Birds and Nature, Vol. 12 No. 3 [August 1902]: Illustrated by Color PhotographyVarious
History
Birds and Nature, Vol. 12 No. 3 [August 1902]: Illustrated by Color Photography
Various
Birds -- Periodicals; Natural history -- Periodicals
Occasionally the desired object can be turned from a single piece of
malachite, but pieces of sufficient size for this purpose are rare.
Bauer describes one piece found in the Gumeschewsk mines which was 17½
feet long, 8 feet broad and 3½ feet high and compact throughout. This is
probably the largest single mass known.
Russia furnishes most of the malachite suitable for work of this kind
and the art of cutting and fitting the stone is possessed almost
exclusively in that country. Most of the Russian malachite has been
obtained from the mines of Nischne-Tagilsk and Bogoslowsk in the
northern Urals, or Gumeschewsk in the southern. The supply has gradually
decreased till now only the Nischne-Tagilsk mines are productive. The
malachite is said to occur there in veins in limestone.
Besides the Urals, fine malachite suitable for cutting comes from
Australia. Burra Burra in New South Wales and Peak Downs in Queensland
are localities whence good Australian malachite is obtained.
Malachite as a mineral is common in copper mines in the United States
but it is only in Arizona that it is found of a quality suitable for
cutting. A variety from Morenci, Arizona, consists of malachite and
azurite and gives a combination of green and blue that is unique and
pleasing. (See colored plate.) Less use has been made of such material
for ornamental purposes than might have been for most of it has
unfortunately been smelted as a copper ore.
Malachite is rarely used for rings or small jewels but is cut into
earrings, bracelets, inkstands and similar objects. Art objects of
malachite seem to have been in much favor with Russian emperors as gifts
to contemporaneous sovereigns, and so bestowed are to be seen in
numerous palaces in Europe. Perhaps the most famous of these gifts is
the set of center tables, mantel pieces, ewers, basins and vases
presented by the Emperor Alexander to Napoleon and still to be seen in
an apartment of the Grand Trianon at Versailles.
Malachite was well known to the ancients and like other precious stones
was worn as an amulet. It was called pseudo-emerald by Theophrastus. Its
name is from the Greek malake, the word for mallows and was given
doubtless on account of its green color.
Azurite, the blue mineral which often accompanies malachite is likewise
a hydrous carbonate of copper and occasionally occurs so that it can be
used with malachite for ornamental purposes.
Oliver Cummings Farrington.
[Illustration: LEAF BUTTERFLY (INDIA).
(Kallima paralekta).
Life-size.
FROM COL. F. M. WOODRUFF.]
THE LEAF BUTTERFLY.
(_Kallima paralekta_.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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