Alpaca Silver

What You Might Not Know About Alabaster

“In gentleness there is great strength”

Introduction

The Alpaca Silver Store neither condones, approves, supports or further advances the theories, reports or beliefs put forth in these blogs concerning healing, metaphysical properties or acknowledgements.  They are merely put here for your enjoyment and information.  Further discussion and research should be accomplished before accepting at face value anything written here.  There had to be some fact, religion, hearsay, myth or information of some kind to justify any of the information put forth.

Because of the length of this blog I will present it in four parts; Introduction and History; Description, Properties and Simulates; Locations, Uses, Care and Cleaning; Mythology, Metaphysical and Healing.  This will be the third, Locations, Uses, Care and Cleaning.

Locations

Alabaster is found in Castellina in the Volterra district, Tuscany, Italy, and near Chellaston, Derbyshire, England.  Fine-grained semi translucent rock gypsum or Alabaster – used by sculptors and artists for statuary and other forms of decoration – is not quarried in the United States of America for this purpose.  This should be disregarded as no longer true.   For example in the early 1930s there were diverse articles marketed as carved from Alabaster from the vicinity of Niagara Falls (New York and Ontario).   And, more recently have been several pinkish Alabaster articles noted as being fashioned from Alabaster said to have been quarried near Fort Collins, Colorado.

The designation Alabaster is of ancient origin.  According to OED (1989 ed.) the Greek ᾀλάβαστρος – is “said to be from name of a town in Egypt.”  Mitchell (1979), however, notes that all that is apparently is known is that it is “from alabastrites, the stone out of which a vase called an alabastron was made.”  In addition, however, it is known that this name was also applied in ancient times to “Onyx-Marble”, which had similar uses.

Egyptian Alabaster has been extensively worked near Suez and near Assiut; there are many ancient quarries in the hills overlooking the plain of Tell el Amarna. The Algerian onyx-marble has been largely quarried in the province of Oran. In Mexico, there are famous deposits of a delicate green variety at La Pedrara, in the district of Tecali, near Puebla. Onyx-Marble occurs also in the district of Tehuacán and at several localities in California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Virginia.

Alabaster Caverns State Park, near Freedom, Oklahoma is home to a natural gypsum cave in which much of the gypsum is in the form of Alabaster.  There are several types of Alabaster found at the site, including pink, white, and the rare black Alabaster.

Mineral Alabaster occurs in England in the Keuper marls of the Midlands, especially at Chellaston in Derbyshire, at Fauld in Staffordshire and near Newark in Nottinghamshire. All these localities have been extensively worked.  In the 15th century its carving into icons and altarpieces was a valuable local industry in Nottingham, as well as a major English export.  Besides examples of these still in Britain (especially at the Nottingham Castle Museum, British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum), that trade in itself (rather than just the antiques trade) has scattered examples as far afield as the Musée de Cluny, Spain and Scandinavia.

Alabaster is also found, though in subordinate quantity, at Watchet in Somerset, near Penarth in Glamorganshire, and elsewhere. In Cumbria it occurs largely in the New Red rocks, but at a lower geological horizon.  The Alabaster of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire is found in thick nodular beds or “floors” in spheroidal masses known as “balls” or “bowls,” and in smaller lenticular masses termed “cakes.”  At Chellaston, where the Alabaster is known as “Patrick,” it has been worked into ornaments under the name of “Derbyshire spar” — a term more properly applied to fluorspar.

Gypsum is a very common mineral, and occurs in numerous localities. Only the finest are mentioned here:

Beautiful crystals occur in Tyrol, Austria, and huge examples come from Bologna and Pavia, Italy.  The Sicilian Sulfur mines in Italy have produced crystal clear specimens with bright-yellow Sulfur inclusions.  Gypsum “Desert Roses” occur in a number of places in the Sahara Desert in Africa.  Fragile, Acicular bunches occur in Whyalla, South Australia, and green, grass-like “mats” in Pernatty Lagoon, South Australia.

