Guide To Australian Gemstones

Guide to Australian Gemstones

Simon & Schuster's Guide to Gems and Precious Stones

Simon & Schuster's Guide to Gems and Precious Stones provides both the connoisseur and the casual collector with a compact, easy-to-use volume describing more than 100 rare varieties of minerals whose beauty and mystery have possessed our imaginations from time immemorial. More than 450 brilliant photographs accompany profiles of each gem, covering such aspects as appearance, physical properties -- density, hardness, refraction -- occurrence, and how to judge quality and value. Additional sections describe the process of cutting gemstones and the techniques professional gemologists use to evaluate a stone's weight and optical properties. Detailed and comprehensive, this book is essential for anyone interested in the study of gems and precious stones.

Gemstones

Gemstones have been a source of delight and fascination for many thousands of years, from the icy brilliance of diamond and the soft iridescence of pearl, to tough jade gems once used in weapons and pink topaz that was popular in Victorian jewellery. This book looks at each of the world's known types of gemstone in turn, exploring their unique beauty, rarity and durability. It reveals how each of the gem minerals forms, where they are found and mined, and how they are identified. The book also explains how to distinguish the real from the fake, as well as cutting and polishing techniques. The use of gemstones in adornment, from over 4,500 years ago to the present day, is also explored. With sumptuous colour photographs, Gemstones is a dazzling insight into the world of the rare and the valuable.