 
 It is only quite recently that the lapidary has directed 
 his attention to the cutting of the fancy stones mentioned 
 in this pamphlet, but the encouragement of popular 
 appreciation has been sufficient to warrant the jeweler 
 in urging on these incipient efforts. 
 
1 8 SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 
 
 THE SEARCH FOR THE BEAUTIFUL. 
 
 The desire for personal adornment is ingrained in 
 human nature. The wish to be beautiful and to have 
 the beautiful is a simple and natural desire that has 
 existed in the hearts of mankind longer than history can 
 tell. Children and savages decorate themselves with 
 flowers and feathers, and keep as something valuable bits 
 of colored stones. An Indian's delight in glass beads, 
 and a child's pleasure over a few wild flowers, are 
 natural human instincts. Men may preach dreary 
 homilies against the pomps and vanities of beautiful 
 fabrics, lovely v»^orks in gold, and charming displays of 
 color in precious stones ; but men and women will 
 continue to admire beauty in every form till the end of 
 time. 
 
 Civilized people smile at the paint and feathers of 
 the savage, but it is not at his love of the beautiful, 
 .but at his want of culture. The admiration of gems and 
 precious stones is perfectly consistent with the highest 
 culture and refinement. The savage simply admires 
 things of little value or doubtful beauty. Culture im- 
 
SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 19 
 
 plies that the love of the beautiful shall be reasonable. 
 The wish to possess and use objects of beauty and art, 
 far from being a snare and temptation, is perfectly con- 
 sistent with the highest morality. The love of adorn- 
 ment, which the savage gratifies with beads and paint, 
 the civilized man gratifies with wonderful fabrics, artis- 
 tic jewelry, and the charming art of the lapidary. 
 
 When modern research began to pry into the secrets 
 of dead and forgotten cities, the first spadefuls of vol- 
 canic tufa were brilliant with beautiful glass and bits of 
 broken ornaments. There were found rings of gold, 
 necklaces of beautiful stones, and cut gems that were 
 pictures and jewels in one. The oldest mummy cases 
 contain articles of adornment, and when Schliemann 
 dug up old Troas, deep under the mold of centuries, he 
 found ornaments of gold and precious stones. The 
 rudest tools of the old cave dwellers, the arms and oars 
 of the lake dwellers, the oldest things made by hands, 
 show, in a greater or less degree, the same deep-seated 
 instinct in the hearts of men. The desire for personal 
 adornment and the love of the beautiful is thus older 
 than history. Modern civilization seeks not to repress 
 
20 SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 
 
 this instinct, but to cultivate it, to teach what is the 
 best, to show what is really and truly the most beauti- 
 ful, and to show why one thing is more beautiful than 
 another. Good taste selects the best, shows that art 
 must be joined to nature, and points out the difference 
 between a bit of quartz and a precious stone. 
 
 SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH GEMS. 
 
 While gems and precious stones have been sought 
 after for centuries, while they have been worn by every 
 people, it is only in very recent times that they have 
 been rightly regarded. Ascetics have frowned upon 
 them as snares and allurements from pious living. The 
 superstitious have given gems strange attributes that were 
 half poetical, half childish, and wholly imaginary. The 
 fables that have clung to them appear to have started in 
 the East. The natives fancy that rubies ripen, like vege- 
 table matter in the ground, being first yellow and then red. 
 In China, bags of small rubies are placed under the 
 foundations of new houses to bring good luck to the 
 dwelling and its inhabitants. In the early Christian 
 centuries, rubies were said to ward off wicked spirits, 
 
SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 21 
 
 and to keep the one who wore them in a cheerful state 
 of mind. So widely do different generations repeat the 
 same fables. Ignorant peoples always impute to magic, 
 luck, or fate, that which they cannot understand. Pliny 
 relates that on the shore of the island of Cyprus there 
 was a stone lion, having eyes formed of emeralds which 
 shone so brightly that all the fishes were ingloriously 
 frightened av/ay. The fishermen accordingly pulled the 
 emeralds out, and put in glass eyes instead, whereupon 
 the wise fishes became bolder and returned to their 
 accustomed nets. Isidorus, Bishop of Seville, was not 
 much wiser than the fishes, for he said that the emerald 
 was such a beautiful and healthy gem that the lapida- 
 ries who cut them always had good eyesight. This is 
 the source of a superstition at present in vogue that 
 wearing an emerald is good for the eyes. 
 
 The Bible mentions the twelve stones in the High 
 Priest's breast-plate (see frontispiece), the sard, the 
 topaz, the emerald, the carbuncle, the sapphire, the 
 jasper, the ligure, the agate, the amethyst, the diamond 
 or chrysolite, the onyx, and the beryl. Each stone was 
 engraved with the name of the tribe to which it was 
 
22 SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 
 
 consecrated, and the two onyx stones in the shoulder-- 
 knots were also engraved with the names of the twelve 
 tribes of Israel. The Jews, had a tradition, that when, 
 on the day of atonement, the High Priest asked the 
 Ahiiighty forgiveness for the sins of the whole nation, 
 if they were forgiven, the stones in the Urim and 
 Thummim shone most brightly ; if the contrary they- 
 became black. 
 
