Lithographic stone

“ Other stones, such as ‘fired’ zircon, white sapphire, white topaz, and rock-crystal, may dazzle with brilliancy of light reflected from the surface or emitted from the interior, but none of them, like diamond, glow with mysterious gleams. No hint of colour, save perhaps a trace of the blue of steel, can be tolerated in stones of this category; above all is a touch of the jaundice hue of yellow abhorred. It taxes all the skill of the lapidary to assure that the disposition of the facets be such as to reveal the full splendour of the stone. ”

“ Material: black slate and granite. Phillips Academy collection, Andover. The one to the right has a groove about the top. There are many of these in all museum collections, and I am sorry I cannot illustrate a large number of them. They range from the ordinary ridged form, unperforated, to long, slender, almost pick-shaped objects. They constitute a study in themselves. There have been many theories as to drilled and winged objects, but these pendant-shaped, “coffin”-shaped, and kindred stones not only defy classification, but there is absolutely no use to be assigned them. ”

“ In time the vast majority of the megalithic monuments of Europe seem to begin near the [147] end of the neolithic period and cover the copper age, the later forms continuing occasionally into that of bronze. Here again it is curious that megalithic building, if merely an independent phase in many countries, should arise in so many at about the same time, and with no apparent reason. ”

“ Flakes and splinters of silicious stone, whether flint, jasper, chert, iron-stone, quartzite, or obsidian, are to be found in almost all known countries, and belong to all ages. They are in fact the most catholic of all stone implements, and have been in use "semper, ubique, et ab omnibus." Whether we look in our old
Fig. ”

“ Stone implements indeed, such as were in use in the Neolithic Age, have been found so often in the graves of chieftains associated with those of bronze that we may be sure that, at least in the earlier part of the Bronze Age, even the wealthier classes could not afford to discard the older material ”

“ Stones remarkable either for their colour or shape appear at all times to have attracted the attention of mankind, and frequently to have served as personal ornaments or charms among those to whom the more expensive and civilized representatives of such primitive jewellery, which now rank as precious stones, were either unknown or inaccessible.
Among the cave-dwellers of a remote age, both of France and Belgium, fossil shells appear to have been much in use as ornaments, numbers having been found perforated for suspension. ”

“ In writing on sculpture the carved figures were completely Pg 101ignored, the inscription being chiselled regardlessly through every detail of the carving. Stone was however sometimes used solely and exclusively as the material medium for perpetuating a legal agreement, or immortalizing the work of some self-satisfied grandee, and tablets of limestone or alabaster exist in large numbers, good examples of which are those of Rîm-Sin and Sin-Gamil, rulers of the ancient city of Larsa. ”

“ In each case we should find that the worker had particular reasons why he selected material for a certain artifact, and that these reasons were founded in an understanding of the mineralogical and structural differences in rocks. If we study ornaments and ceremonial stones, we shall see that ordinarily he selected a soft ornamental rock, especially the banded slates, but if he chose to use igneous rocks he rarely employed the types used for axes, but ordinarily the handsome porphyries which made showy and attractive objects. ”

“ The most ancient relics are deeply worn granite, mica-schist, and sandstone millstones; the balls used for chipping and roughing them, of about the shape and size of an orange, are found lying near them. No stone weapons or tools ever met my eyes, though I was anxious to find them, and looked carefully over every ancient village we came to for many years. There is no flint to make celts, but quartz and rocks having a slaty cleavage are abundant. ”

“ Some specimens are convex on one face and plane on the other; but when one face is concave the other is also. Of the latter form many have a secondary depression at the centre; others have a perforation which is sometimes enlarged until the disc becomes a ring. They are made principally of very hard rock, as quartz, flint, jasper, novaculite, quartzite, porphyry, syenite, and the like, though stone as soft as marble, sandstone, barite, and even steatite was sometimes chosen. No type of relics is more difficult to classify than these discs. ”

“ Recent years have witnessed many changes in the jewellery world. Gem-stones are no longer entirely drawn from a few well-marked mineral species, which are, on the whole, easily distinguishable from one another, and it becomes increasingly difficult for even the most experienced eye to recognize a cut stone with unerring certainty. ”

“ Francis, whose "springs gush out among these stupendous piles of red granite." Besides the ores of iron, lead and zinc, "quartz, feldspar, shorl, mica, and graphite are among the minerals furnished by that region," and "green stone, gneiss, and green stone porphyry, are among the larger masses of rock." The green stone, it seems, "is found in large isolated fragments, lying promiscuously among the fragments of granite which have tumbled down from the lofty cliffs above, and is rendered porphyritic by crystals of green and flesh-colored feldspar." ”

“ The traces, however, of the Stone Age in the religious rites of Greece and Rome are extremely slight, and this is by no means remarkable when we consider how long the use of bronze, and even of iron, had been known in those parts of Europe at the time when authentic history commences. We shall subsequently see at how early a period different implements of stone had a mysterious if not a superstitious virtue assigned to them. ”

“ One of the sarsen stones is stained with copper oxide, and this fact has been taken to point to Stonehenge being erected somewhere in the Bronze Age—that is, not longer ago than 2000 B.C. Excavations about twenty years ago brought to light a number of stone tools, fragments of pottery, coins and bones. ”

“ In the augitic traps, the crystals are sometimes of large size and well-defined, so that the rock could hardly be distinguished at first sight from an ordinary grey granite, while at other times, and not unfrequently even in other portions of the same mass, the stone assumes a black appearance without distinct crystals. ”

