2. White striped with red, under Cancer.
3. White striped with black, under Capricorn.
4. Black, unstriped, under Capricorn (probably the true El Jaza).
5. Black with white stripes, under Capricorn.
One of the most remarkable pieces of modern work in onyx is said to be the staircase of a New York millionaire. The cost of this is set down as 300,000 dollars.
The sardonyx or Sardian onyx as it is sometimes called was written at various periods as sardonyse, sardony, sardonix, sardonice, sardonyches, sarderyk, sardonique, sardonick. Swedenborg corresponds it to Love of Good and Light. It exhibits sard and white chalcedony in layers, but some ancient authors account as fine only those specimens which exhibit three layers at least, a black base, a white zone and a layer of red or brown—the black symbolizing humility, the white virtue, and the red fearlessness. The sardonyx is under the heavenly Leo, the sign of sensation, feeling, “the first aspect of its (the soul’s) future condition here below.” In the Rosicrucian jewels the sardonyx appears as the gem of victorious ecstasy and rapture which flow from the eternal font of delight, banishing grief and woe. It was said to give self-control, conjugal happiness and good fortune, and it is said that if the woman whose talismanic stone it is neglects to wear it she will never marry. It was frequently engraved with an eagle or a hawk as a talisman of fortune and it is under the celestial Leo. The “Sainte Chapelle,” the second largest cameo known, is stated by Sir William Smith and others to measure 12 × 10½ inches. Mr. C. W. King gives the measurements as about 13 × 11 inches and states that it is a sardonyx of five layers. The central carving of this “Grand Camahieu,” as it was called, represents the return of Germanicus from Germany in the year 17 A.D., Tiberius and Livia enthroned receiving him. In exergue, the grief-stricken captives are shown. Above is the apotheosis of Augustus by which the whole work is now known. This remarkable cameo was for a long time believed to typify “the triumph of Joseph in Egypt,” and was regarded as a sacred relic. The learned Nicholas Claude Fabri de Peiresc, the great antiquary of France, proved in 1619 the falsity of this inconceivable belief, and was the first to classify correctly the subject of this massive gem. By pawning this sardonyx to Louis X of France for 10,000 silver marks the unfortunate Baldwin II, Emperor of Constantinople, was able to save his throne a little longer. This cameo is in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Another five strata sardonyx cameo—the largest known—is the Carpegna cameo, formerly in the possession of Cardinal Carpegna and now in the Vatican. This large specimen is 16 inches long by 12 inches. “The subject,” writes Mr. King, “is the Pompa di Bacco, or Bacchus and Ceres,” Virgil’s “duo clarissima mundi lumina,” as symbolizing the Sun and Moon, standing upon a magnificent car: the god holding a vase and a thyrsus, the goddess her bunch of wheat ears. On his right stands winged Comus. The car is drawn by 4 centaurs, two male and two female: the first bears a rhyton and a thyrsus, the second a torch whilst he snaps the fingers of his right hand: one female centaur plays the double flute, the other a tambourine. On the ground lie the mystic basket and two huge vases. The large cameo, 9 × 8 inches, known as the “Coronation of Augustus” shows that Emperor enthroned, holding a sceptre in his right hand with Livia by his side as Roma, etc. Between Augustus and Livia is the zodiacal sign Capricorn, under the third degree of which Augustus was born according to Firmicus. Beneath the various figures (Neptune, Cybele, Drusus, Tiberius, Victory, Antonia, wife of Drusus as Abundantia, and her children Germanicus and Claudius), are Roman soldiers erecting trophies, their unhappy captives in the foreground.
Venus, Cupid and the Graces
A Sardonyx Cameo by Cerbara
Newton Robinson Collection
Sold at Christie’s, London, in 1909
Large and Rare Cameo. The Argonauts Consulting Hygiea
Kelsey I. Newman Collection