Customer Reviews

Gems and Gemstones: Timeless Natural Beauty of the Mineral World

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Wonderful new book on gemstones really delivers! Instead of a few tiny color photos at the back, like other books, this book actually is primarily composed of color photos. The accompanying information will inspire even more investigation for the amateur gemologist--there is a map of mining locations, for instance.
There are photos of both the original minerals and jewelry made from the resulting gems.
This is one of the best books I have ever encountered on the subject, very thoughtfully organized and entertaining as well. Highly recommended !

Well balanced in terms of geological information, history, and aesthetic presentation (images are outstanding and the book is well designed.) Much of the text is legitimately interesting to read; I found myself reading through large portions, which is rare for gem book. The book begins with well written introduction that properly prepares the reader for the information laid out throughout the book. Short chapters at the end on simulated stones, mining, and ethics were welcome additions.

My only gripe (not important enough to detract from my rating)is that materials from the Grainger Hall of Gems collection that were too soft for practical use were omitted with exceptions for commonly used organic materials, e.g. pearls, amber, ivory. This was somewhat frustrating, and I'm sure they would have used beautiful images to represent them. A condensed "too soft for jewelry" chapter would have been nice., the chapter on metals, aptly titled "Precious Metals (Primarily Gold)" only deals with gold; I expected at least silver to get an equal treatment. Of course, this book is plenty satisfying already, and a great buy for the price

This is a beautiful book with exquisite photographs of gems and gemstones. Very informative text. It is great for both experienced collectors or novices interested in crystals. Also would make a wonderful gift item. Highly recommended.

This book has everything you'd want to know about gems and gemstones. Also, the pictures within really bring the minerals and gems alive. The artwork these gems are fashioned into are often quite intriguing.

This is one of the most beautiful books I've seen recently, but the well-written and informative text gives it value beyond the awesome photos. It's not only a perfect gift, it's a book you'll want to dip into, learn fascinating facts you could never have imagined, and just totally enjoy.

This book is very good, and much more than just a coffee table book. The pictures are spectacular, I only feel they should have added more pictures of the different geometrical types of crystallization of the same minerals. I found there to be a significant lack of radioactive minerals, UV minerals, and pictures of these and other mInerals in general. The focus seemed to be more on jewelry and gemstones, which left open a great variety of other crystals and minerals. As a jeweler I noticed some of the jewelry gemstones shown were very poorly set. Most of these items were created specifically for this exhibition and it's a shame they were seemingly thrown together. The Field has a very large collection and I also feel that more should have been shown, not just the perfect pieces that have often been modified from their original settings via overly extensive cleaning and specific cutting of unwanted but attached minerals associated with the crystals. I was also bothered by the lack of information on where many of the stones, even the recently cut stones, originated. This is very important and I felt more effort should have gone into locality and type localities for the stones and uncut pieces. All that said, it remains a very aesthetically pleasing book and would go very well in any book collection or on any coffee table regardless of what it lacks. I may be to harsh on the book due to my own knowledge and understanding which is far greater than a layman or casual buyer. The pictures are beautiful and the dust jacket cover is strikingly beautiful.

This book was purchased for my neighbor who is 90 years old and the print was a light blue and way too small for him to be able to read, so it was returned. It had nice illustrations in it but the print was even hard for me to read. The light blue color of the print made the print seem even smaller.

This is more of a museum venture book that has a brief-brief info about the very few featured rocks and the behind-the-glass jewelry show than anything informative in depth,spectrum or scale.Didn't like the fact that they only view a few stones as precious or suitable for jewelry and not the remaining hundreds of types just because they are softer than the relative hardness of 7.They can very well be considered as precious stones suitable for jewels of different kinds that one could wear on special occasions(in my opinion)-especially for their uniqueness,character and beauty.But what i did like was the agreeable fact of its true logical character that they do clarify for the non-technical & mislead/misinformed public the fact about a stone being the real/genuine one whether produced in nature's or in a man's lab.Both are gem material that came about from basically identical synthesis process!

This is a wonderful book, with pictures of excellent quality and exquisite informations. It is a book that increases the will of knowing more and more on the wonderful world of the minerals. Definitively, a book highly recommended so much for those that are beginning to study the minerals, as for those that are already inside of this world!