Leisure hours among the gems

by Augustus C. Hamlin

The Hindoos took great pleasure in carving images of their idols, and in making grotesque forms as well as talismans, from the precious stones found in their country; and very many examples are shown to the traveller. The sapphire was often chosen for this purpose; and neither its excessive hardness nor its high price offered any serious obstacles to the determined votary or the superstitious grandee. There is a statuette of Buddha, one inch in height, carved by the Hindoos out of a perfect sapphire, in the British Museum, which came from the sack of India. One of the richest reliquaries of any age or any country is the golden case at Kandy in Ceylon, which contains a tooth of Buddha, but which the naturalists declare to be the tooth of a monkey. Never was fancied sanctity so dearly enshrined. The dental specimen is enclosed in five golden cases fitting each other en suite and incrusted with the finest rubies, sapphires, and other gems Ceylon and India has afforded.

Philostratus describes a chamber in the ancient Royal Palace of the Parthians at Babylon as follows: “It has a roof fashioned into a vault like the heaven, composed entirely of sapphires, which are the bluest of stones, and resemble the sky in color. This is the chamber in which the King delivers his judgment.” The Asiatics, in all periods of their semi-civilized history, made a lavish use of this gem in the decorations of their dwellings and their temples. Even the partial ruins of some of these edifices still to be seen in various parts of India, exhibit great beauty in their impaired mosaics of precious stones.

The red sapphire is known in commerce as the Oriental ruby, and when in perfection is the most magnificent of gems, and is rarely approached in the beauty of its gorgeous hue by any other gem. The term ruby is an indefinite one, and refers to any stone of a rich red color. All these gems were classed together in the time of Pliny, under the generic name of “carbunculus,” but the red sapphire was reckoned a variety, and especially referred to under the name of “lychnis.” It is seldom found exceeding three karats in weight, and the distinguished mineralogist, Beudant, declares that a perfect red sapphire of thirty troy grains is unknown, and would be of inestimable value. It is a singular fact that while the blue variety should occur in masses and crystals of even several ounces in weight, the red is rare even at four karats. Modern mineralogists now maintain that all of the large historic rubies are spinels, but it is within the bounds of possibility that large red sapphires do occur sometimes as exceptions to an apparently rigid rule; for we have lately received from the Ceylon mines a transparent crystal of pink color which weighs two hundred and forty-one karats. It is also stated that the King of Arrakan possesses two magnificent prisms of one and a half inches in length and an inch in diameter.

But of all the fine red sapphires which are known and proved, there are but few above five karats. The largest one of which we have any definite knowledge is the beautiful gem set in the Toison d’Or of the French Regalia, and which weighs 8³⁄₁₆ karats (= 26 grains troy). The inventory of the French gems in 1791 justly illustrates the comparative rarity and diminutive size of the stone; for in this splendid collection, which had accumulated during a long period of time, and was then the richest in Europe, there were but four red sapphires above five karats, and only five above four karats. This variety is singularly liable to imperfections, and far more so than either the blue or the yellow. It is rare to find a ruby of the pure and characteristic pigeons’-blood tint that does not in some degree exhibit silky and opalescent fibres. This defect, which generally appears as a milkiness in the interior of the gem, is due to minute crystals dispersed throughout the stone, and which become apparent when the mineral is viewed parallel to the primitive axis of the crystal. Hence, in cutting the rough stone, considerable care must be exercised by the lapidary, so as to shape the gem and render its opalescence invisible. Rubies of exquisite color are often rendered comparatively valueless on account of fibres, clouds, and chalcedony-like bands. All the red sapphires, however, are not affected in this way. The blood-red are much more liable than those which have a tinge of blue. We have examined a number of red sapphires perceptibly tinted with violet, which were completely free from internal defects. This opalescence is never possessed by the spinel, and is therefore one of the distinguishing marks in testing the nature of the red gems. The red tourmaline is also strangely liable to internal fibres, hollow threads, clouds, and longitudinal streaks, and sometimes presents an appearance similar to that of the ruby. The red sapphire is also distinguished from the other varieties by being decidedly heavier, and also by being softer than the deep-blue.

Ceylon is famous for the abundance of blue sapphires, while the red variety is comparatively rare. In Burmah, however, the red variety is the most abundant and of the finest hue. The Ceylon rubies are regarded as inferior in tint to those found in Ava and Pegu of the Burmese Empire; but they are less inclined to be opalescent, and are therefore more brilliant. The violet tinge of the Ceylon rubies lessens their beauty when viewed by daylight; but it disappears in a great measure by artificial light, and the hue then becomes of a fine prismatic red, accompanied by the most vivid lustre; therefore we may say in general terms that the Burmese rubies are the most beautiful by daylight, and that the Ceylonese are superior by night.

