gems, corundum, ruby, sapphire, topaz, beryl, emerald

Sinkankas: Beautiful watercolor drawings by Lang, a professional artist, showing cut and/or rough gemstones, and forming the main attraction of this booklet. The text by Schnack is brief and stresses attraction & lore of gems. Rev. B.W. Anderson, The Gemm., 8, 94, 1937, 164–5.

beryl, emerald, Colombia, Chivor, gems

gems, beryl, emerald, Colombia, Chivor

The Chivor emerald field is situated on the eastern slope of the Andes in the Department of Boyacá, at an elevation of about 8000 ft. above sea level. It overlooks the Llanos (plains) of the Orinoco and is watered by many streams flowing into the Rio Meta, the Orinoco's largest tributary. The Rio Meta is navigable from the Orinoco to a point within about 50 miles of the Chivor district and may eventually prove to be the reasonable outlet for the future development of this part of the country. The topography of the district is extremely rugged and mountainous (Fig. 1), the difference in elevation between two points on a mining claim 1 km. square being sometimes as much as 4000 ft. The ground is covered with dense forest growth and the available timber is suitable and sufficient for mining purposes, but it is becoming gradually depleted by Indian clearings as the country around the mines becomes settled. The many streams combined with the rough topography give good possi-bilities for hydroelectric power. The center of population nearest to Chivor is Bogotá, the capital of the republic and a city of some 300,000 inhabitants; the distance is two and one-half days' travel. The first stage of the journey from Bogota, is accomplished by rail to Chocont·, some 4 hr. travel. From Chocont· the journey is made in the saddle, one night being spent in Guateque. The latter is a small town and the nearest post office to the mines, being some 10 hr. ride distant. The roads are mere bridle paths, in parts hazardous and almost impassable in the wet season. All supplies brought to the mines, other than those produced locally, are carried by pack mule; mule freight from Chocontá costs 3 centavos1 per pound. The climate of the Chivor district is healthful and bracing. The wet season begins in March and concludes in November, the remaining months being dry. The annual precipitation is about 150 in. The temperature throughout the year is nearly constant, varying from about 45∞ F. to about 65∞ F. shade temperature. The rains are cold and unpleasant, and for the greater part of each day in the wet season the country is shrouded in dense mist. A fire can with comfort be kept burning in a living room all the year round.

gems, Arabic lore, history, Arabic mineralogy,

Storey’s Persian Literature: A Bio-bibliographical Survey is a monumental reference work devoted to Persian writings and their authors, arranged principally by subject and providing biographical information, titles and descriptions of works, manuscript locations, editions, translations, and secondary literature. Rather than a history of Persian literature in narrative form, it functions as an extensive bibliographical guide to the surviving Persian literary tradition, including history, biography, geography, travel, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, the natural sciences, religion, poetry, and related subjects. Of particular relevance to the history of gemology are its references to Persian scientific and mineralogical literature, including works dealing with precious stones, minerals, metals, and associated technical traditions, and its documentation of manuscripts and editions through which these texts are known. The survey is especially valuable for identifying variant titles, authorship and chronology, locating manuscripts in European and Asian collections, and tracing earlier scholarship. Originally begun by Charles Ambrose Storey and subsequently continued and substantially expanded by François de Blois, it remains an important bibliographical tool for the study of Persian manuscripts and the transmission of scientific and technical literature. The entire work is available online at Storey Online.

gems, beryl, emerald, Colombia, Muzo

Sinkankas: Part of O. Stutzer, “Beiträge zur Geologie und Mineralogie von Kolumbien.” This work is based on the scientific material left by the late Robert Scheibe. It includes observations made by the author during a month-long visit to Muzo in 1914–1915. Published by Ernst Albrecht Scheibe in Bogotá, 1925. Translated from the original Spanish. The study covers geography, geology, and petrology in great detail, with a focus on formations immediately associated with or penetrated by emerald-bearing veins. It discusses the distribution of mineralogy, associated minerals within veins and adjoining rocks, economic considerations, emerald crystals, and their hallmarks of value. Includes bibliographic entries. Pages 445–446 feature 12 plates showing scenes and views of rock structures. A large map illustrates areal geology, mine workings, buildings, and several geological profiles. Additionally, a minor but unimportant emerald occurrence at Nemocón, Colombia, was described by Robert Scheibe in this journal.

corundum, History.1, gems

Sinkankas: An assemblage of interesting information and anecdote on gems and jewels, rich in references to ancient as well as modern works on gems, jewels, and lore. The first chapter discusses jewels and superstitions connected with them, and is followed by chapters on emerald, ruby & sapphire, and other gemstones, also with a few scientific details but stressing romance and lore. There are remarks on engraved gems and magical stones, and the fates and fortunes of gems in world markets as a result of the rise and influence of Bolshevism, ending with a few statistics on recent values of gems in France. States a popular book, for lighter moments, treating the fancies, rather than the facts, relating to gem-stones, with especial regard to emerald, ruby, and sapphire. While the present work, presumably the first edition & issue, reappears later in similar small size but with colour plates added, another publisher obtained rights to it and proceeded to create an elaborate and beautiful piece as described below. The text is identical to the previous edition but is now entirely reset and elaborately ornamented throughout and with the splendid coloured plates of Leon Carré, dated 1922–23, inserted in the text at appropriate places. The plates illustrate legends recounted in the text, often in fanciful representations of taste and beauty. Also issued in specially bound copies in one-third red or green leather, marbled bds & endp, with 5 bound-in blank ff ahead and after the bound-in wraps, and with a set of 12 duplicate plates inserted after the text. 29.8 × 23.1 cm (11¾ × 9⅛ in). Needless to say such issues are rare.

