corundum, ruby, sapphire, quality.10, gems

O’Donoghue documents prices paid by the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend for gemstones acquired from the celebrated collection of Henry Philip Hope, using manuscript annotations in a museum copy of B. Hertz’s 1839 catalogue of that collection. These annotations provide a rare record of prices paid for good-quality gemstones during the middle nineteenth century. Townshend subsequently bequeathed his collection of precious stones, together with pictures, drawings and watercolours, to the institution then known as the South Kensington Museum, later the Victoria and Albert Museum. Although the Townshend Collection contains 154 items, the article is restricted to stones purchased from the Hope sales. The entries link descriptions and purchase prices with references to Hertz’s catalogue and museum accession numbers, recording dimensions and, where available, historical weights. Because the collection was sealed in a security case, the author could reproduce only some of the weights quoted by Hertz. The gemstones are mounted in gold rings, some constructed to swivel so that their backs can be examined. The catalogue covers diamonds, sapphire and other corundum, topaz, tourmaline, garnet, peridot, emerald, aquamarine, opal, quartz varieties and turquoise. Recorded prices include £250 for a lemon-yellow diamond, £85 for a green diamond and £30 for a small diamond described by Hertz as approaching red spinel in colour. A deep claret-coloured topaz cost £180, compared with £25 for a yellow topaz showing reddish ends. Aquamarines range from £15 to £300, while the listed opals range from £4 to £70. Descriptions preserve distinctive features such as chatoyancy, iridescence associated with fractures, colour variation, dendritic inclusions and engraved decoration. Examples include an emerald engraved with Persian characters, a garnet engraved with a faun and turquoise carved with a female head in relief. The article also corrects several earlier identifications: stones catalogued by Hertz as zircon are identified as tourmaline, hessonite and aquamarine, while two specimens listed as ruby spinel are assigned to corundum. By connecting surviving museum objects with their earlier catalogue descriptions and documented purchase prices, the paper supplies primary historical evidence for the study of nineteenth-century gemstone collecting and valuation.