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APPRECIATION OF PRECIOUS STONES.
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between two enthusiastic collectors, or perhaps the gift of a choice specimen, may have drawn attention, not perhaps to the merits of such specimens, but at least to the esteem in which they may be held. Curiosity—it may be an intelligent curiosity—is excited. Investigation, more or less searching, follows. The hardness of the metal, its provenance, its designer, its age, the mode of manufacture, whether by casting or hammering; the manner of decoration, whether by chasing, engraving, or inlaying; the colour and texture of the surface, the presence or absence of patina; and not a few other points of interest, constitute the materials of complex study. Study provokes observation, and observation study, so that before long the neglected group of artistic bronzes exerts a kind of fascination upon the new votary. If his knowledge be superficial and inaccurate, or if he be merely an ameteur or collector just because it is a fashionable pursuit to gather together or to admire certain classes of artistic objects, well then, he does not really know what and why he admires. Forgeries delight him just as much as genuine works, so long as he is not sure that they are forgeries; but he has not sufficient patience for the mastery of, or sufficient insight into, the characteristics of true productions to discriminate them from those that are false. It often happens thus with the amateur of precious stones. He knows nothing of the optical elements, say of surface lustre, and the pleochroism which go to make up the tout ensemble of any particular gem, and is quite satisfied with a well-cut bit of paste, or a cleverly contrived doublet. No doubt, in some cases, even an educated keenness of vision does not suffice to distinguish the true stone from the false, although the durability of the genuine specimens will ultimately prove their superiority. But it is not difficult to learn to appreciate the peculiar and essential characters of the majority of the species of precious stones. The few simple pieces of apparatus and the appliances described in the second chapter, will serve to supplement and correct the deductions of a