Jewelry

gold, the karat quality should accompany any claim that the item is gold. The karat quality marking tells you what proportion of gold is mixed with the other metals. Fourteen karat (14K) jewelry contains 14 parts of gold, mixed in throughout with 10 parts of base metal. The higher the karat rating, the higher the proportion of gold in the piece of jewelry.

Most jewelry is marked with its karat quality, although marking is not required by law. Solid gold refers to an item made of any karat gold, if the inside of the item is not hollow. The proportion of gold in the piece of jewelry still is determined by the karat mark.

		Finest gemstones including pigeon - ruby - rubies - and royal blue sapphire If you want to know more on various precious stones have a look here, Chantaburi in Thailand is the main trading point on precious stones in Asia, most people just dont know it.
		Deep blue sapphire cut and facetted Colors available: white, pink, blue, pastel - mixed sizes: 2 mm up, calibrated
	Multicolored spinels cut and facetted colors available: pink to red size: one carat up 1.1 mm to 4.9 mm - calibrated
Picture by jordanrich1

Jewelry can be plated with gold in a variety of ways. Gold plate refers to items that are either mechanically plated, electroplated, or plated by any other means with gold to a base metal. Eventually, gold plating wears away, but how soon will depend on how often the item is worn and how thick the plating is.

Gold-filled, gold overlay and rolled gold plate are terms used to describe jewelry that has a layer of at least 10 karat gold mechanically bonded to a base metal. If the jewelry is marked with one of these terms, the term or abbreviation should follow the karat quality of the gold used (for example, 14K Gold Overlay or 12K RGP). If the layer of karat gold is less than 1/20th of the total weight of the item, any marking must state the actual percentage of karat gold, such as 1/40 14K Gold Overlay.

Gold electroplate describes jewelry that has a layer (at least .175 microns thick) of a minimum of 10 karat gold deposited on a base metal by an electrolytic process. The terms gold flashed or gold washed describe products that have an extremely thin electroplating of gold (less than .175 microns thick). This will wear away more quickly than gold plate, gold-filled or gold electroplate.

Gemstones Natural gemstones are found in nature. Laboratory-created stones, as the name implies, are made in a laboratory. These stones, which also are referred to as laboratory-grown, [name of manufacturer]-created, or synthetic, have essentially the same chemical, physical and visual properties as natural gemstones. Laboratory- created stones do not have the rarity of naturally colored stones and they are less expensive than naturally mined stones. By contrast, imitation stones look like natural stones in appearance only, and may be glass, plastic, or less costly stones. Laboratory-created and imitation stones should be clearly identified as such.

Gemstones may be measured by weight, size, or both. The basic unit for weighing gemstones is the carat, which is equal to one-fifth (1/5th) of a gram. Carats are divided into 100 units, called points. For example, a half-carat gemstone would weigh .50 carats or 50 points. When gemstones are measured by dimensions, the size is expressed in millimeters (for example, 7x5 millimeters).

Gemstone treatments or enhancements refer to the way some gems are treated to improve their appearance or durability, or even change their color. Many gemstones are treated in some way. The effects of some treatments may lessen or change over time and some treated stones may require special care. Some enhancements also affect the value of a stone, when measured against a comparable untreated stone.

Jewelers should tell you whether the gemstone you're considering has been treated when: the treatment is not permanent; the treated stone requires special care; or the treatment significantly affects the value of the gemstone.

Some common treatments that you may be told about and their effects include:

1. Heating can lighten, darken or change the color of some gems, or improve a gemstone's clarity. 2. Irradiation can add more color to colored diamonds, certain other gemstones and pearls. 3. Impregnating some gems with colorless oils, wax or resins makes a variety of imperfections less visible and can improve the gemstones' clarity and appearance. 4. Fracture filling hides cracks or fractures in gems by injecting colorless plastic or glass into the cracks and improves the gemstones' appearance and durability. 5. Diffusion treatment adds color to the surface of colorless gems; the center of the stone remains colorless. 6. Dyeing adds color and improves color uniformity in some gemstones and pearls. 7. Bleaching lightens and whitens some gems, including jade and pearls.

Diamonds A diamond's value is based on four criteria: color, cut, clarity, and carat. The clarity and color of a diamond usually are graded. However, scales are not uniform: a clarity grade of "slightly included" may represent a different grade on one grading system versus another, depending on the terms used in the scale. Make sure you know how a particular scale and grade represent the color or clarity of the diamond you're considering. A diamond can be described as "flawless" only if it has no visible surface or internal imperfections when viewed under 10-power magnification by a skilled diamond grader.

As with other gems, diamond weight usually is stated in carats. Diamond weight may be described in decimal or fractional parts of a carat. If the weight is given in decimal parts of a carat, the figure should be accurate to the last decimal place. For example, ".30 carat" could represent a diamond that weighs between .295 - .304 carat. Some retailers describe diamond weight in fractions and use the fraction to represent a range of weights. For example, a diamond described as 1/2 carat could weigh between .47 - .54 carat. If diamond weight is stated as fractional parts of a carat, the retailer should disclose two things: that the weight is not exact, and the reasonable range of weight for each fraction or the weight tolerance being used.

Some diamonds may be treated to improve their appearance in similar ways as other gemstones. Since these treatments improve the clarity of the diamond, some jewelers refer to them as clarity enhancement. One type of treatment - fracture filling - conceals cracks in diamonds by filling them with a foreign substance. This filling may not be permanent and jewelers should tell you if the diamond you're considering has been fracture-filled.

Another treatment - lasering - involves the use of a laser beam to improve the appearance of diamonds that have black inclusions or spots. A laser beam is aimed at the inclusion. Acid is then forced through a tiny tunnel made by the laser beam to remove the inclusion. Lasering is permanent and a laser-drilled stone does not require special care.

While a laser-drilled diamond may appear as beautiful as a comparable untreated stone, it may not be as valuable. That's because an untreated stone of the same quality is rarer and therefore more valuable. Jewelers should tell you whether the diamond you're considering has been laser-drilled.

Imitation diamonds, such as cubic zirconia, resemble diamonds in appearance but are much less costly. Certain laboratory-created gemstones, such as lab-created moissanite, also resemble diamonds and may not be adequately detected by the instruments originally used to identify cubic zirconia. Ask your jeweler if he has the current testing equipment to distinguish between diamonds and other lab-created stones.
 
