.518 SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION OF PRECIOUS STONES 



India. These, therefore, must have been fashioned out of agate or some variety of chalcedony 

 and not as has been assumed of fluor-spar, which is not known to occur in this region, and, 

 moreover, is rare throughout the whole country. 



Applications of Agate. — Agate and other varieties of chalcedony not only furnish 

 a material for ornamental objects of the most varied kinds, but are also applied to many 

 other uses ; in fact, no other stone is applied to purposes so diverse. The character and 

 design of the ornaments manufactured of these stones change with the fashion of the hour, 

 and certain articles which one year are made and sold in their thousands, in the next year 

 will be unsaleable. The favour with which the different varieties of agate and chalcedony 

 are regarded also depends on the caprice of fashion ; at one time red carnelian is most in 

 demand, at another green heliotrope or plasma, and at a third black agate or onyx. Agate 

 ornaments of all kinds were specially popular from 1848 to the middle of the fifties, and this 

 period was the harvest time of the agate industry. It is only specially large objects or 

 articles of great artistic merit for which high prices are demanded ; as a rule, agate 

 ornaments are extraordinarily cheap, but in spite of this the material is imitated very 

 closely in glass. This so-called agate-glass can be easily distinguished from genuine agate 

 by the much greater hardness of the latter. 



The objects most freqently fashioned out of agate are small articles of personal 

 ornament. These, which are of the most varied description and are manufactured in 

 enormous numbers, include sleeve-links, breast-pins, hair-pins, ear-rings, pendants for 

 watch-chains, necklaces, bracelets, buckles, rings, ring-stones — often worked as seal-stones, 

 sometimes with raised figures — seals, and signets. The mineral is also largely used as a 

 material for articles of more or less utility, such as stick- and umbrella-handles, children's 

 toys (marbles), match-boxes, toilet-cases, snuff-boxes, seal-stocks, pen-holders, knife-handles, 

 chessmen, counters, bowls and vases of every size and form, holy-water founts, cups, dessert 

 plates, sauce-bowls, candlesticks, &c. The variously coloured chalcedonies are utilised in 

 mosaic work, which is applied to all kinds of decorative purposes. The objects of technical 

 importance for which agate is used include mortars, burnishing tools for gold-workers and 

 bookbinders, smooth stones for paper and card manufacturers, rollers for the use of ribbon 

 manufacturers, and pivot supports for balances and other delicate mechanical instruments. 



Since the year 1850 there has sprung up with Central Africa a peculiar trade in charms 

 of brown and black agate, the so-called olives. These objects have the form of cylinders 

 from ^ to 3 inches long, they are pierced in the direction of their length, and must 

 display a white central band. In the middle of the sixties several hundred thousand 

 thalers' worth of these charms were manufactured at Oberstein and exported to the Soudan ; 

 some firms exported these goods to the value of 40,000 thalers (^£"6000). The demand 

 reached its height in 1866 ; after that date it began to fall off and is now very small. Red 

 carnelian charms having the form of a perforated triangle are exported to Senegal. 



During the manufacture of the articles named above and of others the agate undergoes 

 many and varied processes, which include cutting, grinding, polishing, boring, engraving, and 

 artificially colouring. It is essentially a German industry, and is carried on mainly at 

 Oberstein, on the Nahe, and at Idar and other places in the neighbourhood; also in 

 Waldkirch in the Black Forest, where, however, fewer agates than other precious and 

 semi-precious stones are cut. At Oberstein and Idar, on the other hand, it is agate and the 

 other varieties of chalcedony and quartz minerals which are principally worked ; other stones 

 including malachite, lapis-lazuli, and in recent times even the diamond, are cut there, but in 

 quite insignificant numbers. The whole world is supplied with agate goods from these 

 works, and although the agate sold at watering-places, tourist resorts, and such like places 



