560 ANlSrUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1961 



A set of small bowls of American gem stones was recently installed 

 in the Natural History Building of the U.S. National Museum, and 

 there are many small pieces of sculpture made from rare minerals in 

 that collection including chrysocolla, idocrase, rhodonite, variscite, 

 amethyst, and others. A visit to newly installed collections of gems 

 and minerals in the Natural History Building is an unforgettable 

 experience. 



One thinks of hematite (FcaOs) principally as an iron ore, but this 

 hard, dense mineral with metallic luster was a favorite medium for 

 cutting cylinder seals in Babylonian and Assyrian times. In the 

 Egyptian collection of the Brooklyn Musemn there is a splendid small 

 gold inlaid head of a hippopotamus carved in hematite (pi. 6, fig. 2). 



Banded and layered minerals have lent themselves to the making of 

 fine cameos. A cameo is a precious or semiprecious stone or shell 

 carved in low relief on layers of different colors ; the figure is cut in 

 one layer and another layer serves as backgromid. In Koman and 

 medieval times in Europe, banded agate and other hard stones were 

 used for cameo cutting, especially black and white banded agate 

 (onyx), because it permitted a white figure to be projected against 

 a black background. Outstanding examples of cameo working are 

 illustrated in catalogs of the Bibliotheque National [21] in Paris and 

 at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna [22]. In these catalogs 

 the majority of cameos are indicated as being carved from "sardonyx," 

 but a number of varieties of quartz and other minerals are also listed. 



In former days when war w^as a sport engaged in by nobles and 

 their attendants, personal arms were lavishly decorated and em- 

 bellished. Some fine examples of carved and modeled semiprecious 

 stones can be seen in the hilts of swords and daggers in the Arms and 

 Armor collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A Persian 

 dagger of the 19th century has a hilt in the shape of a horse's head 

 carved from nephrite, and other daggers have rock-crystal hilts. A 

 state scimitar of Murad V, Sultan of Turkey (1876-78), has a jade 

 hilt, and the mountings of gold and silver are set with diamonds and 

 emeralds ; a tassel of strung pearls adds to the sumptuousness of the 

 weapon. 



One of the finest exhibits of sculptured mineral is shown at the 

 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. It is a collection of 

 Russian jewels and objets d'art from the atelier of Peter Carl Faberge, 

 jeweler and goldsmith to the Imperial Russian Court in the early part 

 of this century. The objects were collected between 1933 and 1946 by 

 Lillian Thomas Pratt, who willed them in 1947 to the Virginia 

 Museum. In the handbook of the Lillian Thomas Pratt collection, 

 recently published [23], are shown numerous objects: animals, 

 Easter eggs, flowers, picture frames, parasol handles, and miscella- 



