Antique jewelry glossary

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Malachite

See our: malachite jewelry.

A mineral of which the compact green variety, with alternate irregular bands of light and dark green, is used mainly for table tops, vases, and veneers, but also in jewelry when cut en cabochon or carved as flat brooches or pendants.

It occurs often in botryoidal form which, in cut section, reveals a concentric pattern called 'malachite peacock eye'. Related azurite is sometimes called 'blue malachite' to distinguish it from green malachite. The name is derived from Greek malache (mallow), owing to its colour, which resembles that of the mallow leaf.

From: An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry, autor: Harold Newman, publishers: Thames and Hudson