Author Tony Hennessy - Tony's background lies in sales & marketing and he has worked with both suppliers and end users worldwide for over 17 years in various industries, including electronics, contract manufacturing and subsequently polished diamonds and diamond jewellery.

 

Popular Gemstones for Jewelry

Agate for Jewelry- Agate consists of silicon dioxide which was sedimented in ancient times to form beautiful flowing bands of different texture and colours. There are always many layers and bands of differing materials in all sorts of designs and colours - in quartz, chalcedony, jasper, or iron oxides - making agate one of the most intriguing gemstones for  lapidary. Agates of all kinds have been popular in talismans over the centuries. Beautiful specimens of concentric rings are found at Winona, Minnesota.

Heating agate artificially produces even more spectacular agates.  There are many different kinds of Agates: Moss Agates or Seaweed Agates, Agatized Coral, Crazy-lace Agate, Plume Agate or Scenic Agate, Tree Agates, Onyx Agate, Eye Agate and Rainbow or Iris Agate with its many colours.

Amber for Jewelry - The name is Arabic but it has come to us from the French and in Greek it means 'electricity'. Pliny asserted amber as the sap of certain trees. It is now confirmed to be the fossil resin of an extinct species of pine tree of the Tertiary period. . It frequently preserves within itself plant structures and insects. In prehistoric it was used as a talismanic charm against disease and also burnt as incense. It has a peculiar electrical property discovered by Thales, one of the 7 sages of Greece, when it is subjected to friction on a natural woollen material to demonstrate an electro/magnetic power. Amber is found in colours from green to gold and orange, brown and even red. It is found either clear or opaque in nature with any cloudy appearance caused by imprisoned bubbles. Amber was also employed as an essence or scent and still is used as an ingredient in modern perfumes. Amber has wide distribution in Europe, Sicily and the Adriatic, Australasia, America and Russia, Siberia, Greenland, U.S, Mexico, Burma and Romania . It is occasionally washed up on beaches.
 

Amethyst for Jewelry

- Occidental or True Amethyst is a form of quartz. or coloured Rock crystal consisting of silica. Oriental amethyst is alumina. Others are violone, a silicate of aluminium and lithium. It contains iron in the quartz. The deeper the colour, the more valuable - due to presence of manganese oxide. Oriental Amethyst or Violet Sapphire is a form of corundum and similar to sapphire and ruby. A beautiful sample is a violet gem weighing 48 carats in the Allison Gem Collection, Australia The best examples come from Siberia, Ceylon, Brazil and Persia but a large one found in a cave of amethyst in Brazil is a huge crystal which measures 33' by 6' x 3'- the largest ever found.

Aquamarine for Jewelry 

-This gemstone is a transparent, pale water blue beryl with iron giving it the green/blue tint, varying from pale green to deep sea green. It is relatively inexpensive and mined in India, Siberia and Brazil, the most abundant source of aquamarine. This blue green stone is heated to produce the blue colour so popular in modern jewellery. A magnificent example of 46 carats is in the Allison Australian gem Collection.                                                                                                                                          

Beryl for Jewelry 

-Beryl is used as a copper alloy and also in constructing the atomic bomb. Beryl and Aquamarine differ only in colour - Beryl is bright blue to white and Aquamarine is sea green to deep green. Best known is the deep green form of beryl, the precious emerald. The yellow beryl is the heliodor and pink beryl is morganite and there is also an extremely rare Red Beryl. Beryl is known for its huge crystals. Madagascar yielded a single crystal weighing nearly 40 tons far surpassing the 18-27 foot monster ones previously obtained from New England.

Bloodstone for Jewelry

- Bloodstone is opaque and always cut as a cabochon, or un-faceted stone. It is a variety of green Jasper with many blood red specks in its composition. These are formed by iron oxide with which it is impregnated. Ancient Egyptians highly valued bloodstone amulets. It was once very popular in cutting seals and cameos. Found in India, Siberia and Russia. The Chinese believe it produces best results when set in gold.

Carnelian or Cornelian for Jewelry

- This is a translucent, orangey-red chalcedony sometimes found in yellowish tones and white, frequently with two combined. On
exposure to the Sun the hues become brighter but not in artificial light. It is capable of high polish which    Picture by jordanrich1
was why it was considered as the best stone to use as a seal, according to Pliny. The transparent red type of carnelian is known as Sard and comes from Arabia, India, New Zealand, Europe, Mesopotamia, Surinam and Siberia. Many ancient Etruscan and Egyptian scarabaei have been found carved from this stone. Buddhism includes this in sacred 7 stones -Tibetans call it A-yu and as talisman has occult properties.

Coral for Jewelry

- Coral is formed by calcium carbonate in the skeletons of colonies of soft bodied molluscs in tropical waters. It ranges in colour from the rare black, to pink and reddish-orange, the classical "coral" of fashion. It is also found in a blue colour. The ancient Romans and Greeks used it in ornamentation. Red, pink, white and blue corals are made of calcium carbonate but black and golden corals are formed of the horny substance conchiolin. In all  corals the skeletal structure is visible as delicately striped of spotted graining. Red and pink corals from the Mediterranean. were popular for centuries and often used in rosaries. There was an extensive trade through Europe into Arabia and to India where coral was also used medicinally. The black and golden corals fished off Hawaii, Australia and West Indies are more recent discoveries.                                                                                                   

Crystal for Jewelry - Rock Crystal or Frozen Water has always been considered a pure stone and once used as a divining stone and in modern fortune telling when the gypsies keep the tradition alive in using a crystal ball, a custom which is said to have begun in Persia. The stone is traditionally associated with mystical properties and linked to the moon. It is one of the 7 sacred substances of Buddhism. Its crystal has 6 sides and rarely is it found in large pieces - but the largest quartz crystal ever found was in Brazil - it was over 5m long and weighed more than 48 tonnes! Synthetic rock crystal is manufactured in Japan for industry and also jewellery. Diamond for Jewelry - Diamond - the beautiful and most popular precious stone consists of pure carbon, the blackest of substances, which crystallizes in the cubic system at enormous pressures and high temperatures, sometimes from depth of 150 km in the earth.

