corundum, ruby, sapphire, quality.10, gems

Catalogues 124 lots of jewellery and precious objects formerly belonging to the Russian State Jewels, offered at Christie, Manson and Woods in London on 16 March 1927. The assemblage, purchased by a British syndicate and sold to close its partnership account, consists predominantly of eighteenth-century pieces. Entries briefly describe gemstones, settings, decorative motifs, and the components of suites, with selected objects illustrated photographically. Diamonds dominate the collection, appearing in necklaces, bracelets, tassels, flower sprays, slides, buttons, and ceremonial ornaments, alongside emeralds, rubies, sapphires, spinels, pearls, aquamarines, amethysts, garnets, and other materials. Notable lots include the diamond nuptial crown, the star of the Order of St. Catherine, a maid-of-honour badge bearing Catherine II’s monogram, a wheat-ear tiara centred with a white sapphire, and a pearl-and-diamond tiara. An oval brilliant of rosy-white tint is described with its engraved weight and valuation from an earlier Russian inventory. Other objects include a richly jewelled green jasper snuffbox, a diamond-mounted court sword said to have belonged to Paul I, decorated fans, and a commemorative gold cup. The catalogue records the composition and appearance of imperial jewels entering the auction market, occasionally preserving historical attributions and inventory information.

corundum, history.1, China.12, gems

Professor Zhang Hongzhao provides a translation and commentary of Laufer’s Sino-Iranica, underscoring that good translations of Chinese works require an exceptional knowledge of the language in order to avoid errors. Laufer’s Metals and Stones as Treated in Laufer’s “Sino-Iranica” is a Chinese translation, with commentary, of the portions of Berthold Laufer’s Sino-Iranica dealing with minerals, metals, gemstones, and related substances exchanged between China and Iran and other regions of western and central Asia. The work examines the history and terminology of mineral substances through Chinese texts, Iranian and other Asian languages, and evidence for their transmission along ancient trade routes. Particular attention is given to precious and ornamental stones and metals, including jade, lapis lazuli, turquoise, ruby, spinel, emerald, diamond, coral, amber, gold, silver, and various mineral products. Laufer repeatedly uses philology to test proposed identifications, comparing Chinese transcriptions and names with Iranian, Sanskrit, Arabic, Turkic, and other terms, while also drawing on early Chinese geographical, historical, and pharmacological literature. The sections concerning jade are especially important for the history of Chinese mineralogy: Laufer discusses the sources of jade in Central Asia, particularly Khotan, and the movement of the material into China, while distinguishing historical Chinese concepts and terminology from modern mineralogical classifications. The discussions of lapis lazuli, turquoise, ruby, spinel, and other colored stones similarly combine textual references to their geographic sources with the history of their names and trade. Zhang Hongzhao's translation and comments make Laufer’s extensive linguistic and historical arguments accessible to Chinese readers, while the bilingual treatment provides a useful reference for comparing Chinese mineral names with the terminology employed in Sino-Iranica.

corundum, History.1, gems

Sinkankas: An assemblage of interesting information and anecdote on gems and jewels, rich in references to ancient as well as modern works on gems, jewels, and lore. The first chapter discusses jewels and superstitions connected with them, and is followed by chapters on emerald, ruby & sapphire, and other gemstones, also with a few scientific details but stressing romance and lore. There are remarks on engraved gems and magical stones, and the fates and fortunes of gems in world markets as a result of the rise and influence of Bolshevism, ending with a few statistics on recent values of gems in France. States a popular book, for lighter moments, treating the fancies, rather than the facts, relating to gem-stones, with especial regard to emerald, ruby, and sapphire. While the present work, presumably the first edition & issue, reappears later in similar small size but with colour plates added, another publisher obtained rights to it and proceeded to create an elaborate and beautiful piece as described below. The text is identical to the previous edition but is now entirely reset and elaborately ornamented throughout and with the splendid coloured plates of Leon Carré, dated 1922–23, inserted in the text at appropriate places. The plates illustrate legends recounted in the text, often in fanciful representations of taste and beauty. Also issued in specially bound copies in one-third red or green leather, marbled bds & endp, with 5 bound-in blank ff ahead and after the bound-in wraps, and with a set of 12 duplicate plates inserted after the text. 29.8 × 23.1 cm (11¾ × 9⅛ in). Needless to say such issues are rare.

