James Clarke Inc Stone History

Stone Facts

Jean-Baptise Tavernier (1605-1689) was probably the first to record the histories of notable diamonds. This famous French merchant and traveler made many journeys to the East, where he saw and wrote about the treasures of the potentates, and wealthy merchants he visited. He described his experiences in Les Six Voyages de Jean-Baptise Tavernier, published in 1676.

Most named gems are diamonds. This is perhaps because the diamond has long been one of the most prized stones with the greatest possible endurance.

Legend says that Agnes Sorel was the first woman to wear diamonds. According to tradition, she fell in love with King Charles VII of France, and wishing to attract his attention at court, she borrowed as many diamonds as possible from her men friends and relations. Up to this time, diamonds had been a masculine ornament. She then had the diamonds set into a necklace. Her first appearance at court produced a sensation, and she caught the king's eye.

Famous, or "named diamonds" range in size from 1 carat to 530 carats. Historically they range from very old stones like the Koh-i-noor, which as a past dating back 700 years, to the Star of Sierra Leone which was found in 1972.

The Great Cameo is 12 x 10 inches. Constantine carried it to Constantinople with the imperial treasure and it remained there until Baudouin II offered it to St. Louis, king of France. It was placed in the treasury of the Sainte-Chapelle, and there the demands of the Catholic faith required this "Triumph of Germanicus" to become "Joseph at the court of the Pharaohs." Lent by Philippe VI to the pope in 1379, The Great Cameo returned to St. Chapelle in 1379, and remained there until 1791, when it was placed in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.

In the late 16th century, an Italian, Vincenzano Peruzzi perfected the 56-facet cut which became the modern ‘brilliant cut."

There has always been a strong belief in the mystic powers and medicinal virtues of gems. A belief that the Middle Ages had themselves inherited from antiquity, and that today, still has not quite disappeared.

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Stone History
Stone Science
Diamonds
Colored Stones
The 4 "C's"

From the beginning of time, man has been captivated by the wonder and delight of discovering and possessing beautiful stones. By the end of prehistoric times sparkling, richly colored stones were already being used for trade. Valued for magical properties rather than for their beauty, gems were not articles of luxury, but everyday necessities. It was believed that certain stones could pass on magical powers.

The Babylonians and Sumarians used seal rings made from precious stones. They wore gems as decorations and symbols of status, offered them to the gods, and decorated altars and idols with gems because they thought only the gods could have created them. In Sumer, engraved gems became the first seals. Later seals were used as signatures. Made of quartz, onyx or other semiprecious stones, these seals were shaped like buttons or hemispheres engraved in intaglio, or sometimes in the form of a cylinder, pierced along its axis so that it could be worn on a string around the neck.

Sumarian civilization extended as far as the Indus valley, and Assyrian cylinder-seals have been discovered in the Caucasus. Ornamental stones like lapis lazuli from Afghanistan were already being used 6000 years ago. As this was the only source known at that time, it is very surprising to find these stones not only in burial mounds on the coasts of the Baltic Sea but in the tombs of Morocco. For more widely distributed stones it is difficult to be sure of their origins and so impossible to map their movements in the trade of ancient times. Certain gemstones have excited the admiration of people from very different civilizations. In China, jade was valued higher than any other stone and has been worked for 4000 years. In Mexico, jade and turquoise were more sought after than gold. Some gemstones such as carnelian was favored by prehistoric peoples, this stone in pierced, round or oval shapes has been found in very many places far removed from archaeological excavations. It has been discovered in Siberia where it was worked in Mesolithic times together with other chalcedonies and jaspers.

It is particularly difficult to determine the order of appearance of different gems in history. Historians are sure that jade and various quartzes were in use for the manufacture of tools in prehistoric times; that lapis lazuli, obsidian, carnelian, agate and jasper were cut and engraved in Sumerian times, in the shape of beads, seals, amulets, cups, flowers and little figures of animals. In Egypt malachite, carnelian, turquoise, and lapis lazuli are found in many of the pieces of jewelry excavated from tombs. The Egyptians even used powdered malachite to color their eyelids. The Bible makes frequent references to gems, and the prophet Ezekiel described the robe of Hiram of Tyre (10th c. BC) as follows: "Every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald and the carbuncle and gold." In all probability, the "sapphires" were lapis lazuli and the carbuncles were almandine garnets.

Towards the end of the Assyrian empire very many gems were in circulation and they were valued as much for their rarity and beauty as for their workmanship. In Greece, the material was of less importance, and the cutting of cameos and intaglios reached a perfection only equaled during the Renaissance. The engraver Pyrgoteles has been immortalized through the many portraits of Alexander the Great which bear his name. The city of Alexandria became an important center for the manufacture of cameos. It was probably there that the two most remarkable examples of ancient gem-carving were made: the cup of Ptolemy and the Farnese plate, which must have taken 20-30 years to complete. Another incredible example is The Great Cameo, engraved in Rome by Dioskorides during the early years of the first century AD.

For over 1,000 years in Europe, only Bzyantium preserved the secrets of gem engraving; while it remained a flourishing art in Persia, India and China. Arab sailors traded all kinds of gems. In the 9th century sailors ventured as far as Madagascar to obtain quartz, which they then sold throughout the East. From the beginning of the 16h century there was a particular demand for cut rock crystal. The Renaissance produced many outstanding examples, and European traders began to exploit the Madagascar deposits.

Europe itself produced few gems of value. However, a rock-crystal of great purity was found in the Alps, Bohemia yielded the celebrated pyrope garnet (Arizona ruby). Spain produced jet and Germany agate. Amethyst was found in central France and a sapphire that the mediaeval alchemists declared as inferior only to those that came from the Indies. The rarest and most beautiful precious stones came from Burma and India where the art of polishing them has been practiced from antiquity.

The practice of cutting precious stones to regular forms, and the development of the techniques of diamond cutting, were established Europe. The method of splitting diamond get the atureal octahedral from was known in early France (Gaul) and in Germany.

About 1380 a true cutting technique was practiced in France; a large flat face (the table) was made by cutting across one of the apexes of the octahedron; then the ‘ribs' of this table and those on the back of the stone were cut to give eight supplementary facets. In 1475 Charles Le Temeraire, Duke of Burgundy entrusted three large diamonds (one of which was known later as the Sancy diamond) to Louis de Berquen for cutting. He cut them so outstandingly that the fashion of using faceted diamonds for jewelry was soon adopted by the French royal court and at once imitated in other European courts. Because of this tradition has named Louis de Berquen as the father of modern diamond-cutting, because he developed the 32-facet cut using a orixontal steel grinding wheel covered with diamond powder suspended in oil.

The rebirth of the art of gem engraving took place in Italy in the 15th century and it was under the influence of the Medici collection, the finest assembly of antique engraved gems and other works of art, the at 15th and 16th century engravers succeeded in creating masterpieces worthy of the greatest engravers of antiquity. Like other Italian artists, they were much sought after by foreign rulers. Many lived in foreign courts, Miseronis at the court of Emperor Rudolph II and Benvenuto Cellini and Matteo de Nazzaro at the court of Francois I.

Between the 16th and 19th centuries three outstanding events dominated the history of gemology: the colonization of Central and South America by the Spanish who exported many beautiful emeralds; the discovery of diamonds in Brazil in 1723, and the consequent loss to India of the monopoly in their production; and the later discovery of the rich diamond deposits in South African in 1867, which made diamonds accessible for the first time to a large number of people.