The science of gems, jewels, coins, and medals, ancient and modern / by Archibald Billing.

  • Billing, Archibald, 1791-1881.
Date:
1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The science of gems, jewels, coins, and medals, ancient and modern / by Archibald Billing. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    bloodstone (4242), or jasper-onyx (4S43) ; if colourless and translucent, chalcedony-onyx (3636), or chalcedonyx; if of an undecided colour—gray and semi-opaque, or black—it is de- nominated simply onyx. Marble bas reliefs are on the white substance of the marble itself; but every cameo bas relief is on a ground of a different colour, or at least, as just described, a different shade, except when the relief is cut on a ruby (5037), sapphire (5138), emerald, or other jewel, or on a white or blue chalcedony (3939), a crysoprase, or jasper (4040). When the onyx consists of more than two layers, the white being in the middle, part of the upper coloured layer is employed for some accessory, such as a wreath of leaves or flowers (4242 and 4747), or some part of dress (43^), or a variety of other objects, as in (4444 and 4848). But sometimes the onyx or sardonyx is treated in a different manner,—as, for instance, when the subject represented is an animal, as a lion, bull, eagle, or hawk, &c.; in which case the figure is cut out of the orange or brown layer, and the white left for the ground, as (46), a fine cameo in brown and white sardonyx, amongst the Payne-Knight gems in the British Museum, of a brown Egyptian antelope (which is a splendid animal, almost as large as-a red deer), cut in the brown layer 36 Head of iEsculapius, from the antique, by M. Elisa Pistrucci, pale Oriental chalcedony onyx. 37 Head of Diana, ruby. ?8 Head of Cupid, sapphire, by Isler. 39 An ancient Comic Mask, chalcedony, cameo. 40 Medusa, red jasper, cameo, Pistrucci. 42 Norma, cameo, by Brett, bloodstone onyx, three strata; the wreath green. 47 Ceres, imitated from a Sicilian coiu, similar to (25), carnelian onyx, three strata, by Pannini: as matron she wears the tts-h-Xov, by which she is distinguished from her daughter, Proserpine. 43 Minerva of Aspasius, cameo, jasper onyx, three strata, by Saulini. 44 A Sacrifice, cameo, sardonyx, three strata, by Amastini ; part of the third stratum made into a vase. 48 CEdipus consulting the Sphynx, antique cameo, sardonyx, the third stratum representing the rock.