gems, jade, China, Chinese art, nephrite, yu, fei cui, Chinese jade carving, ceramics, Chinese ceramics

A privately printed catalogue illustrating selections from Worcester Reed Warner’s collection of Oriental art, most of which had been presented to the Cleveland Museum of Art. The collection includes Chinese and Korean pottery, bronzes, sculpture, lacquer, paintings, and other decorative arts, with a substantial section devoted to Chinese jades and crystals. Warner notes that jade was ranked by the Chinese as the most precious of stones, valued for its natural color, texture, and supposed magical and curative properties. He distinguishes nephrite (“kidney stone”) from jadeite (“emerald green jade”), describing their use for precious vessels, insignia of rank, votive offerings, and gifts, and also discusses the Chinese working of quartz and rock crystal. [55] The numerous illustrated objects include green and white jade incense burners, vases, bowls, disks, carvings, and a Mandarin necklace combining white and green jade with coral. [56–79] Rock crystal receives similar attention, including an exceptionally fine Ch’ien-lung vase described as being of flawless material and elaborately carved and undercut with dragons, lions, rocks, and flowers. [80]

gems, beryl, emerald, Colombia, Muzo

Invaluable,constantly referenced eyewitness account ofa visit to the mines in July, 1915. Several sketch maps locate the mines while other photographic illustrations show the open cuts and methods of mining and sorting emeralds.Topics: geography, history, geology, deposits, mineralogy, age, origin, mining methods, production, comments upon other emerald deposits in Colombia.

gems, ancient gemology, ancient jewelry, Egypt, Egyptian jewelry, beryl, emerald, turquoise, malachite, gem treatments, dying,

The Papyrus Graecus Holmiensis (also known as the Stockholm Papyrus) is a collection of craft recipes compiled in Egypt c. 300 AD. It is written in Greek. The Stockholm Papyrus has 154 recipes for dyeing, coloring gemstones, cleaning (purifying) pearls, and imitation gold and silver.[1] Certain of them may derive from the Pseudo-Democritus. Zosimos of Panopolis, an Egyptian alchemist of c. 300 AD, gives similar recipes. Some of these recipes are found in medieval Latin collections of technological recipes, notably the Mappae clavicula. Leyden Papyrus X derives from the same (or very similar) sources, and is written in a similar (possibly the same) hand, using chemically identical ink.[2][3] The Stockholm papyrus and Leyden Papyrus X were both found in Thebes by Giovanni Anastasi, who donated the Leyden Papyrus to the Dutch government in 1828 and the Stockholm Papyrus to the Swedish government in 1832. The Stockholm papyrus was first published by Otto Lagercrantz in 1913. Whereas Leyden papyrus X deals with metallurgy, the Stockholm papyrus deals with gems, pearls and textile dyeing. Sinkankas: The extensively annotated papyrus manuscript here may be as old as the end of the third or the beginning of the fourth century BC; it is in the Swedish Academy of Antiquities, Stockholm, and is believed to be the companion to another papyrus of the Johann d’Anastasy collection in Leyden, entitled P. Leid. X. The present papyrus, called Papyrus Graecus Holmiensis or P. Holm., consists of 15 leaves and that portion of the text, p. 157–200, consisting of about 70 recipes for cleansing pearls and manufacturing a variety of gemstones, is of greatest interest here to show how advanced the arts of deception had become at so early a stage in gemological history. Among the gemstones to be “manufactured” by various means are carnelian, lapis lazuli, emerald, pearl, ruby, “green stones,” beryl, amethyst, chrysolite, and chrysoprase, and also “lychnis,” jasper, sunstone, procedures for purifying rock crystal and pearls, etching or corroding gemstones, altering their color, or softening them, and removing color. Unfortunately, Lagercrantz provides no useful commentary on the technological merits of the recipes, but it is obvious from merely reading these recipes that most treatments are by far superficial or even cosmetic, and, in some instances, not only ineffective but actually destructive, e.g., to pearls. In several recipes which claim to change one gemstone into another, usually rock crystal into emerald or the like, the formulas call for pigmenting agents which penetrate fissures in the quartz and impart superficial coloration. K. Nassau, Gemstone Enhancement, p. 81–112, provides an extended commentary with extracts from this work.

