The layers or bands are in even planes, and the colors, white and black, white and brown, or brown, white, and black, alternate. This stone is largely used for cameos, the base being usually of black or brown, and the engraved or upper part white- or cream-colored.
When one or more layers are of carnelian or sard, the stone is called sard-onyx. Sard is a rich brown color inclining to red, and when held against the light shows a red hue.
Onyx and sard-onyx are often artificially improved by boiling the stones in honey, oil, or sugar water, and then in sulphuric acid. The acid carbonizes the sugar or oil which the stone has absorbed and gives it a deeper color.
For red, protosulphate of iron is added, and for a blue color to imitate lapis lazuli, yellow prussiate of potash is added to the protosulphate of iron.
Only the porous parts of the stones, usually the dark parts, absorb the sugar or oil, and so aid the contrast of the colored with the white layers.
Carnelian.
Carnelian is a clear red translucent chalcedony, and is usually of a gray or grayish-red color. Several weeks of exposure to the sun’s rays and subsequent heating in earthen pots enhances and deepens the color.
The brownish-red or dark-brown carnelian is called sardoine or sard; the blood-red to pink varieties, with an upper layer of white onyx, are called carnelian onyx, and the stones with a brown or sard base and a white top are called sard-onyx.
Carnelians are sometimes of a yellowish-brown or yellow color, but red to brown are the principal colors.
The secret of coloring agates was discovered in the early part of this century, and about the same time agates became scarce in Oberstein, while large finds were made in Brazil and Uruguay, especially of agates with red layers. This variety comes chiefly from Brazil.