FACTS ABOUT ROCK CRYSTAL

• Rock crystal is colorless natural quartz that grows under pressure in the presence of mineral deposits. Just after the Earth was formed, intense heat and pressure created ideal conditions for forming quartz.
  
  
• The oldest water on Earth is over a million years old – and is captured as droplets in rock crystal.
  
  
• Veins, fissures, inclusions and crystalline explosions formed by Nature make each rock crystal unique.
  
  
• Rock crystal does not melt when subjected to intense heat or dissolve in strong acid.
  
  
• Authentic rock crystal is cool to the touch in any weather. Eons of geological upheavals created this mysterious coolness.
  
  
• In ancient times and warm climates, great ladies wore jewelry of rock crystal to cool the skin. Rock crystal goblets kept the wine cool. Rich Roman patricians possessed large spheres of rock crystal, which they would touch to cool their hands.
  
  
• In the Middle Ages rock crystal was at times valued more highly than diamonds. Rock crystal is difficult to mine, and mines are remote. Scarcity has always enhanced its value.
  
  
• Saws with diamond teeth, diamond wheels and diamond drill bits must be used to work rock crystal. Although the diamonds are harder than the quartz, they are eventually destroyed by it. Because of the rarity of rock crystal, the loss of diamonds is not regretted.
  
  
• Rock crystal was first used in lighting about 600 years ago. Rock crystal chandeliers appeared in churches in the 1500’s. By the 1600’s they were seen in aristocratic homes. In the early 1700’s the rock crystal chandelier was in its prime – but soon to be replaced by glass “crystal” chandeliers, which appeared around 1720.
  
  
• Skilled gemcutters must grind, cut and polish each rock crystal by hand, because of its geological complexity. Polishing one gemstone to perfection might take a week. Glass “crystal” is much easier to cut and polish and can even be processed by machine quite efficiently.
  
  
• The mining of rock crystal is clean, unlike coal or iron. The Earth is not damaged by it.
  
  
• Theophrasus, a pupil of Aristotle, thought that rock crystal was ice that had been permanently frozen by extreme temperatures. This is how rock crystal quartz came to be called “crystal.” The Greek word krystallos means ice.
  
  
• Until the seventeenth century people believed that rock crystal came from cold regions. In fact, rock crystal is found in India, and parts of Africa, Europe and North and South America.
  
  
• From the Renaissance to the eighteenth century, the crowned heads of Europe tended to be avid collectors of rock crystal art objects. They were inspired by the great collections of the Roman Emperors.
  
  
• Renaissance philosophers were fascinated with rock crystal, both as a marvel of Nature and a symbol of the divine order of the universe.
  
  
• Lorenzo the Magnificent amassed a fabulously valuable collection of rock crystal vases.
  
  
• The British philosopher Francis Bacon encouraged Queen Elizabeth I to ennoble her mind by studying the wonders of Nature, such as rock crystal.
  
  
• The Hapsburg Emperor Rudolph II became so obsessed with fine paintings and natural minerals that he neglected to rule and was dethroned. His vast collection of rock crystal art objects was worth a fortune.
  

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