Re: The King's Crapion

Besides the amber, what other semi-precious stones
did the medievals use for jewelry?

I can't think of any they didn't use.
There's quite an insight into the extent of trade
in this subject. Small garnets can be found in Britain
but the main souce would have been Eastern Europe.
the same goes for your amber. Coral from the
North coast of Africa and the Mediterranean.
I suppose somewhere in the world in the period all
gemstones were local so this is just from a British/
European viewpoint. Many gemstones such as opal
are widespread but very little is of gem quality.
Some rocks such as labradorite, (the 'granite' used
for facing buildings that gives a blue flash) will
have better bits that are good enough to use as gems.
There are many common stones such as prehnite
that occasionally are found in good enough quality
for facetting. Much of the material used in medieval
jewellry was a superior version of very common stones
such as agate, jasper and quartz.
Perhaps what divided the semi- precious from the precious
was not so much the cutting quality and durability
of the stones or even their beauty so much as their
rarity because of the difficulty in obtaining them.
the main source for rubies and sapphires
in the middle ages was the East.
They came from India and Ceylon, then as now,
also from Arabia and Persia. Emeralds from Egypt,
Turquoise from Persia but diamonds were very rare
until the later medieval period.
Enough, I could bore for England on this subject.

Celia

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