gems, beryl, emerald, Colombia, Muzo

Olden gives a detailed account of Colombia’s emerald deposits and the methods employed in working them, with particular attention to the government-owned mines at Muzo. He describes the geological occurrence of emerald in calcite veins traversing black carbonaceous shale, the character of the emerald-bearing workings, and the practical difficulties imposed by the terrain, rainfall, and removal of waste. Mining methods are discussed in detail, including open-cut excavation, the use of water to break down and wash material, and the subsequent hand-searching of debris for emeralds. The paper also considers production, recovery, and administration of the mines and provides an important early twentieth-century technical account of Colombian emerald mining.

corundum, synthetic corundum.7, Burma.12, synthetic ruby, Mogok, gems

Clarkin presents a wide-ranging popular account of the ruby, describing its appeal to collectors, exceptional rarity and value, historical associations, production, identification, and the contemporary ruby trade. He discusses prominent collectors including E. H. Harriman, James J. Hill, William Astor, and the Gaekwar of Baroda; compares the ruby’s value with emerald and diamond; and describes natural, reconstructed, and synthetic rubies, including oxyhydrogen-flame production and the use of the dichroscope, hardness, and brilliance in distinguishing stones. Considerable attention is devoted to Burma’s Mogok ruby district, illustrated with photographs of the native ruby market, cutting, mining, and gem-bearing gravels; the article recounts the British conquest of Upper Burma, G. Skelton Streeter’s participation in the expedition, and the subsequent exploitation of the mines by the Burma Ruby Mines Company associated with Rothschild. Clarkin concludes with the ruby’s long reputation as a talisman of courage, victory, love, and good fortune, recounting historical and legendary rubies associated with European royalty and other celebrated figures.

gems, corundum, Burma.12, Mogok, jade, fei cui, jadeite, Burma, Myanmar, turquoise, black opal, Lightning Ridge, Australia

A wide-ranging review of precious-stone developments during 1907, with particular attention to American gem discoveries, diamond mining, and changing fashions in the jewelry trade. Kunz discusses tourmaline from Maine, kunzite from California, turquoise and variscite from the Southwest, amethyst from Virginia, hiddenite and emerald from North Carolina, copper-colored chalcedony from Arizona, californite, rose quartz, petrified wood, and the newly discovered blue gem benitoite from California, giving detailed mineralogical data on the latter. The major event of the year was the discovery of diamonds in kimberlitic peridotite near Murfreesboro, Arkansas; Kunz describes the geology, weathering products, extent of the pipe, recovered diamonds, mining conditions, and prospects for commercial development, while warning against speculative claims. Extensive sections also cover the De Beers and Premier mines of South Africa, the Cullinan diamond, debates over the origin of diamonds in eclogite and Vaal River gravels, and expanding Brazilian diamond and carbonado production. Other noteworthy subjects include Queensland sapphires, Burmese rubellite mining, Australian topaz and opal, huge New Zealand nephrite boulders, jade-like ornamental stones such as “jadeolite” and verdite, and contemporary preferences for green and blue gems. The report closes with observations on jewelry styles and the sharp decline in U.S. gem imports following the financial panic of 1907.

gems, gems general, diamond, corundum, Montana.12, USA.12

An extensive annual review of the precious-stone industry of the United States for 1907, describing production, mining developments, new discoveries, localities, cutting, marketing, and imports. Sterrett treats a wide range of gem materials, including diamond, ruby, sapphire, emerald, hiddenite, beryl and aquamarine, tourmaline, turquoise, garnet, quartz varieties, amethyst, amazonite, opal, agate, amber, and others. Particular attention is given to important developments in Arkansas diamonds, the ruby and gem deposits of North Carolina, tourmaline and other pegmatite gems, and the newly recognized mineral benitoite from San Benito County, California. The report also discusses gem cutting and sales, summarizes gem minerals of North Carolina and Canada, includes information on Madagascar gems and experiments involving radium and corundum, and concludes with statistical tables of U.S. production and imports and a section on pearls. It provides a valuable contemporary snapshot of American gemstone exploration and commerce at the beginning of the twentieth century.