166 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



Salida, Colorado, is nearly two inches across. Certain of the ruby-red garnets were 

 found on the ant-hills of the Navajo Reservation, New Mexico, where they had been 

 brought out by the ants. Rose-purple rhodolite garnets come from Franklin, Macon 

 Co., North Carolina. 



Several dozen demantoid garnets, so often erroneously termed olivine, of a rich 

 emerald green with a light tinge of gold and showing a play of color like the diamond 

 were brought from Poldnewaja, Ural Mountains. A magnificent polished garnet 

 crystal weighing over a pound comes from Salida, Colorado. 



One of the most brilliant cases of the collection is the opal case which contains 

 many fine gems. In it may be viewed a wonderful series of two dozen rich golden 

 and fire opals from Queretaro, Mexico, and a number of fine specimens from White 

 Cliffs, New South Wales. A mass of precious opal weighing nine ounces originally 

 formed the bone of a prehistoric animal and was naturally changed to precious opal. 



It was intended that the collection should not only represent the varieties of 

 precious stones and the various forms of cutting and working these in ancient, medi- 

 aeval and modern times in all nations, but should also include the stones in more 

 especial use in different countries, manipulated, carved or cut by the artisan of the 

 country in question. Groups of carved gem-stones may be seen in the form of 

 fruits, and there is a series of carved vases made in Siberia, where the industry was 

 introduced by Catherine the Great, who sent two Italian lapidaries to teach the 

 natives, with the result that at the present time more than one thousand people are 

 thus making a good living. 



Amber is a treasure that has been prized from the earliest times. To secure it 

 the Phoenicians visited the Baltic; the Germans have traded it to China, Africa and 

 to many distant lands; it has been found in French graves and it is worn in the form 

 of beads by the natives of Africa. 



Here we have it represented in a variety of forms, such as Indian beads and snuff- 

 bottles of Japanese manufacture; there are also some pieces containing insects which 

 were imprisoned millenniums ago in the gum of the tree. For amber is not indeed the 

 tears of the Heliades as the classic myth explains, but the tears oozing out of the bark 

 of wounded trees, as was in fact believed by some of the more enlightened among the 

 ancient writers. 



When the lilac and purple spodumene was found in 1903—4 and named kunzite, 

 Mr. Morgan acquired a series of the finest stones, some of which had been figured as 

 type specimens. This interesting series of crystals included some really wonderful 

 gems. We may instance one of 224| carats, the largest type specimen. Another 

 superb gem weighs 118 carats. 



The jade collection comprises only about two dozen examples. It was decided 

 not to supplement the great Bishop Collection and other treasures of the Metropolitan 

 Museum. But there are some important pieces of Chinese jade, such as a great bowl 

 measuring twenty inches across; a white bowl of twelve inches diameter, with two 

 swinging handles; a jade cup, with cover jeweled with diamonds and rubies, from 

 India; a bowl of jadeite (melting snow) and an ellipse-shaped bowl of seven inches 

 diameter, mounted on gold and enamel, originally belonging to Louis XVIII. A 

 jadeite figure from the Valley of Mexico weighing four pounds is also here, and a 

 snuff -bottle and a green vase seven inches in height. 



No single specimen is of greater importance from an archaeological point of view 

 than the ancient axhammer of banded agate. This was obtained by Cardinal 

 Borgia while at the head of the Propaganda. It was offered by the Countess Ettore 

 Borgia to the British Museum, but was eventually acquired by Count Michael 

 Tyskiewiecz for 15,000 francs ($3000); soon after his death it was purchased by 

 Messrs. Tiffany and Company and was presented by Mr. Morgan to the American 

 Museum. 



