gems, glyptic, engraved gems, agate, cameo, intaglio, shell, ancient gems, Rome, Greece, ancient jewelry, rings

Having spoken of rings synthetically, or in their settings, it is our purpose in the present, as it will be in some subsequent notices, to consider them analytically, glancing in quick succession, firstly, at some of the large stones with which the bezels were embellished; and, secondly, at the different metals which formed in the great majority of cases the annular hoop. Before proceeding to these details, however, a few words of passing comment seem due to certain very costly substances — for the most part mineral — which, though seldom fabricated into rings, were not infrequently wrought into ornaments for the person, or else elaborated into superb vases to deck the sideboards of the wealthy. Very conspicuous among these stands Myrrha, formerly to modern ears a mere word received from the Old by the New World, with all its traditional honours, in implicit faith, as expressive of something exceedingly rich, beautiful, and precious, yet till quite lately little more than an abstraction to most readers of the classics, to whom it conveyed no definite mineralogical or other meaning whatever. To Corsi is due the credit of having at length, after able research, succeeded in clearly identifying this mineral, though the identification, it must be confessed, has robbed Myrrha of much of her ancient glory, so that she must henceforth be content — unlike that lady in Garth’s Dispensary, who “lost a substance to preserve a name” — to merge a merely nominal valuation for the sake of a reputation which is substantial, at least if not splendid.