Apart from its unique flashes of light and colour from its faceted stone, the diamond has special properties and is the hardest of all stones. The best gem quality stones are colourless and transparent with a slightly blue tint but the pink and tinted diamonds are becoming popular also. Diamonds are said to have first been found in India more than 2000 years ago. Previously in that country diamonds were known but were never cut because it was believed that it had magical properties were destroyed by cutting. Cutting in Europe began after 1300 AD. Lasers are now used to cut diamonds but the only mineral capable of cutting a diamond is a diamond. Top world producers now are northern Australia which supplies 1/4 of the world's needs - particularly for industrial purposes and also the coloured "champagne diamonds" and in the South African Kimberley region. Emerald for Jewelry - Emeralds are green forms of Beryl and the best are found in Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia.    Also India and Pakistan but the finest are said to come from Colombia near Chivor where

they  occur in veins within dark shales and limestone. The Ural Mountains which are rich in emeralds retain the world market. Egypt's emerald mines are over 4,000 years old. Pliny speaks of a colossal emerald statue of Serapis 13 1/2 feet high, in the ancient Egyptian labyrinth. It was called the "king" of green stones with extremely high value because of its rarity and the fact that seldom was there gemstone cut that was without flaw. The largest known emerald discovered was 11,000 carats found in an uncut state in South Africa. The largest cut stone of quality was 1,347 carats but it had obvious flaws. The largest perfect stone known was the Tsar of Russia's - 30 carats. The Crown of the Andes made in 1593-99 in South America had 453 emeralds the largest being of 45 carats. However synthetic emeralds in modern times have plausible inclusions so testing must be done carefully in determining the quality of stone.

Garnet for Jewelry - Garnets are found in various shades and colours from brown to purple shades. But its dark red variety is valued as a precious stone although the mineral is quite common. Garnet crystals are 12 faced. The stones have been prized in jewellery for over 5000 years. When many garnet crystals are gathered in a rock cavity they are likened to a ripe pomegranate. Cut as brilliants, garnets are used as ring stones with large ones as pendants, often with cabochon cut and carved. Garnets and star garnets from are found in Australia.

Jade for Jewelry - This is the name given to both nephrite and jadeite which are tougher than steel although not particularly hard. Burma, New Zealand and Alaska supply good Jade (actually all Chinese Jade comes from Burma or Myanmar) via normal import or smuggling). Brazil it occurs naturally Used since Neolithic times for weapons and tools and later for delicate carvings. Aztecs used jade. In ancient Egypt the stone was called Nemehen. Pure Jade is white with impurities causing different colours and most pieces are mottled. It is generally translucent or opaque green in colour and is lustrous rather than brilliant. The most prised of all jades is "imperial jade" the transparent emerald green coloured by chromium. It has been always revered in China as a sacred stone. Its quality as a gemstone is judged by the intensity of the green colour and its coolness to the touch. Jadeite is the rarer of the jades and Myanmar remains the only commercial source. Much of the Central American jadeite originates in Guatemala. Soapy jade is the term for the inferior grades used commonly for carving decorations, lamp stands etc.

Lapis Lazuli for Jewelry - This stone consists of blue silicate lazurite with variable amounts of calcite and the brassy gold flecks of pyrite which is more abundant in the poorer quality material. Afghanistan has the best quality that consists mostly of lazurite and is deep blue. In ancient times it was also known as "sapphirus". The Egyptians used to ground it into pigment to use in paintings and murals and in eye shadow and used in manufacture of amulets and symbols, particularly in the representations of the goddess Isis and in the Sacred Eye of Horus. Later it was ground for use as pigment in religious paintings for the glorious blue of the Madonna's robes. In China, royal seals and carvings were made of it. It is considered as a sacred stone in Buddhism. Lapis lazuli is one of the most ancient in items of jewellery - having been known and used for over 6000 years. It was mined in Afghanistan and Siberia near Lake Baikal, but nowadays produced profusely in Chile.

Moonstone for Jewelry - Moonstone is a Feldspar, comprised of calcium sodium or potassium aluminium silicates. Sri Lanka is the most important source of Moonstone. India produces strongly coloured stones as beige, pink, green, yellow, grey, white and brown. It is considered to be a sacred stone in India and by tradition, it is always cut en cabochon. It is an important stone in Ayurvedic medicine. Beautiful sheens come as with other stones, with subjected light and its particular sheen is called "adularescence" and most prized when the sheen is bluish in colour. Throughout the world it is associated with the Moon and very popular semi precious stone is used in jewellery everywhere. Their fascination lies in their gentle glowing and elusive sheen and above all the softness of their quality, compared with the strength and brilliance of faceted jewels.

Opal for Jewelry - Opal is one of the few gem minerals which is non crystalline. Opals are referred to in history and in legend. Pliny is said to have liked it and Orpheus is said to have declared that the opal 'fills the heart of the gods with joy". Shakespeare refers to ... "this miracle and Queen of gems". Opal consists of pure silica (silicon combined with oxygen) with traces of numerous compounds which explains the many differing types. Opals were rare in antiquity. It is thought to have become commonly known only after the time of Alexander the Great. The only known mines in the earliest times were the Carpathian Mountains. The stone is extremely porous with the weight varying in proportion to the amount of contained water. The colours are determined by structure and the light which causes ever changing effect. Finest opal and opalized wood and fossils are found also in Australia at Coober Pedy and Andamooka. France also supplies some and also Idaho... Opals are usually cut as en cabochon. Their varieties include - Hungarian opals are very fine and were once popular in Europe.                           

Mexican Opals fine transparent variety of opal - Black opals are extremely vivid flashes of colour including red, with dark background and of highest value Milky opal or white opals are opaque with smaller and less spectacular softer markings and colours. Fire opals or Harlequin Opal is the finest quality and variety of gemstone Water Opal is clear and colourless with internal play of colour. Rose Opal or potch opal has a beautiful pink colour but opaque. Hydrophane Opal is opaque but appears colourless in water.

Pearl for Jewelry - Along with Coral, this extremely popular gemstone used in jewelry, is found in the seas not the land and is therefore not of the same composition nor characteristics of the earth born gemstones. Care must be taken to preserve the quality of pearls. Pearls are made of calcium carbonate formed within an oyster. The basic irritant is usually a grain of sand which stimulates the oyster to cover it with its own body secretion - eventually forming the well known round and perfect pearl. The lustre of the pearl comes from minute crackles on its surface - finer than those on opals. Their lustre increases in the body warmth of human beings and therefore the practice of allowing the shop attendants to wear the strings of pearl has a practical basis. Different pearl qualities depend upon colour and size and range from the tiniest "seed pearls" to the rare gems of considerable size Harvesting pearls from the wild is singularly unrewarding and cultured pearls have been able to meet the demand for these beautiful natural ornaments. Cultured pearls have been produced in China for several centuries as now in Japan, Australia and the Pacific.

