In ancient Arabic culture, it was believed that opals fell from the sky during lightening storms infusing a rainbow of flashing colors within the gem.
Gaius Plinius Secundus (23 AD – August 25, 79 AD) known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author and naturalist. Pliny noted in his writings regarding the gemstone opal, ”In opal you will see red fire, the glorious purple of amethyst, and the sea green of the emerald, and all these colors glittering together in incredible union.” The Romans obtained opals from the mines in Czechoslovakia until 1788, which yielded a variety of white opaque with flashes of internal rainbow colors. Romans treasured opals, and wore them in rings as symbolic intaglios representing love, hope and purity.
The aborigines of Australia considered opals undesirable for adorning their bodies. Found in deep caves, they believed that opals were “half human and half serpent, lurking in a hole in the ground, ready to lure men to destruction with flashes of colorful magic.”
The aboriginal name Coober Pedy in southern Australia means ‘a man in a hole’ —which is exactly how the miners extract opal. The summer temperature is unbearably hot, so the miners build their homes in underground excavations on a hillside.
The fragile, white opal may crack when brought up from the cool depths of the earth into the hot and arid temperatures. Opals are brittle, easily chipped and scratched. The hardness of the opal varieties varies from 5.5 to 6.5 on Moh’s scale. If exposed to high temperatures they may crack or craze. The fragility of the stone makes it challenging to cut and polish, adding to its desirability.
While following a wounded kangaroo through the hot desert in Queensland, trackers found loose opal on the ground. This type of opal is known as sandstone opal because it is in freestanding sandstone veins and is easier to remove than boulder or black opal. This find started the mining of the White Cliffs opal field in 1889.
When black opal was first found in Australia in 1887, Queen Victoria gave opal jewelry to all of her children, creating a demand and increasing popularity for opals. One of the most famous sources for the incredibly, vibrant black opal is Wallangualla, Australia, known as Lightning Ridge, discovered in 1903. The miners originally called the gem, opal dirt, because the composition is clay mixed with sandstone.
Other types of opals that are not considered gemstone varieties are an opaque green color, similar to that of chrysoprase, cherry-red, yellow and a rose– all of which are opaque. Hyalite is the colorless, completely transparent variety of opal that looks like glass, sometimes called Muller’s glass. Imitation opal is made of small fragments of real opal set in a black resin.
Sir Walter Scott wrote the novel, Anne of Geierstein, a tale about a beautiful woman who believed that her moods and chance of luck were affected when she wore opals—blaming the opals as the cause of her ill fortune. Scott’s novel created the negative lore of opal jewelry, linking it to tragedy and creating superstition.
Shakespeare referred to an opal as “the queen of gems” in his book, Twelfth Night.
Photo and some information credit:
National Gem Collection, The Smithsonian Institution, Jeffry E. Post with photographs by Chip Clark, 1997
Gems, Their Sources, Descriptions and Identification, Fifth Edition, R. Webster, Butterworth and Heinemanne 1962
Gems, Crystals, & Minerals, Anna S, Sofianides, George E. Harlow with photographs by Erica and Harold Van Pelt, SImon and Schuster, New York 1990
The Master Jewelers, edited by A. Kenneth Snowman, Thames & Hudson 1990
