YOUNGEST OF THE GEMS

Evening Star, Issue 20139, 2 April 1929, Page 6

YOUNGEST OF THE GEMS

STORY OF THE BLACK OPAL It is announced that there has airived in this country from Australia what is “ probably the finest specimen of black opal ever found.” It is now in tho hands of a London firm of dealers in precious stones, and its valuc is estimated at something like £IO,OOO (says the London ‘Observer’). It is interesting fo find a jewel Ime the black opal, which has in a sense neither history nor tradition, attaining such a. market price as this. It is true that the ordinary opal lias been known :is n geiu Jor oGiiturics j .for wus it not Nonius’s opal ring that Anthonv coveted for Cleopatra? Pliny delighted in opals; and there is a sentimental passage in a certain Onomacritus winch collectors of opal love to quote. “.1 he delicate colours and tenderness ot the opal,” wrote this Greek, “ renin id me of a loving and beautiful child."’ And certainly in the ancient world the opal was a rare gom. Such small supplies as there were came from Hungary. Afterwards tiro opals were lonnd in Mexico. But it was not till the end of tho last century,_ when opals were discovered in Australia, that they came on the market in any quantity. The black opal is the youngest «em of all. It happened that in .190.3, when the White Cliff mines in New South Wales were beginning to be exhausted, a famous prospector called Charlie Nettletou struck opals at Lightning Ridge. They turned out to be opals ol a kind that had not been found before.

Some of these opals were sold to Mr T. (’. Wollaston, who brought them to market in London. For the first two or three years a mere £l. or £2 per ounce was all that the dealers would give. Mr Wollaston persisted. He said, “Fifty years hence the black opal may prove to be the costliest, gem on earth. Personally, I believe it will be.” It appears that Ills prophecy is already being fulfilled. It was not till 1910 that an enterprising jeweller in Fifth avenue, New York, was persuaded to make a special show of black opals. Since then they have won their way. As Mr Wollaston says, “Considering what, part custom plays in determining the value ol gems, it is remarkable what progress in value the black opal has made by sheer merit.” It was Air Wollaston who gave the gem its name, and it is a name which is not inappropriate. For it the stone he held between the eye and the light so that the ravs arc not reflected but pass directly through the si one, it becomes a jet-black, just as the so-called “whito opal ” is in direct light a. pale yellow or milky colour. The play oi rainbow colours seen by reflected light is an optical effect due to the interlerence of rays of light at the surface of fissures or internal films. Of late year sthc mines at Lightning Bidge have been tailing, and it is tlioi7ght that the newly-arrived opal must have been unearthed some years ago. it is about 2Jiu long by 2iii wide, and is in the form of a dog’s_ head, But, though this is the king of black opals, there is a white_ opal to beat it still. This is a stone in the Natural History Museum at Vienna. Jt is said to ha" as big as a man’s fist; it is 4 3-Bin, 21iu thick, and from 4in to 3in high. It has never been on the market, but it is said that many years ao-o a dealer from Amsterdam offered for it £25,000.