Customer Reviews

Secrets of the Gem Trade: The connoisseur's Guide to Precious Gemstones

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Every book on gemstones contains much the same information. Physical properties, sources, lore and what the Greeks (Theophrastus) and the Romans (Pliny) had to say about the specific gemstone. If you are looking to find out how you judge gemstones, how you tell the difference between a fine sapphire and something mediocre, forget-about-it. Even the so-called "buyers guides" waffle around the subject. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, blah!, blah!, blah! I think if I hear that old saw one more time I'm going to spit up.

Richard Wise tells the truth. Secrets Of The Gem Trade is the Bible! Straight non-technical talk! The first part of the book concentrates on principles of connoisseurship. The author tells you how to look at a stone, what the critera for evaluation is in faceted stones, cabochons, stars, catseyes, pearls and opals. this is stuff dealers never tell. He even tells you how to evaluate the light your using to look at the stone. Part II contains individual essays of about 40 of the most important gems.

And oh the photographs: four of the world's most famous photographers, About 120 beautiful photographs including some of the world's most famous gemstones. True color! The Caplan Ruby, Rockefleller Sapphire, Hope, Hancock and Dresden Green Diamonds. This is the real stuff!

Secrets Of The Gem Trade really does tell all. It is the first and only book that tells the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I read an excerpt in Colored Stone Magazine (they are excerpting it in every issue for a year) and couldn't believe it. The truth at last. I bought it! I love it!

In Secrets of the Gem Trade (The Connoisseur's Guide to Precious Gemstones) Richard Wise leads you through the swamps of the gem trade.
With an almost novelistic penmanship he teaches you how to judge and grade quality in gemstones while clearing some dogma's along the way.
Wether you like to know what the best colour is in Tanzanite, or how to grade a Diamond, you will find it in this book. No other book I read before dealt with this topic is such detail as Richard Wise's masterpiece.

He will not bore you with large tables of refractive indices, nor will he try to make a gemologist out of you.
What he will do is make you an expert on colorgrading and judging quality through good old and fun reading.
Not holding back he tells you the secrets of gemdealers and how to act as a pro in the field.
This book opened my eyes and titillated my senses to a degree that I wanted to catch a plane to Thailand and try it myself.

This extensive work is a must for every professional in the gemstone industry. It should be made mandantory reading for all jewelry appraisal courses and every selfrespecting gemologist should have this book on his desk, not on his shelf.

A. van Acker FGA

The book is well designed, and beautifully written, and worth purchasing for a gemstone afficianado. However, I noticed several gemstones missing from the book. For example, when he's talking about the Garnet family, he doesn't mention demantoid, which although rare, is the most highly coveted member of this grouping. I'm not saying he has to add rare exotics, but there were some gemstones missing from chapters that were specific about a family of gems. Morganite (also popular these days) was missing from the Beryl group. In the sapphire section, he doesn't mention pink sapphire, but padparadscha (pink/orange sapphire) was there and he makes a tiny mention of pink sapphire in the ruby section. Pink sapphires are extrememly popular and I would have liked to see the specifics on those.

On the other hand, he did go into detail on fancy-colored diamonds and talked about every single solitary color that exists in nature. I'm really not sure how important that is because if you're using this book to purchase a gem, you're much more likely to get a pink sapphire than a natural blue diamond. However, I did enjoy the eye candy.

In each gemstone section he either added facts about the durability or he didn't cover it, so that was inconsistent.

I think he should revise this edition with coverage of more gemstones in the popular groupings like garnet, beryl, sapphire.

This book doesn't contain the type of information I thought I wanted. But the more I read a section here & there searching for gem valuations, I discovered that this book is much better than a price guide (especially since I also bought "Jewelry & Gems The Buying Guide" by Matlins)- it's a history of colored gems, the regions in which they're mined, past & present, and a treasure trove of obscure yet relevant information, some of which I'm sure many jewellers are unaware. It's a lttle pricey but for someone with a genuine interest in gemstones, I think it's probably money well spent.

Richard Wise's new book is a masterpiece. It boldly goes where no gem book has gone before. In short, he lays out the truth about gemstone quality and connoisseurship. Every other book I have read is a retread of the same old information. You get the lore, you get the physical characteristics, you get the pretty pictures, you get Pliny and Theophrastus. What you don't get is what you really want to know, how to grade a gemstone.

