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Gemstones : understanding, identifying, buying
As well as diamonds, emeralds, rubies and sapphires, over 100 gems are featured, with full descriptions, technical details, and tips on how to check for fakes; illustrated throughout with color photographs to make identification easier.
Book
Reuse Value
This book offers a range of views on spolia and appropriation in art and architecture from fourth-century Rome to the late twentieth century. Using case studies from different historical moments and cultures, contributors test the limits of spolia as a critical category and seek to define its specific character in relation to other forms of artistic appropriation. Several authors explore the ethical issues raised by spoliation and their implications for the evaluation and interpretation of new work made with spolia. The contemporary fascination with spolia is part of a larger cultural preoccupation with reuse, recycling, appropriation and re-presentation in the Western world. All of these practices speak to a desire to make use of pre-existing artifacts (objects, images, expressions) for contemporary purposes. Several essays in this volume focus on the distinction between spolia and other forms of reused objects. While some authors prefer to elide such distinctions, others insist that spolia entail some form of taking, often violent, and a diminution of the source from which they are removed. The book opens with an essay by the scholar most responsible for the popularity of spolia studies in the later twentieth century, Arnold Esch, whose seminal article 'Spolien' was published in 1969. Subsequent essays treat late Roman antiquity, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Western Middle Ages, medieval and modern attitudes to spolia in Southern Asia, the Italian Renaissance, the European Enlightenment, modern America, and contemporary architecture and visual culture.
eBook
Gems of the world
\"Guide to the identification and properties of precious and semiprecious gems, novelty stones, agates and crystals. Includes the geology, chemistry of gemstones, what to look for when buying gems and how to care for them, plus information on the diamond industry\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Renaissance Recipes for Making Artificial Pearls by Leonardo da Vinci and Others
A process suggested by a young Leonardo da Vinci in 1480 for reconstituting small pearls into a single large one is here translated into English for the first time. This formula is compared to two other nearly contemporaneous recipes, which are representative of a series of Renaissance processes for making artificial pearls. Leonardo da Vinci also suggested a mechanical method for polishing the reconstituted pearls, and he was aware that mother-of-pearl and pearl behave the same way when attacked with weak acids.
Journal Article
Engraved Gems
Many are no larger than a fingertip. They are engraved with symbols, magic spells and images of gods, animals and emperors. These stones were used for various purposes. The earliest ones served as seals for making impressions in soft materials. Later engraved gems were worn or carried as personal ornaments - usually rings, but sometimes talismans or amulets. The exquisite engraved designs were thought to imbue the gems with special powers. For example, the gods and rituals depicted on cylinder seals from Mesopotamia were thought to protect property and to lend force to agreements marked with the seals. This edited volume discusses some of the finest and most exceptional precious and semi-precious stones from the collection of the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities - more than 5.800 engraved gems from the ancient Near East, Egypt, the classical world, renaissance and 17th-20th centuries - and other special collections throughout Europe. Meet the people behind engraved gems: gem engravers, the people that used the gems, the people that re-used them and above all the gem collectors. This is the first major publication on engraved gems in the collection of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden since 1978.
eBook
Distinction of Natural and Synthetic Ametrine by Microscopic Examination—A Practical Approach
Rough and faceted ametrine samples from the Anahi mine, Bolivia, were studied and compared with synthetic samples grown hydrothermally using seeds cut with various orientations and elongated in different directions. Examination with an immersion microscope yielded sufficient diagnostic features to allow differentiation between natural versus synthetic origin. Specifically, it was found that a combination of features could be used to distinguish natural from synthetic ametrine; these include the interference patterns caused by twinning, the orientation of violet/yellow colour boundaries, the orientation of growth striations and the appearance of the fluid inclusions.
Journal Article