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Chalcedony & jasper · Green ray
Chrysoprase
Chrysoprase is the finest green chalcedony, coloured not by iron or chromium but by nickel, which is unusual. It was among the most valued green stones in the Roman world, was mined in Silesia for centuries, and is now supplied largely from Queensland. It gives you emerald's colour at a fraction of the price and several times the toughness.
At a glance
Apple-green chalcedony coloured by nickel, prized by Rome and mined for Frederick the Great in Silesia.
- Composition
- SiO₂ with nickel
- Crystal system
- Trigonal
- Hardness
- Mohs 7
- Family
- Chalcedony & jasper
- Colour ray
- The green ray
- Main sources
- Australia (Queensland), Poland (Silesia), Tanzania, Brazil
- Care
- Hard at 7 and safe in water. Colour can fade in strong sunlight and heat.
Themes
renewal
the apple green
the affordable green
growth
quiet value
What it actually is
Chalcedony, silicon dioxide, coloured by nickel compounds distributed through the microstructure. Hardness 7, no cleavage, trigonal.
The nickel colouring is what makes it unusual. Most green stones owe their colour to chromium, vanadium, iron or copper; chrysoprase is the significant nickel-coloured gem, and it forms in weathered nickel-bearing serpentinite, which is why it comes from a small number of specific deposits rather than being widespread.
Colour ranges from pale apple green to a deep, almost jade-like green. The best material is even and translucent with no brown or grey cast.
Prase and chrysoprase are related names and the boundaries between them, and with plasma, are loose in older usage.
Where it comes from
Queensland in Australia is now the dominant source, particularly the Marlborough deposit, which produces most of the world's fine material.
The historic European source was Silesia, at Szklary in what is now Poland, worked from at least the fourteenth century. Frederick the Great of Prussia had the mines worked and used chrysoprase in the decoration of Sanssouci, and it appears in the Wenceslas Chapel in Prague, where the walls are inlaid with it.
Tanzania and Brazil also produce material.
Rome imported chrysoprase from sources that are now unclear, and it appears in Roman jewellery in quantity.
What the traditions claimed
Classical sources rank chrysoprase highly among green stones, and the name itself is Greek, from chrysos for gold and prason for leek, describing a golden-green colour.
The medieval lapidaries include it among the twelve foundation stones of the New Jerusalem in Revelation, which secured it a place in Christian symbolism and in the decorative programmes of churches. Its use in the Wenceslas Chapel is part of that tradition.
Marbode and the lapidary writers credit it with strengthening sight and with being effective against greed, and it shares the general green ray reading of renewal and growth.
It has no significant Asian or Near Eastern tradition, since its deposits were European and, later, Australian.
Modern practice reads it as a heart stone in the chakra scheme and associates it with acceptance and with recovery, which is a twentieth-century framing.
How it is worked with
This is the sensible green stone to own. It is hard at 7 with no cleavage, so unlike jade it cannot be scratched easily and unlike emerald it will not chip, and it costs a small fraction of either.
The green ray reading of growth and renewal applies, and chrysoprase suits questions about recovery specifically: things coming back rather than starting.
A tumbled piece or a cabochon is the usual form. Good even-coloured material makes fine jewellery and is worth spending a little on, since the difference between mediocre and good chrysoprase is very visible.
Keep it out of strong sunlight and away from heat, which is the one real care rule.
Buying it honestly
Chrysoprase is faked mostly by substitution rather than by treatment.
Dyed green chalcedony and dyed agate are sold as chrysoprase and are the commonest problem. Genuine chrysoprase is evenly coloured throughout with a slightly waxy translucence; dyed material shows colour concentrated along cracks and banding.
Green glass appears at the cheap end, and the temperature test separates it.
Some serpentine and some dyed quartzite is sold under chrysoprase-adjacent names.
The genuine treatment issue is fading. Chrysoprase can lose colour with prolonged exposure to strong light and to heat, and some faded material is rehydrated by dealers, which is a temporary fix.
Handle with care
Fades with prolonged strong sunlight and heat. Keep it out of windows and away from radiators. Otherwise inert and safe in water.
پرسشهایی برای تأمل
- What is coming back in my life that I had written off?
- Where am I paying for a name when a better stone costs less?
- What would recovery actually look like here, as opposed to a fresh start?
Follow the thread
Frequently asked questions
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