Full title is "The Curious Lore of Precious Stones, being a description of their sentiments and folklore, superstitions, symbolism, mysticism, use in medicine, protection, prevention, religion, and divination, crystal gazing, birthstones, lucky stones, and talismans, astral, zodiacal, and planetary." Just about everything you ever wanted to know about precious stones, aside from their formation, acquisition, and chemical composition.
By : George Frederick Kunz (1856 - 1932)
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The love of precious stones is deeply implanted in the human heart, and the cause of this must be sought not only in their coloring and brilliancy but also in their durability. All the fair colors of flowers and foliage, and even the blue of the sky and the glory of the sunset clouds, only last for a short time, and are subject to continual change, but the sheen and coloration of precious stones are the same to-day as they were thousands of years ago and will be for thousands of years to come. In a world of change, this permanence has a charm of its own that was early appreciated.
The object of this book is to indicate and illustrate the various ways in which precious stones have been used at different times and among different peoples, and more especially to explain some of the curious ideas and fancies that have gathered around them. Many of these ideas may seem strange enough to us now, and yet when we analyze them we find that they have their roots either in some intrinsic quality of the stones or else in an instinctive appreciation of their symbolical significance. Through manifold transformations this symbolism has persisted to the present day.
The same thing may be said in regard to the various superstitions connected with gems. Our scientific knowledge of cause and effect may prevent us from accepting any of the fanciful notions of the physicians and astrologers of the olden time; nevertheless, the possession of a necklace or a ring adorned with brilliant diamonds, fair pearls, warm, glowing rubies, or celestial-hued sapphires will to-day make a woman’s heart beat faster and bring a blush of pleasure to her cheek. Life will seem better worth living to her; and, indeed, this is no delusion, for life is what our thought makes it, and joy is born of gratified desire. Hence nothing that contributes to increasing the sum of innocent pleasures should be disdained; and surely no pleasure can be more innocent and justifiable than that inspired by the possession of beautiful natural objects.
The author, who possesses what is believed to be the most comprehensive private library on this subject, has obtained many references from material which he has been gathering during the past twenty-five years. Many of the types exist in the collection of folk-lore precious stones exhibited at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, and now in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Other types are drawn from the Morgan Collection exhibited at the Paris Expositions of 1889 and 1900, which, with additions, is now in Morgan Hall, in the American Museum of Natural History, New York City.
Other prominent references are the collection of precious stones in the California Midwinter Memorial Museum, in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco; the Tiffany collection of precious stones, exhibited at the Atlanta Exposition of 1894, now in the National Museum in Washington; the collection exhibited at the Pan-American Exposition, and presented to the Musée d’Histoire Naturelle, in Paris, by the late J. Pierpont Morgan; the collection exhibited at the exposition held in Portland, Oregon, in 1905; and the collection of gems and precious stones exhibited at the Jamestown Exposition, 1907. All of these collections, either entirely or very largely, have been formed by the author.
Some references to sentiment connected with precious stones are embodied in the little work, now in its 21st edition, entitled: “Natal Stones, Sentiments and Superstitions Associated with Precious Stones,” compiled by the writer, who has examined nearly all the principal collections in the United States, Europe, Mexico, Canada, and Asiatic Russia.
For courtesies, information and illustrations, I am indebted to the following, to whom my thanks are due:
Prof. Taw Sein Ko, Superintendent of the Archæological Survey, of Burma; Dr. T. Wada, of Tokyo, Japan; Dr. G. O. Clerc, President of the Société Ouralienne des Amis des Sciences Naturelles, Ekaterinebourg, Russia; Dr. Charles Braddock, late Medical Inspector to the King of Siam; Sir Charles Hercules Reed, Curator of Archæology, and Dr. Ernest A. Wallis Budge, Egyptologist, British Museum, London; A. W. Feavearyear, Esq., London; Dr. Salomon Reinach, Director of the Archaælogical Museum of St. Germain-en-Laye, France; Prof. Giuseppe Belucci, of the University of Perugia; Dr. Peter Jessen, Librarian of the Kunstgewerbe Museum, of Berlin; Miss Belle DaCosta Green; Dr. Frederick Hirth, Chinese Professor, Columbia University, New York; Dr. Clark Wissler, Curator of Archæology, Dr. L. P. Gratacap, Curator of Mineralogy, American Museum of Natural History; Dr. Berthold Laufer, Oriental Archæologist, and Dr. Oliver C. Farrington, Curator of Geology and Mineralogy, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago; Hereward Carrington, Esq., Psychist, New York; Dr. W. Hayes Ward, Archæologist and Babylonian Scholar; Mrs. Henry Draper, New York; H. W. Kent, Esq., Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; Consul General Moser, Colombo, Ceylon; W. W. Blake, Mexico City, who has done so much to encourage Mexican archæological investigation; the late A. Damour, of Paris, the great pioneer of mineralogical archæology; the late Dr. A. B.
Meyer, of Dresden, who, more than anyone else, proved that the Nephritfrage or the jade question was to be solved by chemical and mineralogical investigation; the late Rajah Sir Sourindro Mohun Tagore, of Calcutta; and Dr. A. M. Lythgoe, Egyptologist, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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