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While the Peridot, with its distinctive green color is most widely associated with the month of August as a birthstone, there are widely and long accepted alternatives.
Sardonyx is a variety of Chalcedony, which is a microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline variety of quartz. It is very similar to Onyx, with a different color. The stone is traditionally called Sard if it is one color and referred to as Sardonyx if it has a striped appearance. The striped variety may also be referred to as Striped or Banded Agate. Sard is a semitransparent to translucent variety, with a dark brownish red to brown to dark orange color. It is very similar in appearance to Carnelian, and there is actually no definitive dividing line between the two, except for a variation in color. The color of Carnelian is usually a little more orange or red than the color accepted for Sard, and the Sard color is slightly darker. The striped variety, Sardonyx, will show alternating bands of color in white or black.
Differentiating between Carnelian and Sard is a very subjective matter, and the use of the terms Sard or Sardonyx is open to some debate. Some purists will go so far as to refer to some striped color variations as Carnelian Onyx, instead of Sardonyx. Some in the gem world will even use terms such as Green Sardonyx or Blue Sardonyx. We believe that these materials should be referred to as Striped Agate. The material does accept dye quite well, and many exotic colors may be the products of enhancement.
Sard and Sardonyx are also associated with the sign of Leo the Lion, and are quite appropriate for those born between July 23 and August 22. It may be cut into flat sections with different shapes, fashioned en cabochon, or made into beads of various shapes. Striped varieties may also be fashioned into cameos or intaglios. It has also been used to produce small ornamental pieces, seals, and vessels.
Sard and Sardonyx have been used since ancient times, as far back as the Egyptian 2nd Dynasty, over 4000 years ago. The empires of Greece and Rome were familiar with the material and cameo carvings have been dated to the Roman periods. There are Biblical references to the material, including its inclusion in the High Priest's breastplate. However, the ancients may have also used the term to refer to varieties of marble and alabaster with similar appearance, and some of the Biblical references may have actually been to Carnelian. In the days of the Roman Empire, intaglios of Mars, the god of war, were often carved in Sard and worn by officers. There is still a planetary association between Mars and Sard, probably due to this early use. Ptolemy recorded the Sardonyx Mountains, an ancient source of this gem material, on some ancient maps. These are doubtless the ranges later referred to as the Cupperwange or Cubberpunj, in India, in the 18th and 19th centuries. India still remains a major source of the material.
Sard and Sardonyx have been used in every period of time when jewelry has been made. Victorian times saw its widespread use in fobs and cameos. Perthshire was a source for some material, so the revival of Scottish styles favored by Queen Victoria often featured varieties of it. Carved stone hearts have been carved, at least since this period, in colors that could best be described as Sardonyx, or Carnelian onyx.
The banding of agates can cross a lot of color lines without enhancement. There are fine cameos featuring more than two colors, with a background of one color, a figure in another color, then another figure in a third color. We are quite tolerant of listings, which use a combination of terms, as long as they don't stray too far from accepted use. Sardonyx, carnelian onyx, striped onyx, striped agate, and banded agate could all actually be used to describe the same item, and it is a good idea to include several appropriate ones in a single listing, as two shoppers looking for the same item may use different terms. Similarly, shoppers may want to use several terms and make several searches, to avoid overlooking the piece they really want.
Hardstone is another term, which is quite acceptable for cameos carved of any variety of striped agate. Cameos are carved or molded of many different materials. Only those that are actually carved should be categorized as Cameo, carved. To complicate the issue just a little bit more, a variety of shell used for carving shell cameos is known, quite correctly, as Sardonyx Shell (Cassis madagascariensis). Another is known as Carnelian Shell (Cassis ruffa).
While the nomenclature used to describe these materials may be a bit confusing, and the actual definitions somewhat blurry and subjective, you will find many wonderful jewelry items formed of these materials on Ruby Lane
Reprinted with permission from BLOG AT RUBY LANE
