Ever since man became acquainted with topaz, this noble stone has been paying dearly for the melodiousness of its name, which was formerly bestowed on the whole range of all yellow to golden brown gemstones. At the heart of such misnomers is the citrine, a variety of quartz mostly obtained through the heating of amethyst. [...]
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The list of transparent stones which have been faceted and set in jewellery is endless, and many of them are unlikely to come the way of the majority of members of the public. There are, however, a number that warrant a mention, and they are grouped together in this section.
Peridot
Oscar Wilde described the green of [...]
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This large and miscellaneous collection of gems are all crystalline or micro-crystalline silicas of one kind or another. Silica is one of the commonest substances in the earth’s crust and it has been calculated that quartz represents 12 per cent of all rocks on the earth. By no means all this quartz is usable for [...]
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