To write an extensive monograph on a single gemstone may seem, at first, unusual. But in the whole of the mineral realm, the extraordinary qualities of the mysterious tourmaline are found nowhere else. Some fourteen years of work have gone into this volume. Visits to scientific collections in London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna were supplemented by personal contacts and correspondence with scientists, collectors, and dealers around the world. Phenomena gave way to outward experience, outer experience to inner experience, and inner experience to insight—natural object gave way to natural being.
A miracle of nature, the tourmaline is a precious stone, having perhaps the greatest range of figuration and coloring of any gem. The importance of this book lies in the lavish illustrations and far-reaching cognitive treatment of the tourmaline. At the heart of this monograph are approximately 400 color photographs by some of the best photographers of these gems. The concluding text looks at these unique specimens from a Goethean perspective and provides a historical survey of our encounters with tourmalines throughout the ages, explaining how tourmalines, through their multifaceted, polychromatic guise, came to be invested with such a panoply of meanings, which remained unacknowledged for centuries.
This is a book that your family will treasure for generations to come.
