Buried Treasure [Import] [Hardcover]

Victoria Finlay (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: SCEPTRE (HODD); First Edition edition (March 27, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340830123
• ISBN-13: 978-0340830123
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,602,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I first became fascinated with where colours came from when I was eight, and my father showed me aa stained glass window in Chartres cathedral and explained how the blue glass was made 800 years ago - and we were no longer able to make it. Many years later I gave up my day job as Arts editor at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong - where I lived for 12 years - to write Color: A Natural History of the Palette. My second book followed in 2005, called Jewels: A Secret History.

In the course of my research, I travelled to the underground opal churches of outback Australia, interviewed retired pearl fishermen in Scotland, crawled through Cleopatra's long-deserted emerald mines, climbed the "blue mountains" of Afghanistan where Michelangelo's ultramarine paint came from, learned about medieval stained glassand tried my hand at gem cutting in the dusty Sri Lankan city where Marco Polo once bartered for sapphires. I moved back to the UK in 2003 and now live near Bath, in southwest England. I divide my time between researching her fourth book (the third was for the World Bank), working for an international environmental charity and writing for various UK and international publications.

The photo was taken on the Tiwi Islands in Northern Australia where Doreen Tipoulera created the Big Sheep, Little Sheep Dreaming in ochre on my face. I didn't wash it off for hours.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, but don't be fooled, September 21, 2006

By 

Jennifer W. Knight "book sleuth" (Wet Valley, Oregon, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Buried Treasure (Hardcover)

Victoria Finlay is an engaging writer, and I recommend her books, but don't be fooled by the different titles used for the same work.

Buried Treasure: Travels Through the Jewellery Box: UK English edition
Jewels: A Short History: American English edition
Colour: Travels through the Paintbox: UK English edition
Color: A Natural History of the Palette: American English edition

On the jacket flap, when they say this is her third book, the missing one is on an entirely different topic: Faith in Conservation: New Approaches to Religions and the Environment (World Bank Directions in Development) Martin Palmer with Victoria Finlay.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Buried Treasure, May 13, 2007

By 

Leah Jesse "Giggling Archaeologist" (Victoria, B.C., Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Buried Treasure (Hardcover)

Buried Treasure: Travels Through the Jewel Box by Victoria Finlay is a third travelogue, a third social history and a third historical record of the semi-precious jewels we have come to know and cherish. The jewels included in this book are organized from softest to hardest on Mohs' scale. I say jewels and not stones, because the first three entries amber, jet and pearl, are not stones at all, they are made from other organic substances. The rest of the chapters are devoted to opal, peridot, emerald, sapphire, ruby and diamond.

In each chapter, Finlay describes her travels to the ancient and modern sources of each jewel that take her to far flung places like Australia, Japan, Burma, Sri Lanka, Egypt, the Baltic Coast, England, and North America. Throughout her travels she encounters people who are directly involved in the production, marketing and distribution of these precious jewels. To me, it seems a bitter blow for the people in the production of jewels that they receive next to nothing for their labours whilst the middlemen and higher-ups become rich from their troubles, but Finlay injects labourer anecdotes with humour and soul that almost make one forget that some live in extreme poverty.

The book includes an extensive bibliography and notes for each chapter. However, what I found really useful were the appendices in the back that include lists of birthstones, anniversary gemstones, Mohs' scale of relative hardness, alternative names, famous diamonds, names for cuts of gems, and glossary of gem words that are wonderfully informative.

An interesting read for any rockhound or travelogue junkie or social history buff from a journalist who has a background in social anthropology. I'd like to pick up her other book Colours next.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Traveling Through a Well Stocked Jewelry Box, July 10, 2009

By 

Georgene (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Buried Treasure: Travels Through the Jewel Box (Paperback)

First a warning: This book is published under TWO different titles. But, if you go through each of the two similar titles, as is allowed by Amazon, you should be able to see that the books are the same, just under somewhat different titles.

I LOVE bright, sparkling objects, so for me this book was wonderful!

I am a sometimes jewelry maker, although I do not work much with metal. Usually, I just work with beads. But most gems do come in bead form, so I found this book quite interesting.

I have read two books by this author and found both to be well researched and very interesting. She travels to where the gems are found in their rough form and tells about how they are mined.

Since one of my daughters spent a summer in Sri Lanka within the last couple of years, I found that section of particular interest. But, I enjoyed reading about how ALL the gems are found and/or mined.

Personally, I think there should have been more information on how the various stones are cut and the types of cuts best for each stone, but there is a limit on how much information the reader wants.

All in all, coming from a LONG line of "rock hounds" and making jewelry from many of these gemstones myself, I found this book to be informative and VERY interesting.