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GARNET. The garnet has been known from earliest times, and has always been exceedingly popular. Once it commanded a high price, and was frequently, as well as spinel, confounded with ruby. "Stones of the same color," explains King, "were promiscuously classed under one head by the ignorance of the Middle Ages (unacquainted with even the ancient test of hardness) whence has arisen that strange interchange of names between ancient and modern precious stones so perplexing to every mineralogist." "Garnet," according to the best authorities, is derived from pomegranate, because of the resemblance of its color to the jelly-like juice surrounding the seeds of that fruit. This is quite as applicable to the ruby, which was also included with the "Granatica," and the spinel. At an earlier date, they were all grouped under the general head of carbunculus, from carbo, a coal, because of their supposed resemblance to burning coal. The modern carbuncle, which is never a specific gem, but always a garnet cut convex, exemplifies this idea to a marked degree, particularly when placed in the direct rays of the sun. Usually, such a stone is cut en cabochon, hollowed out though as garnet is brittle, it is safer to have the flat bottom and set against a background of convex gold. This was a favorite treatment for centuries, and is considered artistic at the present time. Wily Asiatics often place colored foil at the back to improve a tint, and deceive the purchaser. It is not safe to buy in the Orient any jewel set with closed back unless the dealer is known as reliable. "En cabochon" is the French expression for the convex, polished but uncut. While carbuncle usually means garnet mounted in this manner, the term is applied to any stone so cut; which is best for all dark or badly flawed specimens, throwing light into their depths, making them sometimes more brilliant by night than day. The garnet family is divided into six or more sub-species, which pass into each other by almost imperceptible gradations. They are all silicates of different protoxides or peroxide, combined with alumina, the variations causing the difference in hardness and color, as : the alumina-lime garnet, of which the essonite is an example ; alumina-magnesia garnet, otherwise the Bohemian pyrope; alumina-iron garnet, as the almandine ; alumina-manganese garnet, the spessartite, from Amelia Court House, Virginia ; iron-lime garnet, the black and a variety of the common kind; lime-chrome garnet, the emeraldgreen ouvarovite of Siberia. Garnets are easily melted by the blowpipe and some varieties, as the black garnet or melanite, found in the lavas of Vesuvius, seem 68
to be the direct result of fusion of their ingredients. They are often mistaken for iron ore, and condemned as such, though useful in the manufacture of iron, when understood. Such garnet is found in the Highlands on the west side of the Hudson River. In recent years, other variations of this large family, even more interesting, have been discovered. The grossularite or goose- berry stone, a pale yellowish green, is seldom found in crystals fit for jewelry nor is the ouvarovite, the hardest of all garnets. But the demantoid, from the Urals, so-called because of its diamondlike lustre, which has nothing to do with its hardness (for it is the softest of all, only 6.5 in the scale, as against 7.5), is perhaps the most beautiful, when at its best, of all. Its soft, brilliant, exquisite green, trembling with loveliness and life, from which intermittent red rays flash out curiously, is far more enchanting than that of the emerald in a specimen clear and of some size. But a karat stone of perfect color and without marked flaws is extremely rare and costly. The many small ones, ranging from quarter of a karat to the most minute, formerly were sold by jewelers as "commercial olivines," which they strongly resemble, when of a light shade. But no olivine can compare with a "gem" demantoid of size, and especially when set in an artistic manner. One such, crowning a ring of rich Roman gold, with pale pink tourmalines down the shank, was exhibited by Tiffany in the Paris exhibition of 1900, as the work of a distinguished artist, and priced at $125. Particularly interesting to Americans, because discovered by W. E. Hidden and J. H. Pratt in 1898, at Cowie Creek and Mason's Branch, North Carolina, is the rhodolite. Intermediate in character between the almandine and pyrope, one molecule of the former to two of the latter, it yet has a character of its own. The best color is rose pink, seldom inclining to purple, like the almandine, which