AGATE GEMSTONE
Agate is the nature painted on the surface of a gemstone. Concentric rings appearing on the gemstone impart it a look of sectioned wooden log and the colour simply turns it into a thing of desire. There is hardly any stone that is so beautifully striped as if someone has personally sat and made those characteristic lines. Agate is formed as the result of cavity formation in the parent rock and the bands visible are actually the quartz inclusions of cryptocrystalline nature.
This gemstone satiates a collector's desire to add something ancient in his repertoire, in fact, more ancient than a fossil as some of these date back to pre-fossil times. This gemstone is liked a lot because of the multi-coloured pattern that it displays and if you are looking for the stone that is available in variety of colours such as yellow, purple, brown, pink etc. then you surely should go for adding agate to your collection.
Agate continued to adorn the beauties from ancient times and was used by divas in pre-historic times for dressing up stylishly. This gemstone, even today, finds its use in African jewellery and liked a lot because of affordability and receptive nature of agate to get moulded in any shape and size. Agate beaded necklaces are some of the classy collections that can change the face of fashion jewellery.
How much adorable agate was in the past can be understood from the story that tells that King of Pontus, Mithridates, had around 4000 (number is still not confirmed) agate bowls and this was considered the most unique and richest collection known to mankind at that time. Louvre, the most typical of all the museums in Europe also has classic collection of agate bowls that are demonstrated to explain the culture and heritage of ancient era to the visitors.
Currently, Idar-Oberstein, a massive cutting centre in Germany is producing the large quantities of agate to meet the global demand. Original source of agate is Nahe river in Brazil that got exhausted much sooner and made way for the Brazilian deposits to spread over the world mining map of Agate. Discovery of agate in Brazil can be considered a monumental event in the history of gemstones as a large number of precious gemstones like citrine, amethyst, topaz and tourmaline were accidentally found in this area in deeper exploration.
Agate is believed to elevate the spirits and helps the user get rid of stomach aches and gripes. It miraculously takes the person out from the bad mood spell and because of this, the stone is being used till date for bringing smiles on the faces of the people who are otherwise feeling lost and dejected.
Agate is used widely as anniversary gift for 12th and 14th year of marriage. It is also considered as mystic birthstone for the people born in the month of September. Agate is a gemstone very much in demand for making fashion jewellery because of the umpteen varieties that it offers to the jewellery maker.
Moss agate, red agate, Montana agate, blue lace agate, plume agate, eye agate, Argentina agate etc are some of the popular varieties that describe how rich the world of agate is in terms of multitude of shapes, designs and lustres.
