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A second-hand piece of rock crystal or crystal glass?
Rock crystal or crystal glass on vintage jewelry?
It is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between crystal and rock crystal. However, many elements diverge between them.
Rock crystal
Rock crystal or colorless quartz is, as its name suggests, from the quartz family, such as amethysts, citrines or pink quartz. Used since Antiquity, this mineral species is very widespread. Particularly present in Brazil, Madagascar and the United States, it is very popular in lithotherapy: its properties differentiate from other stones of this family and it would have many therapeutic and esoteric virtues, to cure physical but also psychic ailments.
Used in jewelry, it is generally found in the form of a cabochon, pearl or brilliant. Its success is mainly due to its solidity and purity allowing it to be cut in many ways. Its color can vary from white to crystalline transparency, it is very easy to match with different types of materials. For example, it will be perfectly enhanced by yellow, white or even pink gold!
The crystal
Crystal, also called mineral glass, is a material discovered in England in the 17rd century by Stephen Falango. It is a type of glass composed of potash, silica and lead oxide. This last component is very important because it is mainly what brings its brilliance and its particular sound to the crystal, thus differentiating it from glass. The name "crystal" being protected in many countries, the material must contain at least 24% lead and have a certain refractive index to be considered as such. This term is also misleading because the crystal has no actually no crystalline structure.The transparency and finesse of crystal are highly appreciated for the manufacture of glasses, carafes or even vases, especially by large houses such as Lalique for example. But when it comes to jewelry, rock crystal steals the show...
Among all our second hand quartz jewelry, find those in rock crystal!