ALABASTER, a white stone used for ornamental purposes. The name is derived from Alabastron, a town of Egypt, where there appears to have been a manufactory of small vessels or pots, made of a stone found in the mountains near the town. These vessels were employed for containing certain kinds of perfumes used by the ancients in their toilet, and with which it was the custom to anoint the heads of their guests, as a mark of distinction, at their feasts. There are in Horace many allusions to this custom. In like manner, Mary, the sister of Lazarus, poured upon the head of our Saviour, as he sat at supper, "very precious ointment" from an alabaster-box. Vessels of a similar form, although not made of the white stone, bore the same name amongst the Greeks and Romans.
There are two kinds of white stone to which antiquaries and artists give the name of alabaster : the one is a carbonate of lime ; the other is gypsum, or sulphate of lime. Many of these ancient perfume-vessels are made of the compact crystalline mass deposited from water holding carbonate of lime in solution, which is found in many places in almost every country. When the deposition takes place on the ground, it forms what mineralogists call a stalagmite, from a Greek word signifying a drop, and it is often composed of layers distinguishable by different degrees of translucency, giving the stone the appearance of the striped agates, called onyx. [AGATE.]
Hence, according to Pliny, the alabastrites was sometimes called onyx. But it is easy to ascertain of which of the two kinds a vessel is composed, for carbonate of lime is hard, and effervesces if it be touched by a strong acid ; but sulphate of lime does not effervesce, and is so soft that it may be scratched with the nail. The term alabaster is now generally applied to the softer stone. This last, when pure, is a beautiful semi-transparent snow-white substance, tasiltworked into vases, lamps, and various other ornaments, but it is seldom found in masses large enough for statuary ; and, indeed, artists would be unwilling to execute any great work in a material so very liable to injury. The finest quality known is found in the neighhourhood of Volterra in Tuscany, and it is cut into a variety of works of great taste and beauty at Volterra, Florence, Leghorn, and other places in that part of Italy, whence they are sent all over the world, and sold at very reasonable prices.
Alabaster is found in Derbyshire and Staffordshire, and is manu factured at Derby into small ornaments and toys. [Gresusi.]