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MALACHITE:
Malachite, or "vert de montagne," is a hydrated carbonate of copper, or rather "a stalagmitic form of the green carbonate of copper" found in Siberia, Norway, and the Ural Mountains, and lately in South America. It is rarely found in masses weighing more than from ten to twenty pounds, and good specimens have a very high value. Its specific weight is 4.
Malachite takes a fine polish, and its varied shades of green, disposed with a thousand caprices, or in diverse zones, give it a pleasing effect. Beads and pendants of it are occasionally seen in jewelry, but its chief use in art is for ornaments of larger dimensions, such as boxes, paper-weights, statuettes, &c.
At St. Petersburg an exceptionally large slab of malachite 34 inches by 18 broad and 2 thick, is valued at $5294.
Under the First Empire an apartment in the Grand Trianon was furnished with beautiful objects all made of malachite, and presented to Napoleon I. By Alexander of Russia.
Attempts have been made to engrave malachite, but owing to its soft texture and multiplicity of zones destroying artistic effect, without successful results.
HEMATITE:
The hematite is a sesqui-oxide of iron occurring with a fibrous or radiated structure in mammillated or globular masses, and greatly resembles malachite in the mode of its formation.
It is a very common stone, of a dark-red colour, verging upon black. Properly speaking it is not a precious stone, but it is mentioned here because it is the first stone that ever was engraved. It is the material of the cylinders and the vases engraved by the Chaldeans, the Assyrians, the Medes and Persians, and Phenicians, in the remote time to which we refer the origin of art. |
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Precious Stones Guide Vol 2
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