Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 January 1908 — PRECIOUS STONES AND “PASTE/' [ARTICLE]

PRECIOUS STONES AND “PASTE/'

Imitations Now Caitf Only Be Detected by Experts. Glass or “paste,” as it Is called, is made which cannot when be distinguished from diamonds by any one but an expert armed with the necessary tests. And the same Is true as to paste imitations of all precious stones excepting the emerald/(whose beautH-ttl- green tint cannot be exact ly obtained), fee cat’s-eye,| which has a peculiar fibrous structure, and the opal. The real value and quality of precious stones as compared with glaes depends on their durability, their hardness, their resistance to scratching and “dulling” of face and edge. Even our Ang’o-'Saxon ancestors, as l saw a week ago in the fine collection recently dug up at Ipswich fey Miss Layard, made gems of glass and paste, says a writer in the Loudon Telegraph. It is gnly in modern times that the. art of making artificial “precious s’ones” had reached a degree of perfection which, so far as decorative purposes are Concerned, leaves the natural atones no claim to superiority.