Leisure hours among the gems

by Augustus C. Hamlin

At the close of the last century, but before the Revolution broke out in France, Mons. D’Auguy, a financier of Paris, came in possession of a most remarkable opal of the harlequin variety. It was of oval form, ⁷⁄₈ of an inch in length by ⁵⁄₈ in breadth. This gem was of wondrous beauty, and was pronounced perfect by the connoisseurs. It is now in the hands of the family of Count Waliski. At the same time the well-known amateur Fleury owned a rival to Auguy’s opal, which it exceeded slightly in size.

Another magnificent opal is described by Jackson as having been exhibited at Vienna. It was nearly an inch in length, and was of the harlequin order, having three longitudinal bands from which flashed resplendent flames of light and color. It was pronounced by the virtuosi of Dresden and Vienna to be the third in rank of all the fine opals then known.

In the Musée de Minéralogie of Paris may be seen a splendid opal which has been carved into a bust of Louis XIII. when a child. King very properly exclaims against the barbarism and extravagance where work and material mutually destroy each other’s beauty and value. The Spanish historians, in their marvellous stories of the wonders seen in Mexico at the time of the Conquest, describe the image of the mystic deity Quetzalcoatl (God of the air) on the great pyramid of Cholula, as wearing a mitre waving with plumes of fire, and which was supposed to have been produced by masses of the fire opal.

Dr. Le Conte brought home from his geological surveys in Honduras, a number of beautiful opals from the mines in that country. They have since been cut and mounted in gold with diamond settings, in the form of a necklace, which is regarded by connoisseurs as one of the most valuable jewels in the United States.

At the Centennial Exhibition of the United States, Austria exhibited some very beautiful opals of various kinds, both polished and in the natural state. One of the polished gems was two inches in diameter and valued at $25,000. It was of a faint milky white tint, like most of the Hungarian opals, and displayed a charming arrangement of colors.

The splendors of the opal are best seen when exposed to the direct rays of the sun, and viewed through a magnifying glass of low power. The dazzling scene has no equal in art or nature, for the vivid hues of the solar spectrum are here displayed with the most charming effect. The colors are in broad patches and not blended with their complementary hues as seen in the continuous spectrum, and the effects of the pure green, red, blue, and yellow, flashing forth in perfect purity and intensity, without definite arrangement, remind the observer of the brilliancy of the kaleidoscope. In this fascinating display of hues one might expect to see the colors pass into each other as in the solar spectrum, and as the field of view is changed; but such is not always the result. The red may exhibit a tinge of yellow, or the green a shade of blue before they disappear from view; but generally the patch of color ends abruptly, preserving its purity of tint to the last.

The alternate and irregular flashing of all these varied hues always presents a harmonious spectacle, such is the wondrous power of Nature in all her arrangements and groupings. The stone, when arranged by the art of the lapidary, is almost always cut with a convex surface. However, when the opal is attached to an opaque substance which serves as a reflector to the rays of light, the stone may then have its surface cut almost flat. The colors displayed by this gem embrace quite all of the tints seen in the solar spectrum, and they are as pure. The shades of green, blue, yellow, and red will bear comparison with the hues of the solar spectrum, and the gems of other minerals are rare that can bear this decisive test. Sometimes but one color is visible in the stone, and then it is called emerald or golden opal, according to the tint exhibited.

The purchase of opals in the rough natural state is attended with danger, for often the glittering mass, after being shaped and polished by the lapidary, is transformed into a transparent but hueless stone. The cutting of the opal is always a hazardous operation, from the fragility of the material and the special tact required in determining the shape to be given the gem. We will relate an instance to illustrate the history of the whole.

A traveller from Central America brought home a splendid rough fire opal which dazzled the eye with its fiery reflections. We took it to an honest lapidary, who received it with a doubtful look. The next day the opal was returned, having been shaped into the usual oval form, but only a faint gleam of any of the colored rays flashed from its surface, or the interior. “Is this the gem we gave you yesterday?” we demanded of the artisan. With a smile the lapidary took the transparent stone and roughened its finely polished surface upon the wooden wheel. In an instant the lost fire returned as if directed by magic’s wand. The perfect transparency of the gem, with its high polish, had allowed the rays of light to pass directly through it, and there was but little refraction, but on roughening the surface the light was interrupted and the peculiar property of the mineral displayed. Unfortunately the lesson was not concluded here. At the last touch of the wheel the beautiful gem flew into two parts, and its glories departed in an instant. Saddened with the day’s experience, we took the two fragments, cemented them together, and tossed the stone into a drawer which contained other mineral specimens of no great value. Some months after, while searching for a misplaced mineral, a gleam of light suddenly flashed out as we opened the drawer. It was the neglected and abused opal, which now gleamed with the energy of a living coal of fire. It had recovered its beautiful reflections, and still adorns, notwithstanding its fracture, a most cherished jewel.

Whence this mysterious change? the reader may ask. We can only say that the complete transparency of the stone had been lessened, and perhaps the change was due to the action of some of the ingredients of the cement with which we united the fragments of the broken gem.