Gems and Jewelry

I find this book to be very useful and informative. It gives a thorough history of the various types of gems and jewels in the world, focusing on the less obscure types. It's crammed with lovely photos, and is a convenient size to drop into your bag when cruising through antique stores or attending auctions. It's not an encyclopedia, too small for that, but has a definite use and fills the bill for the average consumer.

There are an awful lot of fantasy writers who would benefit in reading, if not this book, then one very like it. But that's not a recommendation.I had the first edition, lost it, discovered the 2nd edition, was happy. Even if you're not a gem-shopper (I'm not), the book's worth it for the zillions of full-color photographs alone: you can *see* what all these gemstones look like.Arem discusses carats vs. karats, gem-cutting, mining, trivia and lore on various gemstones...a lot. There are other books on the same subject, of course, but this one's a decent survey.