Buying colour gems is a challenge. To make a wise choice, you must be able to judge their colour, flaws, transparency and brilliancy. This guide will show you how. Written for both consumers and professionals, it is easy to read, has over 200 colour photographs and gives practical pointers on how to buy the best stone for the money. Whether you are interested in jade, opal, ruby, topaz, spinel, garnet, tourmaline or some other coloured gem, you will find this guide to be a fascinating and valuable resource. Topics covered include: price comparison; gem treatments; quality evaluation; gem cleaning and care; fake stones; savvy buying.
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39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
great introduction to gemstones,
By Bookworm (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Gemstone Buying Guide, Second Edition: How to Evaluate, Identify, Select & Care for Colored Gems (Paperback)
This is a great introduction for the beginner. Lots of color photographs of both cut gemstones and finished jewelry make this a beautiful book. The author goes over shape and cutting style, carat, color, clarity, cut quality and treatments. She also explains the difference between synthetic and natural stones. The last part of the book has entries for various gemstones with detailed descriptions of the qualities of each. Again with lots of photos. After reading this I do feel comfortable comparing stones and prices.
35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Vibrant color photographs throughout add visualization,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Gemstone Buying Guide, Second Edition: How to Evaluate, Identify, Select & Care for Colored Gems (Paperback)
Now in an updated second edition, Gemstone Buying Guide by experienced and professional gemologist Renee Newman is an authoritative, useful and "user friendly", no-nonsense guide to evaluating, identifying, and caring for colored gems, ranging from pearls and opals, to moonstone, topaz, turquoise, and more. Vibrant color photographs throughout add visualization to the tips, tricks, and techniques skillfully described in the text. If you are buying or selling any kind of gemstone then give Renee Newman's Gemstone Buying Guide is "must" reading.
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Introduction to Evaluating Colored Gems with Lots of Colored Photos.,
By
This review is from: Gemstone Buying Guide, Second Edition: How to Evaluate, Identify, Select & Care for Colored Gems (Paperback)
Renee Newman's "Gemstone Buying Guide" is an introduction to colored gemstones, not a comprehensive or in-depth resource. It presents the basics of evaluating quality in colored gems, avoiding fraud, and can serve as a quick reference to the background and characteristics of most gemstones that you will find in the marketplace. Chapters 2-7 address the major points of gemstone quality with discussions of: shape and cutting style, carat weight, color, clarity and transparency, cut, and a chapter that explains what to look for in star and cat's eye stones. The chapters on shape and carat weight are pretty basic. Those on color, clarity, and cut are more detailed. All chapters include advice on how to go about examining stones for these criteria.
Chapters 8-10 help the reader avoid fraud when shopping for gemstones with descriptions of various treatment procedures, both acceptable and deceptive, a brief discussion of synthetic stones, and practices commonly used to deceive buyers. Chapter 11 is by far the longest, containing the Gemstone Descriptions. 100 different species and varieties of gemstones are described, with information on their origins, characteristics, and vital statistics such as Refractive Index, Specific Gravity, Toughness, Crystal System, Cleavage, Optic Character, and more for each species or group. (Those terms are defined.) There are more than 125 color photographs of mounted and unmounted gems in this chapter. Guidance in evaluating jade and opal are included here rather than with the other chapters on gemstone quality. The book concludes with a chapter on Caring for Your Gems, emphasizing that colored gemstones are not as durable as diamonds and providing a chart of risks according to stone. To be clear, this "Gemstone Buying Guide" does not discuss diamonds at all, colored or colorless. I enjoyed learning about stones that I've seen at gem shows and never understood. And I got some good tips on judging cut. I cannot say that I would be prepared to run out and buy a colored gemstone after reading only this book, however. It doesn't provide enough detail regarding how many and what type of inclusions constitute poor clarity in which stones or which stones are always heat-treated, sometimes treated, or never. The "Gemstone Buying Guide" does mention these issues but is not sufficiently instructive for my taste. But this book is an introduction and is fine as such.
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