Ruby for Jewelry - Next to diamond, ruby (and sapphire) are the most valued of the gems. Ruby is a variety of corundum, When the corundum includes chromium, it becomes ruby, when it contains titanium and iron instead and therefore is blue - the sapphire. The world's finest come from Myanmar, Pakistan and Afghanistan, also Burma, Thailand, India and Ceylon .Burmese ones are exceptionally beautiful - found near Mogo N.E. of Mandalay. "Pigeon Blood" rubies are the highest in the scale of value. Thai Rubies are often found with spinel and are darker red than the Burmese Rubies. A fine ruby is a magnificent gemstone. Ruby has been synthetically produced successfully since 1904. But the genuine rubies are valued because of their rarity and therefore have not dropped in commercial value, in fact have risen. Rubies are also used in Space research in connection with communication systems to cut out surface sounds of the earth and pick up beams from space.

Sapphire for Jewelry - Pink Sapphires, Blue sapphires and Yellow Sapphires are found in Thailand and East Africa. They are next to diamond in hardness and therefore resistant to wear. Australia is the largest producer of blue and golden sapphires. Non-blue sapphires are White Sapphires or Golden Sapphires. The largest sapphire known was 950 carats from Burma. The largest in Australia was 886 carats from Queensland in 1934. There are star sapphires and star rubies found which contain fine fibre crystals giving star effect when cut in en cabochon.

Topaz for Jewelry - Topaz is an aluminium silicate containing about 20% water and fluorine and comes in several colours. Yellow quartz is sold today under the name of topaz and it is one of the most popular colours, although there are others which are greenish and of reddish tint.. Golden Topaz from Brazil is a golden brown to pink colour. The main suppliers are Brazil, Germany and Russia. Japan also produces topaz. Topaz is harder than Rock crystal and is known for its huge crystals - a colourless one from Brazil was found weighing as much as 600 pounds, well formed and clear throughout. The largest known topaz was cut in 1977 and weighed 21,327 carats. Another is known at 36,853 carats. Found in Australia topaz is usually light yellow, green and blue also. Hardness 8 and Orthorhombic crystals brilliant and beautiful stone found in quartz rose rocks. Associated with tin ores . Tinted by heating. Sky blue topaz found in the Scottish Highlands, Brazil and Siberia.

Turquoise for Jewelry - This stone is composed of aluminium copper sulphate hydrated phosphate of aluminium and copper) and is only medium hard. Egyptians are the first people known to mine it in Sinai over 6000 years ago. The finest is said to be found in Naishapur,  Iran, where it has been mined for about 3000 years.                       
It is found also in Sinar, Turkestan and Tibet. The colours range from pale blue to deep green/blue. Water content affects the colour of the stone. It responds to human touch and warmth and in the Middle East is used as a reflector of babies' health in the crib etc. It is relatively soft and has a waxy lustre. It is porous and its colour may deteriorate if skin oils and cosmetics are absorbed during wear. It's famous for its change of colour when difficult influences are near and for this reason was attached to cradle of babies to reflect the child's vitality and to alert them to any change in tone and colour. Some believe it becomes moist and changes colour when warning against Poison. The gem is regarded as a pledge of true affection and drawing evil influences. The green variety is found in New Mexico and in Australia.

Author Michael Russell, your Independent guide to Jewellery.

What's new in minerals for Jewelry ?

The Rochester Mineralogical Symposium was held for the 21st year. This event has grown in stature through the years and is regarded as one of the best mineralogical symposia in the country. Although there are dealers, it is still, first and foremost, a symposium. All dealers must close their doors during the lectures and scheduled activities. Plenty of time is allowed for shopping breaks, and collectors can use their silver picks in the evenings when dealers doors stay open late.

There is a refreshing emphasis on minerals for jewelry of the northeast and north-central United States. It is always good to see material from old localities where I used to collect while growing up in Connecticut. Northeast dealers were not the only ones there though. Cal Graeber Minerals (P.O. Box 2347, Fallbrook, CA 92088) had some of the superb peridot crystals that have been coming out of Pyaung Gaung, Myanmar (= Burma) recently. The crystal faces are rough, as though etched, but the interiors are extremely gemmy and of a fine green color. Some of these were available at the Tucson Show.

The Bennett mine in Buckfield, Maine produced some fine specimens last season. These included mil quartz crystals, cassiterite, columbite, hydroxylherderite, pollucite and cookeite. The most exciting crystals were the multicolored elbaites in shades of green and pink. Both Jim Mann (Box 597, Bethel, ME 04217) and Cal Graeber had some of these elbaites.                                                                                Heliotrop - photo by pustule

Leonard Himes of Minerals America had a pleasant surprise---a fine group of emerald crystals for jewelry from North Carolina having several small rutiles attached and included. The whole specimen stands 4.8 cm high. Leonard also had several specimens from the Zomba-Malosa Complex, Chilwa Alkaline Province, Malawi (see the article in the January-February issue). The best known mineral for jewelry from this locality is aegerine, which Leonard had in crystals up to 16 cm long, plus several zircon crystals, sometimes attached to the aegerines.

Pakistan continues to produce interesting new minerals for jewelry, or just better ones than from other localities. Dudley Blauwet of Mountain Minerals International keeps on top of these things. He had some rather nice zircon from Buibin, near Astar, Waziret district, Northern Areas. They are clean, reddish brown dipyramids in what appeared to be a very impure marble, in crystals up to 1.5 cm. Some of these have been available recently, but as loose crystals with no matrix.

Dassu, Baltistan, Northern Areas was represented by stellerite in white hemispheres to 2.5 cm in diameter. Most are loose groups, some with minor muscovite matrix. They are not as lustrous as the stellerites from Jalgaon, India, but quite interesting considering the pegmatite origin. Dudley also had some of the steilerites from Jalgaon, which have a beautiful luster and translucency, some with chalcedony and gyrolite on gray-blue drusy quartz.