Many fine localities also exist in North America. In Niaca, Chihuahua, Mexico, a cavern in the Maravilla Mine (dubbed “cave of the swords” because of the gigantic crystals found there) has produced magnificent, enormous, perfect crystals.  In Nova Scotia, Canada, a large Gypsum deposit formed by altered Anhydrite is noted for individual crystal masses where expansion from the hydration is apparent.  Gypsum “Desert Roses” occur in abundance in Alfalfa Co., Oklahoma. Stand-alone, perfect “floating” crystals are found in clay at Ellsworth, Mahoning Co., Ohio.  Huge crystals were obtained from a cave in South Wash, Wayne Co., Utah.  Severely curved Gypsum crystals and “Gypsum Flowers” come from the famous Mammoth Caves of Kentucky, and lustrous crystals have come from Lockport, Niagara Co., New York.

Many states contain large deposits that stretch over large regions.  Such deposits exist in New York, Ohio, Kentucky, Maryland, Tennessee, Iowa, Michigan, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.

Uses

The finer kinds of Alabaster are largely employed as an ornamental stone, especially for ecclesiastical decoration and for the rails of staircases and halls. Its softness enables it to be readily carved into elaborate forms, but its solubility in water renders it inapplicable to outdoor work.  The purest Alabaster is a snow-white material of fine tiniforni grain, but it is often associated with an oxide of iron, which produces brown clouding and veining in the stone.  The coarser varieties of Alabaster are converted by calcination into plaster of Paris, whence they are sometimes known as “plaster stone.”

On the continent of Europe, the centre of the Alabaster trade is Florence, Italy. Tuscan Alabaster occurs in nodular masses embedded in limestone, interstratified with marls of Miocene and Pliocene age.  The mineral is largely worked by means of underground galleries, in the district of Volterra.  Several varieties are recognized — veined, spotted, clouded, agatiform, and others.  The finest kind, obtained principally from Castellina, is sent to Florence for figure-sculpture, while the common kinds are carved at a very cheap rate locally into vases, clock-cases and various ornamental objects, in which a large trade is carried on, especially in Florence, Pisa and Livorno.

In order to diminish the translucency of the Alabaster and to produce opacity suggestive of true marble, the statues are immersed in a bath of water and gradually heated nearly to the boiling-point — an operation requiring great care, for if the temperature is not carefully regulated, the stone acquires a dead-white, chalky appearance.  The effect of heating appears to be a partial dehydration of the gypsum.  If the Alabaster is properly treated, it closely resembles true marble and is known as marmo di Castellina. Sulphate of lime (gypsum) was used also by the ancients, and was employed, for instance, in Assyrian sculpture, so that some of the ancient Alabaster is identical with the modern stone.

Gypsum is an industrially important mineral. It is the primary ingredient of plaster-of-Paris (finely ground Gypsum) and is also used in the production of cement.  It is also the main component of sheet-rock.  It is used as a flux for creating earthenware, and can be used as a fertilizer. The variety Alabaster is carved for ornamental use, such as artistic sculptures and pottery.  It is porous and is therefore easily dyed.  The fibrous Satin Spar variety is sometimes cut into cabochons for collectors because of its strong cat’s eye effect.

Fine Gypsum specimens are very popular among mineral collectors, especially the varieties Selenite and Desert Rose.

Alabaster may be stained by digesting it, after being heated in various pigmentary solutions.  In this way a good imitation of coral has been produced (Alabaster coral).

When cut in thin sheets, Alabaster is translucent enough to be used for small windows, and has been used so in medieval churches, especially in Italy. Large Alabaster sheets are used extensively in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (dedicated 2002) of the Los Angeles (California) Archdiocese. The cathedral incorporates special cooling to prevent the panes from overheating and turning opaque.

Fine, granular masses of gyprock have been fashioned into such things as vases, urns, figurines, sculptures and diversely shaped – e.g., bowl-shaped – devices used as fixtures for indirect lighting, some that date back to at least the 5th century B.C. The use of translucent color-layered Alabaster as”chimneys” for candle-holding hurricane lamps is a present-day extension of this last listed use.  In addition, some especially fine examples of the use of Alabaster for sculpting statues, statuettes, and steles in the early Sumerian commerce centers in ancient Yemen and Ur.  Also, “Stony bands of massive Italian gypsum, known as Alabaster, are carved and dyed in Florence and fibrous warm-hued chatoyant veins known as satin spar are Russian sculptors’ grist.”

Care and Cleaning

Gypsum specimens should only be cleaned with water.  Soaps and detergents should be avoided, for they enter cracks and crevices of a crystal, destroying its true luster.

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