Maybe you have heard them, too? This is a myth! Opals don't need to be treated with oil to keep them looking their best. Customers often tell me that their grandmothers told them to rub opal rings on their noses or foreheads, because the oil from their skin would help protect the opal. Another customer recently told me that she heard that opals should be rubbed with skin lotion.
These are all myths! When an Australian opal is polished, it is sealed. Adding oils or lotions will not add life to your opal. Opal is the birthstone for October, so many customers have come to believe in the superstition that it is bad luck to own an opal when you are not born in October. I have also heard that it is bad luck to buy an opal for yourself. Deeply depressed by then, the King decided to end it all by slipping the ring on his own finger, just as Cleopatra had embraced the asp to terminate her own misery.
In little over a month, the ring did to Alfonzo what the snake had done to the Egyptian Queen. The ring was finally attached to a gold chain and strung around the neck of a statue of the patron saint of Madrid, the Virgin of Alumdena. That put an end to the incredible chain of tragic circumstances, but was the gem really responsible for the calamities besetting this royal family? According to Kozminsky, it seems pretty unlikely.
It attacked all classes from the palace of the king to the hut of the peasant, some accounts giving the death estimate at 50 percent of the population. It would be as obviously ridiculous to hold the opal responsible for this scourge as it was to do so in the previously noted plague at Venice.
All that may be said is that in this case the opal was not a talisman of good for King Alfonzo XII of Spain and to those who received it from his hand, and that in the philosophy of sympathetic attraction and repulsion man, stones, metals and all natural objects come under the same law.
Having not read the third volume, the public jumped to the conclusion that the heroine has been bewitched, that her magic opal discolours when touched by holy water, and that she dies as a result. On carefully examining the texts, Si Frazier, writing in Lapidary Journal , found all three accusations false.
Even so, this single work plunged opal prices to half in just one year and crippled the European opal market for decades. George F. The wonderful tale… contains nothing to indicate that Scott really meant to represent opal as unlucky. Opals are a soft gemstone compared to diamonds, and can be broken if mis-treated or treated roughly. As such workmen are responsible to the owners for any injury to the gems, they would soon acquire a prejudice against opals, and would come to regard them as unlucky stones.
Very widespread superstitions have no more foundation than this, for the original cause, sometimes quite a rational one, is soon lost sight of and popular fantasy suggests something entirely different and better calculated to appeal to the imagination. One royal opal did bring terrible misfortune to the hapless goldsmith who broke it during setting. The unforgiving Louis XI ordered his hands cut off! Some maintain that diamond merchants of the mid 19th and early 20th centuries saw the amazing attributes of opal and realised it was going to be a serious threat to their livelihood.
Opal, with its stunning play of colour, was increasing in popularity and could represent a threat to the lucrative diamond trade now that it was being mined commercially. The story goes that jealous diamond traders spread the belief that opals are bad luck to protect themselves and give opals a bad reputation.
He also cites several historical references to the talismanic qualities of opal including the story of a French baron who resided in London, who owned an opal that had been in the family since the twelfth century. A tale of misfortune was recounted. As a result of wearing the ring, his wife had fallen ill, a condition that also affected his son, and he encountered among many other troubles financial difficulties and ill health. The jeweller, however, merely smiled and showed him that the stone in the ring was not an opal but a moonstone.
Only his imagination had endowed the opal ring with such unpleasant properties. There are many reports of opal bringing people luck, including the many opal miners who have made their fortunes and have lived long and prosperous lives.
Though unfounded, the idea can be traced back to a Gothic novel from by Sir Walter Scott—at least, that is according to what mineralogist George Kunz believes to be the source of all this evil you can read more about that from the International Gem Society here. All I know is, I have this awesome pair of tiny opal stud earrings from Wwake that have been worn only a handful of times and they deserve so much more.
As a logical person, I should just be able to acknowledge that this is nothing more than folklore and move on, right? In another story, a Spanish king gave an opal to his wife, and she soon died. He then gave the ring to his grandmother, who also died, and the tragedy continued with his sister and his sister-in-law. Finally, he put the ring on his own finger and died. In reality, the family probably died of cholera. One of the worst blows to the opal's reputation came in the form of the novel "Anne of Geierstein" by Sir Walter Scott.
The opal changed color with the heroine's moods. Then when her opal is touched by holy water, it discolors. She is accused of being a demon and dies shortly after. The public was so affected by this story that the opal market actually crashed and prices dropped by 50 percent [source: Pegg ]. Another theory about why it's bad luck to wear opals if they're not your birthstone is a simple one; it was a rumor spread by diamond traders.
When opals began gaining popularity in the 19th and 20th centuries, diamond merchants got nervous about losing business. The jealous traders started spreading rumors that opals were bad luck to prevent people from buying them. Sign up for our Newsletter! Mobile Newsletter banner close.
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