The Hungarian, occidental, or quartz cat’s-eye is found on the coast of Malabar, Ceylon, Hartz Mountains, and Bavaria.
This stone is translucent to opaque, gray, green, brown, red, and the shadings of these colors, but usually a greenish-gray, with a mass of fine white lines in the centre, which give to the stone a chatoyant appearance.
The cat’s-eye is usually cut cabochon or carbuncle-shaped, and the lines (which are due to the fibres of asbestos) are kept in the centre of the stone, and play like the eye of a cat when the stone is moved.
The quartz cat’s-eye is easily distinguished from the oriental of chrysoberyl cat’s-eye, as it is softer and much lighter.
Crocidolite.
Crocidolite or tiger-eye is a light-brown, brownish-yellow to dark-green, and greenish-blue quartz, which has the same chatoyant qualities as the cat’s-eye. When cut cabochon, the crocidolite is called tiger-eye.
This beautiful mineral was very rare some years ago, and good specimens were sold by the carat.
Great quantities, however, have lately been found in South Africa, and although the finest pieces are still used for cameos and intaglios, many objects, such as paperweights, umbrella handles, match-safes, etc., are now cut from this stone.
Crocidolite is often artificially colored to very closely imitate some of the finest shades of the oriental cat’s-eye.