Ceylon has rather a reputation for being a good site to find jewels, and the mines there were first worked in the Stone Age. This card shows just two of the over forty types of stone that can be mined there, sapphires and rubies.
It is said that King Solomon courted the Queen of Sheba with jewels from that area, but the truth is that she courted him first, because she knew of his fame and reputation. She also went to him, at Jerusalem, and asked him lots of questions. plying him with gold, spices, and precious stones. Then he gave her the Ceylon sapphires, at which she left, and went back home. They never seem to have had a relationship, or even met again, but he was probably not too bothered as he already had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. However, above all, one of his wives had his heart, and that was a lady called the Shulammite woman. We don`t even know her name, but we do know that the Song of Solomon was written to describe how much they loved each other. I could say that it`s just a shame that she remains such a mystery - but sometimes romances that nobody else know about are the best of all...
It seems to me that we usually feature the French / Belgian editions of these Liebig cards, so here, for a change, we have a German one. There is also an Italian one, by the name of "Pietre Preziose", which actually translates to precious stones. It is a most attractive set, showing the stone in a kind of dissected view, still partially inside the rock, and also a larger picture of it being mined or worked on to make it into a jewel.
The cards are :
- Das Schliefen der Sterne - Smaragd
- In der Opalgruber in Ungarn - Opal
- Korundsucher - Ceylon - Edler Korund - Saphir - Rubin
- Schliefmuhle in Bohmen - Granat
- Topasfels (Schneckenstein Sachsen) - Hauptfundort der Topase - Topas
- Turkisgruben bei Mesched (Persien) - Turkis