A fairly new dealer in the business is DeTrin-Rising Sun (145-62 7th Ave., Whitestone, NY 11357) who specializes in the minerals for jewelry of Russia and its former republics. I think that some of us are reaching a degree of saturation with minerals from those areas, because there has been so much available recently. Unfortunately, much of the material available these days is mediocre and/or damaged. Not so with the material of DeTrin, the owner of which seem to have a great eye for the best quality material. Most of their stock was the typical suite from Dalnegorsk, but of very fine quality. I look forward to what this dealer will bring forth in the future.

Jeffrey B. Fast (19 Oak Knoll Rd., E. Hampton, CT 06424) made available a fine selection of the new material for jewelry from the Becker quarry, West Willington, Connecticut. The suite includes pale smoky, tessin-habit quartz to 7 cm long, pocket almandine crystals to 2.5 cm and white magnesite rhombs to 1 cm with minor drusy pyrite. One of the minerals I wanted to see was not in the room--the terminated pocket kyanite.

Some other local material for jewelry was being handled by Lawrence D. Venezia (115 Coleridge St., E. Boston, MA 02128). Rare, but not particularly attractive, were masses of orange donpeacorite from Balmat, New York. From Pearl Lake, Lisbon, New Hampshire, Larry had some very clean almandine and staurolite in schist. The staurolites are up to 5 cm in length and many have small garnets sprinkled on them.

Topaz-Mineral Exploration's specialty (1605 Hillcrest, Grand Haven, MI 49417) is the minerals of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Tom Bee, the owner, besides having an eye-opening display of minerals from that area, had many for sale. He had one of the finest assemblages of well-crystallized copper that I have seen in a while, plus fine calcite with copper inclusions, half-breeds, datolite and epidote on calcite. Many of these specimens have come out of old collections. There was a buying frenzy in his room; I almost had to fight someone to photograph a piece before it was bought. Luckily the fellow and I are still friends.
That fellow is Gary Richards, Keeper of the Earth (2511 N. Mason, Appleton, WI 54914). Gary is a very experienced dealer who spent a number of years helping Lance Hampel. On his own now, Gary is doing a fine job and also has a special fondness for minerals of the U.P. (Upper Peninsula), as they call it in those parts. Gary had recently bought an old collection that was heavy in pegmatite minerals, especially tourmaline and beryl. Localities included some of the common and expected--Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, California, Brazil--plus some that are not so common. These included Rabenstein, Bavaria; Namibia; Adun Chulon and Mursinka (both in Russia) and the old Gillette quarry, Haddam Neck, Connecticut. I was pleased to relieve Gary of the beryl from that last locality as well as the one from Mursinka.

Hans van Binsbergen of Classic Minerals (P.O. Box 1391, Exton, PA 19341) had been holding on to a batch of very high quality Lynch Station, Virginia turquoise for jewelry that had been collected about five years ago. He offered for sale eight flats of bright blue, microcrystalline druses on quartz.

The new red grossularite seen at the Tucson Show was well represented in the room of Beau Gordon (Jendon Minerals, P.O. Box 6214, Rome, GA 30162). They are from Sierra de La Cruz, Coahuila, Mexico and ranged from thumbnail to small cabinet size, all on matrix. Beau also had a nice selection of crudely crystallized gold from Mt. Kare, Papua, New Guinea. Most are slightly waterworn, small nuggets.

Mongort Minerals was a new name to me, and a pleasant surprise. Raymond Sprague and his partners have opened up the old Emmons quarry, Uncle Tom Mtn., Greenwood, Maine. They have leased the property since 1990 and have produced some interesting material. Included are blue/gray to pale purple nuorapatite on albite in thumbnail sizes; and milky white and zoned, multiple and parallel grown quartz crystals, sometimes sceptered, to 13 cm. They hit one pocket 4 meters across, mostly filled with mustovite in six-sided crystals with fibrous overgrowths, associated with bertrandite microcrystals. The quarry is also producing some nice green to pink elbaite crystals up to 10 cm long. Unfortunately, most of the elbaites are broken and repaired. Ray hopes that as they get deeper below the frost line, the elbaites will be in better shape.

Mongort also had minerals from other localities in Maine, such as fluorapatite from the Harvard quarry in Greenwood, and microcrystals and thumbnails of perhamite from the Ski Pike quarry, Cobble Hill, West Paris.

There were a number of Canadian dealers including Collection Haineault (2266 St-Alexandre, Longueuil, Quebec J4J 3T9) who had some very good material for jewelry from Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec. Besides the fine serandite and leifite, Gilles Haineault offered a fine group of carltonite crystals as singles to 1 cm and large groups to 14 cm across. The crystals arc of the typical blocky habit, with blue cores and white exteriors. From the Jeffrey quarry, Asbestos, Quebec there were some very nice, zoned, green to purple vesuvianites.
Jim Mann is a fellow who gets around; he bought some of the better elbaites from last summer's production at Mount Mica, Paris, Maine. As I mentioned earlier in the column, he also had some of the better material from the Bennett mine, Buckfield, Maine, the most notable being the elbaites. Also very interesting from the Bennett mine, was a rhodochrosite crystal 2 cm tall that some were claiming to be the best such crystal to come from a granite pegmatite (see photo). Although not as deep a purple as the fluorapatites of Mt. Apatite, those of Mt. Rubellite are quite fine. Jim showed me one, 1.3 cm across on a matrix of quartz prisms, that I would have been quite proud to own.

It seems that the specimens lately just keep getting better from the Bunker Hill mine, Kellogg, Idaho. John Cesar had for sale some cerussite from the recent efforts at that mine. The lustrous white crystals are nicely twinned, in groups up to 11.5 cm, that could almost be mistaken for Tsumeb.

The weather was typically cold and rainy, but since few of us left the confines of the hotel for the duration of the Symposium, it hardly mattered. There was of course, a fascinating group of speakers with topics that ranged from technical to entertaining to disturbing. The exhibits were inspiring and I vowed to get out and do more field collecting. The Symposium is not a big one for dealers or for new things, but it is an intense, enjoyable experience, all the more so because attendees are all serious collectors and students of mineralogy.

Author Scovil, Jeffrey ACopyright Mineralogical Record
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved

 

Gem minerals in early Arabic literature

Gem formation, composition, properties, sources, occurrences, enhancement techniques, color grading and commercial values-all were topics of interest to the early Arabs. By "early" is meant the 9th to the 14th centuries A.D., when this literature flourished by way of treatises, cosmographies and travelogs.