The finest mines of rubies in the world are near the Capelan Mountains in Ava. But concerning their extent, history, and exploration, very little is known. Colonel Symes, who visited the country in 1795, with the British Embassy, stated that the richest and most valuable of the mines were then situated in the vicinity of the capital; but that there were many other mines in various parts of the kingdom. The information concerning these remarkable deposits is vague and uncertain even at the present day; but sufficient is known to establish the fact that the geological formation is very similar to the gem beds of Ceylon and Lower Bengal. According to the publications of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, the principal mines of Burmah are situated about seventy miles east of the capital; and the deposits are discovered by sinking pits at various depths in the earth until the gem stratum is reached. It appears to be precisely like the conglomerate of Ceylon, and occurs at a depth varying from two to forty feet below the surface.

It is stated that all of the fine gems above a certain weight are monopolized by the king, who styles himself “Lord of the rubies,” and consequently but very few find their way to the marts of other nations. It is also stated that the gems are polished at Amarapoora, where there are about twenty lapidary establishments; and that pulverized blue sapphire, or the massive corundum spar, which is a trifle harder than the red variety, is used as the abrading material. All of the mines are jealously guarded from the visits of Europeans; and when Professor Oldham was allowed to examine some of them in 1855, he could learn of but one European who had previously seen them. This favored person was a deserter from the British army, and was employed by the king as superintendent of the mines.

This gem is so highly prized in Burmah that when a fine gem is discovered a procession is formed of grandees, elephants, and soldiers, and sent out to meet it and escort it to the royal treasury. The long and exclusive possession of these mines has enriched the Crown immensely; but nothing is known with certainty. Colonel Symes, however, saw some of the state carriages of the King of Ava, which were splendidly decorated with jewels. One of these carriages was a magnificent and singular production of art. Its decorations were so profuse and contained so many precious stones set in silver and gold, that it presented one entire blaze of the most brilliant colors. A vast variety of gems were used in the construction of this truly Oriental vehicle; and among them were to be seen diamonds, rubies, white and blue sapphires, emeralds, amethysts, garnets, topazes, and crystals of all kinds. Another of these queer barbaric monuments of art was lately exhibited at Rangoon. It is known as the Royal Hitee. This grotesque piece of architecture, with fantastic name, is a light edifice thirty-five feet high, formed of seven terraces, surmounted by an umbrella, which is the emblem of royalty. The terraces were richly inlaid with gold and precious stones; and the sacred umbrella was profusely decorated with valuable rubies, pearls, diamonds, and emeralds.

Rambusson has recently stated that none of the mines yielding rubies have been worked for one hundred and fifty years; and that all of the gems now offered in commerce have been collected previously. We think this author is somewhat mistaken in this statement; for we know that the Ceylon gem-deposit yields more of these gems at the present time than for a long time past; and we do not quite believe that search for them has been entirely suspended in Siam or in Burmah. During the last years of the occupation of Ceylon by the Dutch, they exacted from the tribes of the interior of the island an annual tribute in the form of a certain quantity of precious stones. Hence the King of Kandy forbade further exploration for gems by the natives; and so the gem-fields lay neglected for a long time. Lately, however, under the English rule, the ancient fondness for gem-mining has revived among the Cingalese, and some fine gems have been discovered. In 1875 a native hunter found in a remote district of Siam some remarkable mines of red and blue sapphires; and explorations brought to light many valuable stones, which found their way to the gem marts of Rangoon and Calcutta. Splendid specimens were shown to Admiral Coote; and the consul at Bangkok saw a magnificent stone of three hundred and seventy karats, which yielded a blue gem of one hundred and eleven karats weight, and of the finest water.

Rubies are even now scarce in India, and probably always will be, since the demand for them is very great among the wealthy of the populous nations of that country. Even three centuries ago Tavernier found it profitable to buy them in Europe and sell them again in the country whence they had been taken perhaps many centuries before. Red sapphires not only exhibit singular internal structures, but they may be colored strangely, thus puzzling the experimentalist to account for the distribution of coloring matter. Davila possessed a fine and rare ruby which exhibited a clear white band between two parts of red. Another gem showing a strange arrangement of color was to be seen in the cabinet of Chantilly. It was half red and half yellow. Stones of such distribution of color are marvels of rarity; but it is quite common to meet with them partly red and blue or white, or blue and yellow. They sometimes display a vague dichroism which is not so well defined as in the iolite or tourmaline. The naturalist Fanjas found at Expailly, in France, a transparent sapphire which, viewed in one direction, exhibited a green hue approaching the emerald in its beauty of tint, but when seen in another light it appeared of a very beautiful blue. In the Orleans collection there was a curious sapphire which had been engraved with the figure of a woman, the head being formed of white, and the dress of intense blue. It is related that M. Bossi, of Milan, who was an excellent connoisseur in gems, saw in possession of Prince Metsch a superb sapphire which appeared to be dotted with flakes of gold. We sometimes notice this singular appearance in the interior of other gems, and find by the use of the microscope that it is due to internal flaws or reflections from plate-like crystals within the stone. We are inclined to believe that this gem of Prince Metsch is to be classed with the sapphire owned by Abbé Pullini, which had been engraved upon by the ancients. This stone, when viewed in a certain direction, exhibited flakes of gold in the interior, which disappeared when the view was changed, which would hardly have been the case if the reflections had been produced by opaque bodies. We have before us a polished Siberian beryl which shows flakes of silver-white in certain lights, but which appear of dark-brown when the axis of vision is changed.