> FROM THE URALS" 



»ldren 



The granitic caverns of the Ural Mountains yield some of 

 the richest known deposits of precious metals and gems. 

 As early as 1721, gold and platinum were mined in the Uralsk 

 area, and later Catherine the Great established a world-famous 

 jewel-cutting industry at Ekaterinburg (now Sverdlovsk). From 

 the imperial factory flowed a stream of exquisite lapidary art 

 — faceted gems, such as diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and to- 

 pazes; and objets (Tart sculptured from semi-precious stones. 

 An outstanding collection of these gems and gem carvings is 

 on display in the H. N. Higinbotham Hall (Hall 31) as the 

 Museum's featured exhibit during November. 



The earliest known examples of gem cutting 

 and carving are the engraved seals of the an- 

 cients. The Babylonians and Assyrians employed 

 a cylindrical or "rolling"seal; the Egyptian seal 

 was scaraboid — a form that was adapted for their 

 own use by many other ancient peoples. Dur- 

 ing early imperial times, the familiar seal ring 

 was developed by the Romans. The gem-stones 

 most commonly used for seals were the massive 

 and compact varieties of quartz, such as jasper, 

 sardonyx, chalcedony, carnelian, and agate. 

 Script, or scenes from history and legend, my- 

 thology and daily life, were engraved in intaglio 

 on the seal's surface. From the Museum's col- 

 lection of gems from the Urals two modern seals 

 carved from smoky quartz are shown above. 



"To many men," wrote the elder Pliny in his encyclopedic work on natural 

 history, "one gem suffices for the contemplation of all nature." Such a gem- 

 stone was the water-clear, crystallized variety of quartz known to the Greeks 

 by a word meaning "clear ice," and to us as rock crystal. The style of gem 

 cutting employed by the ancients was en cabochon — that is, smoothly rounded — 

 or gems were fashioned into drilled beads. By the 10th or 11th Centuries a 

 modified cabochon style was developed that foreshadowed the faceted cut in- 

 vented in the 14th Century and now generally employed for precious stones. 

 Intaglio had been the form of engraving used since Sumerian times (c. 4,000 B.C.) 

 for seals. The Greeks introduced the art of cameo — the converse of intaglio — - 

 for purely ornamental and decorative purposes. In every historic period down 

 to the present, the transparent quartzes — rock crystal, smoky quartz, amethyst, 

 citrine, and others — were used for many forms of sculpture and engraved work. 

 The lapidarists of Ekaterinburg were masters of this art; on this page are shown, 

 as examples of their work, a portrait bust of the Russian writer, Ivan Turgenev 

 {above), the head of a horse {center); and a warrior {far left, above) — ail carved in 

 rock crystal. p. r. nelson 