“ Some are said to have a Power of making Water appear of their own Colour, as the Emerald. Others of petrifying, or converting wholly into Stone, whatever is put into Vessels made of them. Others have an attractive Quality; and others serve for the Trial of Metals, as that called the Heraclian, or Lydian Stone. ”

“ Stone implements are more abundant than those of any other material in the altar-mounds and elsewhere. They include arrow and spear heads, knives, axes, hatchets, chisels, and other variously formed cutting instruments, with hammers and pestles. These are made of quartz and other hard varieties of stone, all belonging to the mound region except the obsidian. ”

“ Most faceted gemstones are cut to obtain the largest flawless stone possible from the rough material. Therefore, one of the first and most important steps for the lapidary is to decide how the stone is to be cut from the rough crystal or pebble. The colors that can be obtained from the gemstone must also be considered, and the cutting of the stone oriented so that its best color is displayed. The lapidary also selects the orientation of the stone in relation to the cleavage or cleavages. ”

“ Nothing that we have in use to-day was known to stone-age man—even so common a thing as fire is confined and changed to suit our will.
Various effigies, polished problematical forms, bright copper, shell or mica, pottery, textile fabrics, and forms in wood—these were the extent of his art. He knew no horizon beyond the stone effigy, the ornamented gorget, etc. A colored stone, piece of copper, or anything in stone unusual attracted his eye. I believe that these 364appeared to him different from ordinary stones. For the same reason he must have considered hematite as more or less of a mystery. ”

“ It is an irregular oval, about seven inches in diameter, with an undulated surface, composed of about a dozen smaller stones of different sizes and shapes, well joined together with a small quantity of cement, and perfectly smooth; it looks as if the whole had been broken into many pieces by a violent blow, and then united again. It is very difficult to determine accurately the quality of this stone, which has been worn to its present surface by the millions of touches and kisses it has received. ”

“ Thus the super-imposed layers testify to periods of occupation rather than to those of destruction; while the theory of distinct and well-defined stone, bronze, and iron ages completely breaks down, stone implements occurring in all the strata, and even where bronze is abundant. ”

“ The igneous rocks themselves furnish desirable building stones, such as granite, diorite, porphyry, diabase, etc. With the exception of granite and the nearly related diorite, these have not as yet been extensively utilized in North America. Certain of the igneous rocks have been altered to serpentine, which on account of its pleasing green colour and the ease with which it can be cut and 332 polished furnishes a stone valuable for interior uses. It is also employed, usually with a rough surface, in the construction of exterior walls of dwellings, gateways, etc. ”

“ They are always perpendicular in the strata of calcinable matters, as chalk, marle, marble, &c. but are more oblique and irregularly placed in vitrifiable substances, brown freestone, and rocks of flint, where they are frequently adorned with [49] chrystals, and other minerals. In quarries of marble or calcinable stone, the divisions are filled with spar, gypsum, gravel, and an earthy sand, which contains a great quantity of chalk. ”

“ The factors that govern the properties of a brilliant-cut stone are large colour-dispersion, high refraction, and freedom from any trace of intrinsic colour. The only gem-stone that can vie with diamond in these respects is zircon. ”

“ In the stronger acids litho stone dissolves completely. The varieties of very fine stalactitic chalk of tolerable hardness, with flat shell-like fracture, without rust spots, glassy crystals or impurities, and those with very even grain, are the most useful for photo-lithography. Marble, which consists of pure chalk, cannot be used for lithography because, on account of its greater density, the greasy matter cannot penetrate so deeply, and therefore such stones would give only a few pulls. ”

“ Spherical mace-heads of marble and of harder rocks occur among Egyptian antiquities. They are sometimes decorated by carving. In this place perhaps it will be well to mention a class of large hammer-stones, or mauls, as they have been termed, which, though belonging to a period when metal was in use, are in all probability of a high degree of antiquity. ”

“ Nevertheless, the circumstance is worthy of notice in passing, since it is not impossible that the working in gold may have preceded even the age of bronze, and in reality have belonged, as already hinted, to the Stone Period. If metal could be found capable of being wrought and fashioned without smelting or moulding, its use was perfectly compatible with the simple arts of the Stone Period. ”

“ Barring quartz rock, which does not look well, almost any kind of natural stone may be made use of to the best [Pg 16] advantage. Artificial stone should be shunned like the plague. Limestone and sandstone are good materials; granite is better. Granite, however, does not stratify, and if stratified effects are desired, another stone must be selected. A good plan is to use more than one kind, but to keep them properly apart. Weather-beaten granite is excellent material, and, in general, it is well to have the rock look anything but newly quarried. ”

“ When once a sculptor was trained to the peculiarities of one stone he would not be likely to enter on all the difficulties of a fresh material. A man trained for years to slicing and bruising out granite without the least fear of a crack, would not relish hewing soft sandstones that split, or limestone that could not be trusted with its own weight on a finished surface. Certainly the men who learned sculpture on the softer materials would be helpless on the granite. ”

“ After countless centuries of slow advance, savages learned to fasten wooden handles to their stone tools and weapons and also to use such materials as jade and granite, which could be ground and polished into a variety of forms. Stone implements continued to be made during the greater part of the prehistoric period. Every region of the world has had a Stone Age. ”

“ The stone is faced with a precision that no skill can excel, its right angles turned with an accuracy that the most careful geometer could not surpass. I do not believe there exists a better piece of stone-cutting, the material considered, on this or the other continent. ”

“ The form, however, of a stone are must always depend on the texture and hardness of the stone and its cleavage. And the exceedingly hard texture of this granite is, no doubt, the reason for its broad shape. The edge has evidently been ground very carefully, but not equally, one side being flatter than the other. From this I gather that the weapon was used as an adze or biliong. ”