Antique jewelry glossary

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Needle

A thin, needle-like crystal that is an inclusion in certain varieties of rutilated quartz and of corundum, e.g. a ruby from Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, or Burma. They intersect at different angles and produce a sheen or a type of silk. Sometimes called a 'rutile needle'.

A long thin ornament worn as peasant jewelry in the Netherlands. They are worn in pairs (usually silver on weekdays, gold on Sundays), suspended from the lace cap at the temples, but in some provinces only one is worn, at the left side by a married woman, at the right side by a single woman.

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