Pretty pictures?, this book has them as well. One or two really fine stones so you can see what the author is talking about. Part I lays it out, the real grading criteria, how you understand quality in pearls, diamonds, colored gems and opals. Part II covers 40 or so of the most important gems in the market today, everything from ruby to tsavorite garnet.

The first book I've read which showed me how to grade gems. I've read books that told about the history,gemology esotorics etc. but this one told me what I really wanted to know. I've already used it and it works. Clear language, great pictures and priceless information. Congradulations Mr.Wise.

Secrets Of The Gem Trade: The Connoisseurs Guide To Precious Gemstones by Richard W. Wise (Graduate Gemologist and President of R. W. Wise, Goldsmiths, Inc. with years of gemological study) is an impressive new reference for dedicated dealers and collectors of gems, gemstones, and other valued gemological items such as pearls. Introducing and descriptively exploring each and every gem covered in the easy-to-use reference, Secrets Of The Gem Trade contains an illustrated summary of each stone inclusive of its history and general information, hue and tone, saturation, which may be noticed as the finest, an understanding of the particular gems rarity, and the caution for synthetics and how to depict them, however dependant upon the stone there may be description of clarity, color fading, multi-color effect, etc. Secrets Of The Gem Trade is very highly recommended to anyone interested in gemology as a superbly organized, authoritative, comprehensive, and easy-to-follow reference.

I found this book to be extremely relevant and not a boring read, either. Full of alluring tales from various gem locales that make you feel as if you are knee deep in the mud and mosquitoes, this account does indeed let you in on the secrets of the trade. By considering the principles outlined in this book, I can see that there is a lot more to gemstones than first meets the eye.

This book will help me become a more knowledgable and effective buyer...caveat emptor is fast becoming VENDOR EMPTOR!...Thank you Richard Wise for letting us in on your secrets!

Richard Wise has written an introductory book to gemstones, the gem industry, and the purchase of gems which is completely original, insightful, and valuable.
I have been collecting gems and minerals for over forty years, and this is the first time I have read a CLEAR discussion of the difference between hue, saturation and tone. Wise's coining of the term 'crystal' is brilliant; it describes an aspect of gems which I have always had trouble getting into words; it describes far more than terms such as 'transparency' or 'clarity' can cover. (I should note that perhaps the gem trade is moving towards some formal expression of 'crystal' in future appraisals, since GIA-GTL now considers graining in clarity grading of diamonds.)
Some might make much of the fact that the author omits certain gemstones in the section on various precious gems. However, Wise himself states at the beginning of that section that his selection is purely idiosyncratic, and follows his own preferences. This is refreshing, since all gemmologists differ on what they consider precious, but few will admit to being biased. He also freely admits that jade most definitely belongs in any such list, but that his knowledge of those stones is insufficient to allow him to write an adequate chapter on them. Since jade, like the field of organic gemstones, is almost a separate field in itself, this is unsurprising, and it is laudable that he says perhaps with time and study he will be able to add a chapter on jade in some future edition of the book.
Wise is a bit arrogant in his approach, but I've never met a good jeweller or gemmologist who wasn't. The man is obviously highly intelligent and competent, and his clear and lively style of writing caused me to forgive the few brief glimpses of arrogance.
While this book is helpful even for those with experience and education in the gems and jewellery field, I believe it will also be helpful to the intelligent beginner. It would certainly constitute an excellent introduction to the field, and perhaps provide the beginner with more open eyes as they progress in their education and appreciation of gems.

Wonderful Color Images

Mr. Wise has written two books, Secrets of the Gem Trade and The French Blue. The first is in color; the second is a novel with black and white engravings. I'm not sure why s-Berry said that Secrets of the Gem Trade is in black and white--that is incorrect! I am totally stymied! He/she must be talking about The French Blue.

Secrets of The Gem Trade has more than 120 color images by my count. Apologies if I missed a few. The images are one of the book's best features, they truly illuminate the text. There is at least one image for each of the individual gem chapters. In addition, the author provides pictures of some of the world's legendary gems: The Hope Diamond, the Dresden Green, the Rockefeller Sapphire and the Caplin Ruby. The photographers include world-class gem photographers--Jeff Scovil, Tino Hamid and Robert Weldon.

To me, Secrets of the Gem Trade is a must book for every gem lover, collector and student.