The men who penned these documents were of different backgrounds, ranging from scientists to international globe-trotters. A few were supported financially by aristocratic patrons.(1) The thing they all had in common was a curiosity about gem minerals.

Arabic writings on gems for jewelry number in the many hundreds of pages. This article gives a brief literary survey of those writings. The scope of this survey is limited to what the Arabs had to say about several of the more important gems: ruby, sapphire, emerald, red spinel, peridot, lapis lazuli and pearl. Physical properties, enhancement techniques and imitations are discussed, insofar as they concern some of these same gem materials.

Whenever possible, Arabic-language documents were consulted in preparing this paper. Unless otherwise stated, Arabic translations are those of the author and are being published here for the first time. Where comments of my own are inserted they are set off in square brackets.

So, get ready for a trip back in time and a tour of lost mines for jewelry. The players in this venue are several men, long since dead, whose manuscripts are perennial in the spirit they convey. Perhaps you will find that, though the centuries may pass, life is in many ways still the same as it was then.

What the Arabs Say about Corundum

A well-known treatise written around 1240 A.D. by a man named Teifaschi describes a wide range of gem materials. Like other Arabs who wrote about gems, Teifaschi places much emphasis on yaqut, a term that at times embraced several gem species but seemed most often to signify corundum. He delineates its color varieties, discusses sources, and notes that "it is heavier than all other stones of the same size.' Speaking of deposits in what is now Sri Lanka, our author observes:

Yaqut is brought from a mine named Sahiran which is on an island about forty parasangs beyond Sarandib [Sri Lanka]. The island itself is about sixty parasangs across. There is a large mountain on this island named Mount Rahun. Winds and torrents cause the yaqut to descend, after which it is collected [at the foot of the mountain]...

The text appears to have been garbled in its rendition, for there is no island near Sri Lanka that meets this description. In fact, this passage refers to gem material found in the area about Adam's Peak in Sri Lanka's Ratnapura district. Adam's Peak (Rahun was often mentioned in these accounts, and not only for its minerals; it was revered among Muslims as a place of pilgrimage, for Adam himself was thought to have landed there when cast out from Paradise. Bearing in mind that Muslims have dominated Sri Lanka's gem trade since at least the 10th century, one can appreciate that these pilgrimages often doubled as business trips!

The heat treatment of corundum is also described in Tifaschi's treatise. He notes that heating is used to improve the color of ruby. In a fascinating excerpt, he relates how this enhancement technique was employed in Sri Lanka [= Sarandib, = Ceylon]:

In Sarandib and its environs, ruby is treated by fire. People take pebbles from the earth and crush and compress them into a mass with the aid of water. [This mixture] is daubed completely around a dry stone. Then, the whole thing is placed on a rock with other rocks set down around it. Dry firewood is thrown on top, lit and blown upon [with bellows]. The blowing is applied, along with more wood, till any black overtones on the ruby have disappeared.

The amount of fire and the application of wood depends on the extent of the blackness present. People know this by experience. They heat treat stones for at least one hour and, at most, twenty days and nights. Then, they carefully extract the ruby, its blackness having disappeared.

The ruby is not heat treated a second time. After one treatment, its color can neither improve nor diminish...

This passage may surprise those who think that heat treatment is a Thai innovation of the past few decades. Interestingly, the method Tifaschi describes is reminiscent of so-called primitive heat treatment procedures used today in Thailand. It is, moreover, safe to assume that similar techniques were employed for centuries on the Island of Gems; Sir James Tennent, the author of the Victorian classic, Ceyn, records that the Singhalese remove the blue tinge of ruby "by enveloping the stone in the lime of a calcined shell and exposing it to a high heat." Teifaschi was not the first Arabic writer to discuss heat treatment. Two hundred years earlier a scientist named al-Biruni spoke of it in a probable reference to red spinel.

Specific Gravity; Ruby vs. Red Spinel

Abu Rayhan Muhammad Ibn Ahmad A1-Biruni (973-1050) was one of the most brilliant men of his age. During the 11th century he authored over 120 works on an incredible number of subjects, including a text of several hundred pages devoted exclusively to gem minerals. His superbly objective mind sets him apart from contemporaries in that he always questioned, always tried to corroborate things by way of experimentation and empirical confirmation. In effect he was one of the earliest practitioners of the Scientific Method.

Al-Biruni's most valuable contributions to what are now called the sciences of gemology and mineralogy are his specific gravity experiments. The specific gravity values he derived are known to modern-day scholars of medieval Arabic literature, but have not attained much press elsewhere. For example, he gives the specific gravity of red spinel as 3.58, blue sapphire as 3.97 and ruby as 3.85. These measurements do not deviate appreciably from the currently accepted values of 3.581 for spinel and 3.987 to 4.1 for corundum. Besides spinel and corundum, al-Biruni tabulates the specific gravities of other gem materials.

It is interesting that at least some of the Arabs appear to have distinguished red spinel from ruby, which was not the case in Europe till the nineteenth century. Even with respect to nomenclature, red spinel is balkhash, while corundum is almost invariably called yaqut.

The Gems of Afghanistan; Fluorescence

Although early Arabs indicate Sri Lanka as the main corundum source, the Badakhshan region of Afghanistan is frequently mentioned for its red spinel, garnet and lapis lazuli. References to Badakhshan appear in the writings of al-Muqaddasi (10th century), al-Biruni, Teifaschi and other chroniclers. One such chronicler was an encyclopedist named, coincidentally, Yaqut (corundum!).

Shihab al-Din Abu Abdallah Yaqut Ibn Abd Allah Yaqut al-Hamawi al-Rumi (1179-1229) was most famous for his geographical encyclopedia. This magnum opus alphabetically lists cities and towns in the then-known world, defining location, commercial products, resources, weather conditions and so forth.(2) It is hundreds of pages long. Badakhshan is one of many places cited for gem deposits. Here Yaqut notes that the mountains of Badakhshan are renown for lapis lazuli and balkhash, though he adds that the latter tends to be of low quality. He goes on to say that Badakhshan produces a curious stone that glows in the dark, perhaps alluding to the strong fluorescence of some rubies and red spinels.

It is important to remember at this point that some of these writers-and Yaqut was no exception--felt free to recount stories and "facts" that had been passed on from earlier sources, as distorted or exaggerated as they might be. The idea of stones glowing in the dark is mentioned frequently. Fluorescence may well have been the inspiration behind this kind of story.