 The opal is used in Sir Walter Scott's novel, entitled 
 "Anne of Geierstein," in a manner ridiculously childish. 
 If superstition must be attached to this stone, let it be 
 that of the ancients, who said that it brought every 
 possible good to its possessors. The most simple natural 
 laws are quite sufficient to account for all the magic that 
 is imputed to gems. The belief in the occult properties 
 of precious stones is only a survival of barbaric ignorance ; 
 gems are precious because of their wonderful beauty 
 and rarity. They make charming and acceptable gifts, 
 and chaste and comely ornaments, but it is solely on 
 account of their beauty. 
 
SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 23 
 
 BEAUTY AND VALUE OF PRECIOUS STONES. 
 
 The beauty of stones appears to be quite complex. 
 It springs in part from their color, their peculiar power 
 of reflecting and dispersing light, and from the artistic 
 manner in which they are treated on the lapidary's wheel. 
 The commercial value of such stones arises in part from 
 their beauty, and in part from their rarity, and should 
 be governed by their beauty rather than anything else, 
 but this seems to require a more artistic appreciation of 
 gems than has yet been given them. 
 
 A precious stone is a mineral that by its beauty of 
 color, its hardness and density, and certain optical prop- 
 erties, is distinguished from the common stones of the 
 field. When we come to examine these properties by the 
 light of science, we find that they have naturally more 
 real and abiding value than any fictitious worth that 
 could be given them by belief in their power to 
 bring good luck or ward off disease or ill fortune. 
 
 The extreme hardness of such stones as the diamond, 
 the sapphire, and the spinel enables them to resist the ac- 
 tion of moisture, of frost, and oxidation. All other forms 
 
24 SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 
 
 of art-work — sculptures, paintings and buildings — molder 
 and decay in time. Gems have outlasted them all 
 Jewels have been found that have scarcely lost their lus- 
 trous surface after being buried for thousands of years. 
 It is of great interest to observe the peculiar optical 
 qualities and colors of gems, for these give them their 
 beauty and make the chief measure of their value. Pre- 
 cious stones have been supposed to give out light. This 
 is not true, except in the case of phosphorescent light, 
 and this is so feeble that it is of no value. All diamonds 
 are black in the dark, but in the light of the sun or a lamp 
 they appear to shine as if giving light themselves. Rays 
 of light and flames of fire have been said, by highly im- 
 aginative persons, to flash from brilliant gems, but such, 
 people have been simply misled by their own senses. 
 Reflection and dispersion of light are quite sufficient to 
 explain, on a simple scientific basis, the charming dis- 
 play of light and colors of the diamond and the flashing 
 rays of other cut gems. Besides these properties nearly 
 all precious stones have the power of refracting light, 
 while a fev/ exhibit two colors, one by reflected and 
 another by transmitted light. 
 
SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 25 
 
 Closely allied to refraction is the dispersion of light. 
 If a ray of sunlight passes through any transparent body 
 that is cut into the form of a prism, the ray is split into 
 the solar spectrum, and shows all the colors of the rain- 
 bow. If any clear stone is properly cut, as in the brill- 
 iant or rose form of cutting, the gem will make quite a 
 number of prisms joined together. Each side of the 
 gem will be one face of a prism, and the light passing 
 through it will be dispersed into all the different colors 
 of the rainbow. As some of the prisms will be more or 
 less imperfect, only parts of the spectra will be seen, and 
 the same colorless stone will flash out rays of red, blue, 
 and other colored lights. It is this dispersion that gives 
 all the wonderful play of color to gems. 
 
 There is an impression in this country that the clear 
 white diamond is the most beautiful of all precious 
 stones. It is certainly very valuable, but it is not by 
 any means the most beautiful in color. 
 
 It seems strange that people have been content with a 
 colorless stone, while beautiful gems that have colors 
 of wonderful richness and purity have been com- 
 paratively neglected. By the use of color the work 
 
26 SOMETHING ABOUT NEGLECTED GEMS. 
 
 of the jeweler is raised to a fine art. He selects 
 from the apparently endless varieties certain precious 
 stones, precisely as the painter selects his colors, and 
 combining Jiem judiciously, produces a work of art. 
 If he uses diamonds it is as a foil to set off the colors, 
 just as the florist in making an artistic bunch of flowers 
 uses white roses among his carnations and violets to 
 enhance their beauty. 
 
 It has been the aim, in this brief monograph, 
 to show what constitutes a real gem, to point out 
 the varieties and colors of such stones, and to show 
 their value in art. It is only in modern civilization 
 that gems have been rightly understood and ap- 
 preciated, though they have been worn by the peo- 
 ples of every time. Some of the most beautiful stones 
 have been made the subject of false estimates and 
 strange superstitions, and it is the endeavor here to 
 show that beauty alone should decide the merit of 
 precious stones. 
 

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