jewelers often sell as rhodolite, seemingly unaware of the pure rose tint, whence its name, from the Greek roden, a rose. It is without that central profundity which makes most garnets so dark by artificial light, though this disadvantage in fine specimens is more and more overcome by the "spread" cut, giving to a clear garnet of rich color a superior beauty to all red stones save the rarest rubies. The peculiar rose tint of the rhodolite, first, last and forever pink rather than purple, combined with transparence and brilliance, renders it even more striking by night than by day, its lustre being comparable to the demantoid. This, together with its freedom from flaws, makes it a striking and beautiful gem. But it is very scarce, the first abundance having ceased. Rhodolite is not yet mined extensively enough to stand on its own merits, but when that desirable hour comes all the world will be cognizant of a wonderful gem now known only to the few. Mr. Hidden may be said to be the father of the rhodolite, for it was when mining in a desultory way for the stone which now bears his name that he came across this entirely new variety of garnet, sometimes among the inclusions of true pigeon's blood rubies. What might not happen if the mineral riches of North Carolina were systematically worked, 69
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GEMS - BY- Helen Bartlett Bridgman
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To Zona Gale Lover of Gems in Earth
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since it never can be wrested from
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tion of the three species of Hyacin
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CARVED GEMS. For nearly three thous
Page 18 and 19:
He must be able not only to judge t
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they plainly represent the owner's
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special significance and power. Kin
Page 24 and 25: He putteth his hand upon the rock;
Page 26 and 27: The following are all the voice of
Page 28 and 29: FAMOUS JEWELS. The finding of the C
Page 30 and 31: and the Great Mogul are identical,
Page 32 and 33: in gems Mrs. Edward B. McLean of Wa
Page 34 and 35: of Russia. Besides these diamonds t
Page 36 and 37: But for these invaders of the deser
Page 38 and 39: appears. As Cattelle : says "Gem co
Page 40 and 41: white diamond results from further
Page 42 and 43: lacking in reserve power. One of th
Page 44 and 45: negative little woman it is not in
Page 46 and 47: takes a hand here, too, in the boug
Page 48 and 49: SAPPHIRE. Hyacinthus was the ancien
Page 50 and 51: ing five karats in weight are excee
Page 52 and 53: cave, and thus Nero may have discov
Page 54 and 55: CHRYSOBERYL. Chrysoberyl, though ha
Page 56 and 57: every year. Moreover, it is the onl
Page 58 and 59: that again a fourth, with the commo
Page 60 and 61: fainter tinge of blue which was the
Page 62 and 63: OPAL. No wonder that in the absence
Page 64 and 65: cold has a repressive eftect. Alway
Page 66 and 67: TOPAZ. Attention was first called t
Page 68 and 69: a crucible, with powdered charcoal,
Page 70 and 71: at Mt. Mica, bringing in during the
Page 72 and 73: cients, in a crude way, what fine i
Page 76 and 77: instead of merely tapped by the ent
Page 78 and 79: HYACINTH. Three various kinds the s
Page 80 and 81: for January, but it is not without
Page 82 and 83: practice obtains even to the presen
Page 84 and 85: SPODUMENE. Spodumene or triphane, b
Page 86 and 87: JADE. The word jade is magical in i
Page 88 and 89: ity only 2.9. In hardness the nephr
Page 90 and 91: TURQUOISE. The turquoise is exquisi
Page 92 and 93: est color by a surface application
Page 94 and 95: The agate is the birthstone for Jun
Page 96 and 97: LAPIS LAZULI. Lapis lazuli is a mag
Page 98 and 99: PEARL, CORAL, AMBER, JET. The above
Page 100 and 101: AMBER. Amber, prized less as an orn
Page 102 and 103: jeweler and traveler Tavernier, in
Page 104 and 105: of the most exquisite ornaments in
Page 106 and 107: white satin or black velvet; pearl
Page 108 and 109: atmosphere. Always in storage a dam
Page 110 and 111: ARTIFICIAL REPRODUCTION. The diamon
Page 112 and 113: Burmese gem, though the price of th
Page 114 and 115: METHODS OF TESTING STONES. Hardness
Page 116 and 117: Why did not somebody teach me the C
Page 118 and 119: Pole, while Polaris is practically
Page 120 and 121: I have seen the mysterious shores,
Page 122 and 123: You know how, in and for themselves
Page 131:
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 39
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