gems, beryl, emerald, Colombia, Muzo

Invaluable,constantly referenced eyewitness account ofa visit to the mines in July, 1915. Several sketch maps locate the mines while other photographic illustrations show the open cuts and methods of mining and sorting emeralds.Topics: geography, history, geology, deposits, mineralogy, age, origin, mining methods, production, comments upon other emerald deposits in Colombia.

gems, ancient gemology, ancient jewelry, Egypt, Egyptian jewelry, beryl, emerald, turquoise, malachite, gem treatments, dying,

The Papyrus Graecus Holmiensis (also known as the Stockholm Papyrus) is a collection of craft recipes compiled in Egypt c. 300 AD. It is written in Greek. The Stockholm Papyrus has 154 recipes for dyeing, coloring gemstones, cleaning (purifying) pearls, and imitation gold and silver.[1] Certain of them may derive from the Pseudo-Democritus. Zosimos of Panopolis, an Egyptian alchemist of c. 300 AD, gives similar recipes. Some of these recipes are found in medieval Latin collections of technological recipes, notably the Mappae clavicula. Leyden Papyrus X derives from the same (or very similar) sources, and is written in a similar (possibly the same) hand, using chemically identical ink.[2][3] The Stockholm papyrus and Leyden Papyrus X were both found in Thebes by Giovanni Anastasi, who donated the Leyden Papyrus to the Dutch government in 1828 and the Stockholm Papyrus to the Swedish government in 1832. The Stockholm papyrus was first published by Otto Lagercrantz in 1913. Whereas Leyden papyrus X deals with metallurgy, the Stockholm papyrus deals with gems, pearls and textile dyeing. Sinkankas: The extensively annotated papyrus manuscript here may be as old as the end of the third or the beginning of the fourth century BC; it is in the Swedish Academy of Antiquities, Stockholm, and is believed to be the companion to another papyrus of the Johann d’Anastasy collection in Leyden, entitled P. Leid. X. The present papyrus, called Papyrus Graecus Holmiensis or P. Holm., consists of 15 leaves and that portion of the text, p. 157–200, consisting of about 70 recipes for cleansing pearls and manufacturing a variety of gemstones, is of greatest interest here to show how advanced the arts of deception had become at so early a stage in gemological history. Among the gemstones to be “manufactured” by various means are carnelian, lapis lazuli, emerald, pearl, ruby, “green stones,” beryl, amethyst, chrysolite, and chrysoprase, and also “lychnis,” jasper, sunstone, procedures for purifying rock crystal and pearls, etching or corroding gemstones, altering their color, or softening them, and removing color. Unfortunately, Lagercrantz provides no useful commentary on the technological merits of the recipes, but it is obvious from merely reading these recipes that most treatments are by far superficial or even cosmetic, and, in some instances, not only ineffective but actually destructive, e.g., to pearls. In several recipes which claim to change one gemstone into another, usually rock crystal into emerald or the like, the formulas call for pigmenting agents which penetrate fissures in the quartz and impart superficial coloration. K. Nassau, Gemstone Enhancement, p. 81–112, provides an extended commentary with extracts from this work.

gems, beryl, emerald, Colombia, Muzo

Olden gives a detailed account of Colombia’s emerald deposits and the methods employed in working them, with particular attention to the government-owned mines at Muzo. He describes the geological occurrence of emerald in calcite veins traversing black carbonaceous shale, the character of the emerald-bearing workings, and the practical difficulties imposed by the terrain, rainfall, and removal of waste. Mining methods are discussed in detail, including open-cut excavation, the use of water to break down and wash material, and the subsequent hand-searching of debris for emeralds. The paper also considers production, recovery, and administration of the mines and provides an important early twentieth-century technical account of Colombian emerald mining.

corundum, synthetic corundum.7, Burma.12, synthetic ruby, Mogok, gems

Clarkin presents a wide-ranging popular account of the ruby, describing its appeal to collectors, exceptional rarity and value, historical associations, production, identification, and the contemporary ruby trade. He discusses prominent collectors including E. H. Harriman, James J. Hill, William Astor, and the Gaekwar of Baroda; compares the ruby’s value with emerald and diamond; and describes natural, reconstructed, and synthetic rubies, including oxyhydrogen-flame production and the use of the dichroscope, hardness, and brilliance in distinguishing stones. Considerable attention is devoted to Burma’s Mogok ruby district, illustrated with photographs of the native ruby market, cutting, mining, and gem-bearing gravels; the article recounts the British conquest of Upper Burma, G. Skelton Streeter’s participation in the expedition, and the subsequent exploitation of the mines by the Burma Ruby Mines Company associated with Rothschild. Clarkin concludes with the ruby’s long reputation as a talisman of courage, victory, love, and good fortune, recounting historical and legendary rubies associated with European royalty and other celebrated figures.