TOMLINSON told everybody that you could 'curse' with OPALS:

By the late 18th and 19th centuries though, its status changed from a talisman for good fortune to the harbinger of ill luck and it was associated with famine, pestilence and the fall of monarchies and accordingly shunned. While the Black Death (plague) was ravaging Europe, there was a widely circulated rumour that an opal worn by a patient was aflame with colour while she lived and then lost all its brilliance once she died.




(1) King Alfonso XII of Spain is said to have succumbed to the opal's curse. (3) Opal mining in Lightning Ridge, Australia.
(2) It was Queen Victoria's love for this gem that resurrected opals' popularity. (4) Various kinds of black opals.



Its association with the fall of dynasties probably comes from the story of King Alfonso XII of Spain, who is said to have received an opal ring from a vengeful ex lover. He presented the ring to his Queen and soon after that she died under mysterious circumstances.

Thereafter, whoever in the Royal family wore the ring met the same untimely end. The last victim of the opal ring was the King himself who died soon after he took to wearing it. It didn't occur to the gullible people of the time that the cholera epidemic that was raging through the land might have something to do with the Royal deaths.

It didn't help opal's refutation at all either when Sir Walter Scott associated the gem with an unfortunate heroine in his novel "Ann of Geierstein". In the book, the heroine Ann is accused of being a demon and she dies after her opal loses all its colour when sprinkled with holy water. Fortunately for the gem, its popularity was soon resurrected by Queen Victoria who absolutely loved the stone and not only wore it herself but also made a point of giving opal jewellery to relatives as wedding presents