Percy Marks

Percy Marks was among the first jewellers to recognise the significance of Lightning Ridge opal and to establish an international market for black opal. His efforts in the early 20th century secured Lightning Ridge as the source of one of the world’s most incredible gemstones.

Born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 6 July 1879, Marks was the son of jeweller John Marks and his wife Eliza Jane (nee Levy). The family moved to Sydney around 1880, where Percy attended Paddington Superior Public School. At 14 he was apprenticed to R.H.J. Jenkins, jeweller, and studied at Sydney Technical College, gaining knowledge in chemistry, geology and lapidary work. By 1899, aged 21, he had established his own jeweller’s business in Market Street, Sydney.

Marks first encountered Lightning Ridge opal in the early 1900s, when stones sent by a Walgett storekeeper came to his attention. Struck by their quality, he investigated their source, and in 1906 or 1907 first travelled to Lightning Ridge. Marks gained the confidence of miners and began buying opal, returning to Sydney with suitcases full of stones. Recognising the vast potential of the gem, he promoted it under the name “black opal,” distinguishing it from the paler varieties already known from White Cliffs.

Marks devoted much of his career to building a market for black opal. He presented Lightning Ridge stones at the Franco-British Exhibition in London in 1908 and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, both times winning honours. He provided stones to aristocrats, celebrities and royalty, often in clever and inventive ways: Dame Nellie Melba received a pendant mounted with black opal and diamonds in 1909, while the American bandmaster John Philip Sousa was gifted a baton inlaid with opal and Australian timbers. Ballet dancer Anna Pavlova, aviator Amy Johnson, and visiting naval officers were among others to receive examples.

Marks also worked closely with government and industry. In 1919 he was commissioned by the New South Wales government to report on international opal marketing. He exhibited in France and donated opal collections to museums and mining schools there, and later presented collections to the Technological Museum in Sydney and to twelve high schools across New South Wales. His advocacy was important in shaping early perceptions of opal as a national gemstone, and in negating long-held superstitions that it was unlucky.

Throughout his life Marks maintained a successful jewellery business in Sydney, later joined by his sons.

Percy Marks died in Sydney on 23 September 1935, aged 56. At the time of his death he was recognised as the leading figure in the opal industry and one of the most active and successful promoters of black opal worldwide.

• Percy Marks @ Australian Dictionary of Biography.

• Percy Marks @ Find a Grave.

Article: Research by Russell Gawthorpe and Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: The Lightning Ridge Book, Stuart Lloyd, 1967, pp. 10, 29-30, 83, 118, 161, 163; The Book of Opals, W. C. Eyles, 1964, p. 85; Discover Opals: Before and Beyond 2000 with Surface Indications, Stephen Aracic, 1996; Lightning Flash Newspaper, 25 August 1988; They Struck Opal!, E. F. Murphy, 1948, p. 154; Walgett Spectator, 20 July 1907, 8 February 1908, 15 February 1908, 10 September 1909, 13 November 1930; Lightning Ridge: The Land of Black Opals, Ion L. Idriess, 1940, p. 101; Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 10, 1986; ‘Obituary’, Sydney Morning Herald, 24 September 1935, p. 12.