Precious Stones 



457 



the color and brilliancy of the gems. 

 Sales must therefore take place between 

 the hours of 9 and 3, and the sky must 

 be clear. 



The purchaser, placed near a window, 

 has before him a large copper plate. 

 The sellers come to him one by one, 

 and each empties upon the plate his 

 little bag of rubies. 



The bright copper plate has a curious 

 use. The sunlight reflected from it 

 through the stones brings out a color 

 effect with true rubies different from 

 that with red spinels and tourmalines, 

 which are thus easily separated. 



The buyer and seller then go through 

 a very peculiar method of bargaining 

 by signs, or rather grips, in perfect 

 silence. After agreeing on the fairness 

 of the classifications, they join their 

 right hands, covered with a handker- 

 chief or a flap of a garment, and by 

 grasps and pressures, mutually under- 

 stood among all these dealers, they 

 make, modify, and accept proposals. 

 The hands are then brought out, and 

 the prices are recorded. 



The larger single stones are valued 

 according to color and shape for cutting, 

 the very fine ones bringing high prices. 

 A ruby of 363/2 carats from the Mogok 

 mine some years ago brought 90,000 

 rupees ($30,000) at Calcutta. 



Cutting is an important industry at 

 Mandalay, and the Burmese workmen 

 have remarkable skill, especially in 

 avoiding loss in weight. European cut- 

 ting they consider very wasteful, and 

 at Mandalay a man would not be em- 

 ployed who sacrificed more than one- 

 fourth of a ruby, while at Antwerp a 

 loss of two-thirds is not uncommon. 

 The tools are extremely simple. The 

 stone is first shaped with a small steel 

 chisel and wooden mallet, as far as possi- 

 ble, according to its cleavage. The facets 

 are then ground and polished on a cop- 

 per wheel with ruby dust, the stone 

 being held with wax or lac on a curved 

 piece of ox horn. A month or six 



weeks may be occupied in cutting and 

 polishing a ruby of one carat. 



The pale stones, cut rounded (cabo- 

 chon) with a concave base, are much 

 used for ornamental work, especially 

 upon gold vessels. The luster of the 

 gold beneath appears to enrich and 

 darken the ruby and give it the true 

 pigeon's-blood color. 



Agates, amethysts, rock crystal, and 

 golden topazes are shipped in great 

 quantities from Brazil. Almost all of 

 them go to Idar and Oberstein, in Ger- 

 many, where they are cut into orna- 

 ments. East year 200,000 pounds of 

 agate and six tons of rock crystal were 

 cut into seals, paperweights, and faceted 

 stones. One wonderful geode yielded 

 over 40,000 pounds of amethyst. 



A great quantity of sapphire of a very 

 dark blue, almost black, color, with a 

 greenish tint, and occasionally entirely 

 green, was imported from Australia. 

 The tourmaline, principally the red 

 (rubellite) and also the aquamarine 

 from Brazil, have been sought for, and 

 considerable quantities of both have 

 been sold at Idar. 



It is interesting to note the increasing 

 variety of ornamental and semi-precious 

 stones now being brought into use, 

 and particularly the introduction of 

 jade. 



This beautiful stone has from prehis- 

 toric times been the especial favorite of 

 uncivilized or semi-civilized peoples, 

 and in China, Japan, and India it has 

 yielded the choicest objects of oriental 

 art. At the Paris Exposition of 1900 

 a remarkable exhibit was made of Sibe- 

 rian jade wrought by European artists, 

 and now the Oceanic jade of New Zea- 

 land, long prized and carved by the 

 Maoris, is becoming immensely popular 

 with the civilized world. 



Great bowlders of it have recently 

 been discovered in New Zealand, in the 

 river beds, from one of which two pan- 

 els, translucent and of a rich pure green 

 color, were cut, which were over one 