One passage in Tifaschi's book leaves little doubt that fluorescence was observed and even appreciated as a beauty factor by contemporaries of the day. The author distinguishes seven color-appearance types for ruby, singling out one in particular, which he calls alavjuani. Teifaschi defines this appearance by analogy with "a burning coal."

Emerald vs. Peridot; The Question of Lost Mines

Much was written about emerald during these centuries, though it seems at times to have been confused with peridot. Perhaps this confusion is echoed by al-Biruni when he says that zumurrwud--the usual Arabic word for emerald--is synonymous with zabarjad. Note that Zabarjad is the name the Arabs use even today for a certain island in the Red Sea; on English maps it goes by the name of St. John's, a famous but now largely exhausted source for peridot, not emerald (Wilson, 1976).

Elsewhere in his ten-page section on emerald, al-Biruni limits sources to "Egypt, the oases, Mount Muqattam and the Land of the Bujja." Mount Muqattam refers to a range of hills east of Cairo, and Bujja was the name of a tribe residing to the south. Al-Biruni goes on to list emerald mine locations cited by earlier writers. In a probable reference to the so-called Cleopatra's Mines of Sikkit and Zubara, he quotes one author as saying:

Verily, the emerald source is in Upper Egypt, along the southern Nile, in an open plain that is cut off from civilization. No other mine on earth is known to have emerald. Still later, al-Biruni cites a chronicler to the effect that "Emerald is borne by water and mixed with sand. It is extracted from wells, along with the sand." Finally, he relates a mining technique recorded by the Razi Brothers, who say that emerald-bearing matrix is daubed with oil, making the emerald easier to spot.

Possibly the most interesting part of al-Biruni's section on emerald is the reference to mines at the oases and Mount Muqattam. Which oases is he speaking of? And were the Muqattam hills an actual source for emerald, assuming he is not confusing emerald (zummurud) with some other green stone? Was Muqattam a source for emerald in times of yore? The prospect is fascinating, as historians generally regard the area of Sikkit and Zubara as the only two sources in Egypt that yielded this material (see, for example, Bauer, 1970; Bancroft, 1984; Sinkankas, 1981. The Muqattam hills are hundreds of miles to the north, in Lower Egypt!(3)

Besides sources and mining tips, al-Biruni discusses the color-grading of emeralds, imitations encountered in the marketplace, and prices. The pricing information is on a table which relates value, in silver dirhams, to carat weight. For example, a 9-carat emerald is listed at 8,000 dirhams.

The Fuller Historical Perspective

The above citations barely scratch the surface in relation to what the Arabs wrote on rocks, minerals and mineraloids. As such, this article can only afford the reader a glimpse at the subject. Fleeting as this glimpse might be, however, it is important to view this material in its fuller historical perspective.

Mineralogy, gemology, petrology and metallurgy were not distinct disciplines during the Middle Ages. All were lumped together under the broader umbrella of natural science, with metallurgy seen by some as little more than a form of alchemy. Books treating of rocks, minerals and amorphous materials often included chapters on metals, advice on local gem trade practices, and bits of older poetry. One genre of Arabic literature, the cosmographies, typically contained the above information along with popular superstitions on the medicinal properties of stones, gems as amulets, exaggerated accounts about magnetic properties, etc. (Sersen, 1987).

These authors sometimes plagiarized earlier writings, but this was by no means the rule. Men like al-Biruni and Tifaschi frequently credited their sources, among them Greeks and other Arabs. Aristotle, Xenocrates, Dioscorides and Theophrastus are among the Greeks who influenced this genre of Arabic literature. The Arabs built upon this legacy, adding many contributions of their own.

One of the earliest Arab sources cited by Arab writers is al-Kindi. A scion of the Arabian tribe of Kinda in Yemen, Abu Yusuf Yaqub Ibn Ishaq al-Sabbah al-Kindi (ca. 801-ca. 866) was a polymath of the first order, not unlike al-Biruni. His literary output was tremendous, and included A Treatise on the Kinds of Stones and A Treatise on the Kinds of Jewels, Precious Ones and Others. No copy of either of these works has survived.

Al-Kindi is quoted on numerous occasions by al-Biruni and others. His books on gems are listed in The Index, an annotated bibliography of the 10th century compiled by the bookdealer Ibn al-Nadim.(4)

Finally, no survey of this literature is complete without mentioning the Stone Book of Aristotle, sometimes translated as the Laidary of Aristotle. Appearing in Arabic in the 9th century, this text was often cited by later Arab authors. It is somewhat of an enigma, as modern scholars are not sure who wrote it. Title notwithstanding, it is generally agreed that Aristotle was not the author. The Stone Book of Aristotle bears marks of Greek and Arab influence. Fortunately, it is preserved today; a German orientalist, Julius Ruska, published the Arabic text along with a German translation in 1912.

Availability of Source Materials

Little research has been done by modern scholars into the medieval Arabic gem-related literature. The bulk of this material is untranslated; much of it has not even been edited in Arabic from the original manuscript sources.

Since the nineteenth century, several (primarily) French and German orientalists have translated select passages and texts.(5) Unfortunately, these translations have appeared in specialized periodicals which only orientalists and Middle East historians tend to read. As a result, modern gemologists, mineralogists and others are generally unaware of this fascinating corpus of early Arab literature.

Most of the secondary-source publications consulted for this article and otherwise listed in the bibliography are available at major university libraries in the United States, England and West Germany. Arabic primary sources or photocopies thereof are more difficult to come by; people wishing to access such materials are best directed to the British Library facilities at the British Museum, London, or the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University.

Conclusions

This paper was written in order to fill a gap. By "gap" I mean the general lack of awareness of Arab contributions to the gem and mineral sciences. It was presented as a literary survey, with the specific intention of whetting the reader's appetite to explore the subject further.

As we have seen, Arabic writings often described gems in terms of sources, occurrences, mining techniques, physical properties, treatments and imitations. Though there can be little question that Greek literature influenced some of these writings, it is equally clear that the Arabs contributed much of their own: i.e., al-Biruni's specific gravity experiments, Teifaschi's narrative on Sri Lankan heat-treatment of corundum, the distinction some Arabs made between red spinel and ruby, and numerous reports by different writers on gem sources and occurrences.

