agate

The historian Pliny the Elder describes owning agate cups as a sign of wealth and luxury.

By contrast this cup is made of gold, onyx, precious stones, and the stone agate.

Agate was widely used to carve high-value objects like signets and cylinder seals in the ancient Near East.

While agate could likely be acquired much more cheaply, aristocratic Romans were serious about their agate.

And, like Teddy, I was approached by Agate to do business with him.

There are gold, silver, agate and crystal vases, silver tables and gold plate of every description.

We managed, however, to pick up some interesting Chinese snuff bottles of carved agate, some with pictures painted inside.

An axe poised upon a stake, or an agate on a red-hot axe, was supposed by its movement to indicate the offender.

At the far end was a raised dais with a mammoth statue of a kneeling woman, sculptured of the same effulgent, agate material.

Then there were horns of ivory and ebony; emeralds, purple and broidered work, fine linen, coral and agate.