Antique Gems: Their Origin, Uses, and Value as Interpreters of Ancient History; and as Illustrative of Ancient Art: with Hints to Gem Collectors (1860)

The Rev. C. W. King's 1860 handbook on engraved gems of antiquity, published by John Murray in London. It covers gem materials, the styles and subjects of ancient engraving, mystic and medicinal properties attributed to stones, and advice to collectors. It ends with an appendix on engravers' instruments and notes on the Devonshire gems. Its asbestos content is a single passage in the section on 'Mystic Virtues'. King's verse translation of the medieval Lapidarium of Marbodus has a stanza on 'Asbeston': a steely-coloured stone of Arcadia that, once kindled, cannot be put out. The stanza closes 'Hence with good cause the Greeks Asbeston name'. In ancient sources this name did not always mean the fibrous mineral now called asbestos. The volume ends with a list of Murray's publications.