SUPPOSED ANTIQUE EMERALD. QQ 



but even by rock crystal. This would be sufficient to de- Not an eme- 

 cide, that it could not be a real emerald, if the enormous ^* * 

 block, from which such a vessel must have been cut, would 

 r.ot be a phenomenon, that nothing hitherto found in nature 

 renders probable. 



It is a manifest errour in Dutens, to admit among the va- Mistake of 

 rieties of the Peruvian cmeryld a stone that can be touched ^'^'®"^' 

 by the file. Those of the environs of Limoges, which are 

 scarcely transparent, scratch flint. 



The largest emeralds known, before the discovery of the Largest erne- 

 colourless emeralds in the department of Hautc-Vienne, '''^'^*^"°^"* 

 and mentioned in the inventory of the Garde-Meuble, the 

 catalogues of DaS'ila, Daugny, &c., and those that Conda- 

 mine saw at Rome, which he considered as enormous, did not 

 exceed 10 or 12 cent. [3 in. 9 1. or 4 in. 7l.] long, by 3 or 4 

 [1 in. 2 I. or 1 in. 61.] broad. Even those-of the commune Those of 

 of Bessines have yet afibrded only masses of 30 or 40 cent. France. 

 [11 in. 71. or 15in. 61.] high, by 15 or l6 [5 in. 8l. or6in* 

 21.] thick. 



We may judge what would be the value of the dish, if it 

 were a real emerald, by taking the rule of its being worth 

 one fourth the price of a diamond of equal weight. 



What has been said is sufficient to authorise us to con- A5 it is colour- 

 elude, that the substance of the dish cannot be considered *^ S^^^^ ^' ''S 

 as an emerald, or any other gem, but is coloured glass. I^a"n antique. 

 We leave to others to determine its value, either as a work 

 of art, or as an antique; and whether it may be identified 

 or compared with that which Herodotus says he saw at 

 Tyre, in the temple of Hercules. We shall only observe, 

 that the art of imitating gems by coloured glass dates from 

 remote antiquity. Pliny speaks in several places of these 

 false stones, and points out the method of distinguishing 

 them, by trying their hardness against others. 



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