The Mysterious Attraction Of Gems

(via 5000 Years of Gems and Jewelry) Frances Rogers and Alice Beard writes:

There is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, so runs the ancient legend. More likely it is a pot of gems.

Those resplendent fragments of pure color—rubies, emeralds, sapphires, opals, diamonds—might well be bits of the rainbow itself, pure color, no longer ethereal and out of reach but color frozen into tangible and everlasting beauty for the delight (or downfall) of mortal man.

‘A pot of gold’ means wealth, but jewels—the very word is a storm-center for romance, adventure and superstition. Science, history and religion have at various times been deeply preoccupied with little colored stones. Why?

From the standpoint of practical usefulness these stones do, to be sure, serve a few special purposes: they are used in certain drills, in instruments of precision, and as bearings in watch works. But such uses were not factors considered by man when he first stooped to pick up a pretty pebble that glowed dully like imprisoned fire. From a time far beyond the backward reach of history man has loved jewels. They seem to have possessed for him a glamor deeper than cold reason can account for. Even the desire for riches does not fully explain the mysterious attraction these tiny crystals have always had for the human race. In fact, we cannot find any one supreme and central reason why we should have given them such varied and leading roles as they have played in our lives.

If now, at this very moment, all the famous and magnificent gems on earth were suddenly to dissolve into thin air, most of us would go about our affairs and find nothing at all different from usual. But if jewels had never existed...then indeed there would be confusion. Many pages from recorded history would have to be scrapped and rewritten according to different pattern. More than one war has been waged and won because the king’s gems could so readily be converted into funds, could be pawned and later redeemed.

Jewels not only have played an important part in the temporal affairs of nations but, because of the supernatural powers ascribed to them, they have also been closely linked with religions and superstitions. No doubt jewelry was always used for ornament, but so deep-rooted has been the belief that a precious stone could affect the fortunes of its wearer, that for centuries jewelry was made in accordance with that conviction. Unless this fact is borne in mind it is impossible to gain any true understanding of the history of precious stones and jewelry.

Taken all in all, the tiny gemstone, silent as the Sphinx, has made a great noise in the affairs of men.

1. How old is a diamond?
Countless ages before there were any human beings, or even so much as a soft, shell-less form of living matter destined in time to develop into a creature that moved at will over the face of the earth, certain precious stones were already ancient. Possibly the very diamond in the ring on your finger came into being with the first rocks.

In the beginning the world was a place without soil or sea, a molten mass that cooled and solidified only to remelt and recrystallize again and again, until finally the fiery earth stuff was allowed to cool enough to form its first rocks. And from the inconceivably distant period to the present restless one, Time, like a master-chemist working in a mighty laboratory, has been breaking up and rearranging the mineral matter of which the world and its rocks are composed. Water, heat, pressure, and atmospheric weathering are his tools. In the Middle Ages these world forces were known as the Four Elements: Water, Fire, Air and Earth.

The ‘first’ rocks—those which were formed under terrific heat and pressure—are called igneous rocks; and diamonds, the most interesting of all precious stones, originated, says the scientist, as constituents of igneous rocks, formed in the midst of the molten mass under terrific pressure.

Sometimes a gemstone—a diamond, emerald, ruby or sapphire—is found still imbedded in this primary rock mass, or mother rock; or on the other hand it may be discovered at a great distance from the place where it first took form, in what are called gem gravels or gem sands.

When rock, perhaps torn by violent volcanic disturbances, is forced upward through layers of sediment toward the surface of the earth and there exposed to the action of rain and frost, it breaks down and its hidden treasure is released. If the weathered fragments of gem bearing rock are not carried far afield by flowing water the gemstones continue to retain the sharp edges and original form into which they crystallized. But the majority of stones do not escape the wear and tear of travel in flowing water. The diamond, when forced to roll about in some river bed, rubbed and crowded by other stones, even the diamond—hardest of all known substances, natural or artificial—does not emerge free from scars, transparent and glittering like a drop of dew in the sun. On the contrary, under such conditions the stone becomes as dull and cloudy in appearance as a lump of frosted ice. And not until it has passed through the skilled hands of the gem cutter does the diamond shine with a dazzling blaze of rainbow colors.

Although in a few cases the organic world does supply gem materials, a true gemstone is a mineral. And a mineral is a definite combination of certain chemical elements. At one time it was believed that since gemstones were themselves remarkable specimens of the mineral family, they must likewise be examples of rare and precious minerals. But the chemist does not arrive at his conclusions by deduction, as did the alchemist, and modern investigations have proved that, with few exceptions, the minerals of which gemstones are composed are quite common.

For instance, carbon exists in large quantities. And the diamond is crystallized carbon and nothing more. Two elements combine to give us the ruby. One of them is as common as air, since it is oxygen; while the other—aluminum—is so lavishly distributed over the earth that it provides material for kitchen utensils.

More than a thousand different minerals are now known to science and the list is constantly being lengthened, but comparatively few minerals produce flawless specimens we call gemstones.

The word ‘precious’ is more or less elastic, depending on the manner and also the period in which it is used. The precious stones of ancient history are, more often than not, stones which are now classified as semi-precious stones; and today it is customary to list, without reservation, only four precious stones: diamond, the ruby, the emerald, and the blue sapphire. A discussion of the characteristics by which gems are judged will be found in part two.

Among the treasures of the Pharaohs, jasper, turquoise, lapis lazuli, carnelian, and rock crystal were far more likely to be found than were emeralds, rubies and sapphires. And as for the diamond, it was quite unknown in the earliest days of history. Certain gemstones, however, were known to man long before any day recorded by history.