Many gems are really gems of a kind, although not the gems they are pretended to be, but in all probability are composed of pieces of quartz ‘got up’ for the market, quartz being selected as being able to stand the test of the file, which glass cannot do. There are varieties of topaz and other stones which are as hard as the diamond; and being entirely colourless, they are often cut and polished and successfully palmed off as diamonds. This colourless gem material is costly in consequence of the use to which it can be turned. Recipes for the production of imitation stones have been often given; the following is the formula for a ruby: five hundred parts of strass, twenty of glass of antimony, a half each of purple of Cassius and of gold. Strass is a specially manufactured kind of glass which has been long used in connection with the fabrication of gems; it usually contains a much larger percentage of oxide of lead than the commoner sorts of glass. Aventurine is another kind of gem glass, which is chiefly manufactured in Venice, and brings a high price. The best thing is a quartz of varying shades of colour, which is much prized. One of the scarcer varieties is known as sunstone, and is much sought after, being valuable for such purposes as have been referred to.
Attempts by chemists to produce diamonds have, commercially speaking, usually resulted in failure. The most successful of the early experiments tried in the way of diamond production was that worked out by Gannal, a Frenchman, who in the year 1828 succeeded in producing a substance that was affirmed by a practical jeweller of great repute to be a diamond; but after much controversy, the opinion came to be ultimately entertained that even Gannal had failed. Another famous Frenchman, M. Desprets, made several endeavours in the same direction with partial success; he produced matter at all events with which it was found to be possible to cut and polish the harder gems. A Monsieur de Chaud Courtois has also entered upon various experiments with a view to the production of ‘real’ diamonds, but, so far as we know, without having achieved success. Mr MacTier’s experiments at the St Rollox chemical works in Glasgow have been so recently discussed as not to require farther reference.
The so-called ‘Scottish Jewelry,’ made from cairngorms, cinnamon stone, &c., is largely manufactured in Germany, where most of the stones required are quite plentiful. It is common enough to impose the cairngorm on ignorant purchasers as Brazilian or Mexican topaz. Edinburgh lapidaries are able to prepare and mount the cairngorm and pebbles of Scotland with taste and skill. Crystals of smoky quartz are found in every part of the globe, and can be so skilfully dealt with by lapidaries and experts as to be made deeper or lighter in colour as may be demanded. Each manipulator is of course careful to preserve his particular mode of procedure secret from his fellows; and some of them are very clever in their various manipulations of Scottish stones, which can be set with fine effect in brooches, snuff-mulls, dirks, and powder-horns.
‘Mock-pearls’ are the subject of frequent discussion. The wonderful lustre and exquisite polish of the real gem of the sea have been more than once imitated with almost the power of nature. But there is a something about this beautiful and mysterious production which in the end tells against all attempts at fraud. The imitation when tested with the real gem provides one source of detection, and the brittle nature of the manufactured article is another. Another matter is that the exquisitely drilled holes which are characteristic of the pearls of the East are wanting in all imitations, the drilling in the latter case being usually clumsy and blunt-edged. The scales of a small fish known as the bleak have been successfully used in the formation of false pearls; but as it requires some eighteen thousand of these fish to provide one pound-weight of the pearl-making material, it seems superfluous to say that only a very limited number of gems can be made from the scales of the bleak.
Here we pause, not having space left in which to discuss the ‘manufacture’ of cameos, or the production of that ‘mystery gold’ which two years ago afforded so much material for newspaper discussion. At the present time, when pictures and pottery, old furniture, articles of virtu of all kinds, coins, and even birds’ eggs, are forged, it is not a matter for surprise that spurious diamonds, mock-pearls, and imitations of many of our more precious gems should be foisted on the public by unscrupulous tradespeople. Nevertheless, so long as a lady can purchase for a few pounds a necklace or other adornment which, if genuine, would have cost hundreds or perhaps thousands of pounds, the imitation gem trade will continue to flourish.
A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY.
BY CHARLES GIBBON.
CHAPTER I.—THE MAJOR’S PREDICAMENT.
Even his enemies admitted that Major Dawkins was one of the kindliest-natured of men. If anybody was in a difficulty, he would take infinite pains to help him or her out of it—provided the difficulty was not financial. In that case he had all the will, but not the means to assist otherwise than with good advice; and the fact was so well known, that nobody ever thought of borrowing from him. Most of his friends were in comfortable circumstances, and therefore above the need of troubling him about pecuniary matters. But his happiness in having wealthy friends was owing to his good luck; certainly not to any careful selection on his part, for he was such a chatty, pleasant little man, so frank and easy in his ways, that he picked up acquaintances everywhere. In a train or on a steamer, he would be in five minutes conversing with his immediate fellow-passengers; in half an hour, they would be discussing subjects of personal interest; and in an hour, they would be talking and laughing together as if they had been intimate for years.
He had sympathy enough to comprehend all beings and all things. He mourned with those who were mourning; he rejoiced with those who were rejoicing. One day he would be at a funeral with visage as lugubrious as his garb; and the day following he would be at a wedding, the gayest of the gay, ready with pretty speeches for the bride, the most flattering prophecies for the bridesmaids, and the heartiest congratulations for the bridegroom on the fortune which had given him what Solomon had declared to be the greatest blessing on earth—a good wife.