This article is by no means an exhaustive study of the Arabic "stone books." The literature goes on to describe other gem species. For example, the Arabs devoted many pages to diamond, quartz, turquoise and malachite. Lapidary methods were mentioned, with regard to polishing techniques, equipment and abrasives. There were more references to physical properties, gem treatments, imitations, sources and occurrences. Gemstone marketing centers, particularly the one that existed in Baghdad, were also addressed. A tremendous amount of material was written just on the medicinal properties of stones and the use of gems in quasi-magical applications, notably as amulets and talismans.

A bibliography follows which lists the more important English, German and French translations and studies of this literature. Arabic-language works are included. Though most of what the Arabs wrote on stones still remains untranslated, the reader can explore the subject further by way of the translations and monographs cited below.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the following people for their assistance: Professor Charles F. Beckingham, formerly of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, for his many useful suggestions on accessing Arabic source materials; Professor Owen Wright of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, for granting access to S.O.A.S. library facilities; the head librarians of the British Library Reading Room and the India Office Library, London, for granting access to library facilities; and Mr. R. Scott Montgomery and Mrs. Bridgette McDonald of the Asian Institute of Gemological Sciences, Bangkok, for their comments.

Special thanks are due Mr. Laurence Lee of London and Miss Phoonsri Suwanphan of Bangkok. These, my gracious hosts, managed to put up with my frequent mutterings in several languages while I researched this paper.

1 Patronage of scholarship was not uncommon in those days; the patrons themselves saw it as a way to glean prestige. The amount of prestige so obtained was perhaps limited, however, since the masses of people were generally illiterate!

2 Several geographical encyclopedias were compiled by the Arabs, though Yaqut's is the most famous. These encyclopedias had their roots in an earlier literary genre, the so-called "books of roads and highways," which described towns, cities and the distances between them. The books of roads and highways were of use to postal authorities and the military, while the latter-day geographical encyclopedias probably captured more of a general audience.

3 Even if the Muqattam hills did produce emerald in the past, this does not mean there is any to be found today, at least in commercial quantities. The reason some "lost" mines tend to get lost and forgotten in the first place, is because they were mined out! Nevertheless, it would be interesting to explore the region for evidence of former mining activity.

4 The Index (al-fihrist in Arabic) is invaluable, in that it gives us an idea of the types of books that were popular at that time. To call it an annotated bibliography is somewhat an understatement, as Ibn al-Nadim frequently embarks on lengthy commentaries on these books. His inventory included manuscripts on gems, medicine, poetry, grammar, magic, law, religion, botany, astrology, astronomy and so forth. Several scholars have edited this book in Arabic. In 1970 a complete English translation appeared in two volumes (see bibliography: Dodge, 1970).

5 French and German orientalists--in particular the Germans--researched and published numerous articles on medieval Arabic natural sciences. One German scholar who deserves special mention is Eilhard Wiedemann. Wiedemann is well-known in Germany, but not elsewhere. An intrepid scholar, a linguist and physicist, he was fascinated by medieval Arabic literature. Wiedemann's interests were not limited to Arabic gem-related materials; he also wrote articles on medieval Arabic treatises pertaining to optics, the oceans' ebb and flow, etc. Author Sersen, William John Thailand's Chantaburi the trading place in Asia for precious and semi precious stones.

AL-BIRUNI, Abu al-Raihan Muhammad ibn Ahmad (no date) Kitab al-jamahir fi ma'rift al-jawahir: Cairo, 38, 41.

AL-DIMISHQI, Abu al-Fadl Ja'far ibn Ali (no date) Alishara mahasin al-tijara. Edited by Fahami Sa'ad, 41-51.

AL-QAZWINI, Zakarayya ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmud (1981 Aja'ib al-markhluqat wa ghava'ib al-mawjuct. Edited by Farouk Saad. Dar al-Afaq al-Jadida, Beirut, 242-281.

Advertisement

BANCROFT, P. (1984) Gem Crystal Tresures. Western Enterprises, Fallbrook, and Mineralogical Record, Tucson, 294-297.

BAUER, M. (1970) Pvecious Stones. Tuttle, Tokyo, 310-311, 500.

CLEMENT-MULLETT, J. J. (1868) Essai sur la mineralogie arabe. Journal Asiatique, 6, 40-41; see also 11, 109-253, 502-522.

CONTENT, D. J., ed. (1987) Islamic Rings and Gems. Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd., London.

DODGE, B., ed. and translator (1970) The Fihvist of al-Nadim. Columbia University Press, 2, 625.

IBN AL-AKNANI (1908) Kitab nukhab al'dhaka'ir fi ahwal al-jawahir. Edited by L. Cheikho. Al-Mashriq, Beirut, 751-765.

IBN AL-NADIM (no date) Kitab al-fihrist. Dar al-Ma'rifa, Beirut, 364.

KAHLE, P. (1936) Bergkristall, Glas und Glasflsse nach dem Steinbuch von el-Beruni. ZeitschrtF der deutschen morgenlanddischen Gesellschafi, Leipzig, 322-356.

KHANIKOFF, N. (1860) Analysis and extracts of the Book of the Balance of Wisdom, an Arabic work on the water-balance written by al-Khzini in the twelfth century. Journal of the Amevican Oriental Society, 6, 1-128.

KRENICOW, E (1941) The chapter on pearls in the book on precious stones by al-Beruni. Isamic Cultuve, 15, 399-421; 16, 21-26.

LE STRANGE, G. (1966) The Lands of the Eastem CaZzhate. Frank Cass Company, Ltd., London, 436-437.

MAURER, J. F. (1981) Concise Dictionary of ScientIfic Biography. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 773 p.

MIELI, A. (1938) La science arabe et son role dans l'evolution scientifique mondiale. Leiden, 100-101.

NASR, SEWID HOSSEIN (1975) An Annotated Bibliograhy of Islamic Science. Tehran, Iran, lxiv + 432 p. [In English]

ROSENTHAL, F. (1975) The Classical Heritage in Islam. Routledge Kegan Paul, 162.

ROSS, H. D. (1981) The Art of Bedouin Jewelry: A Saudi Arabian Pvofile. Arabesque Commercial SA, Fribourg.

RUSKA, J. (1912) Das Steinbuch des Aristoteles. Carl Winters Universitatsbuchhandlung, Heidelberg.

SCHACHT, J., and BOSWORTH, C. E. (1974) The Legacy of Islam. Second edition, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 451, 453.

SERSEN, W. J. (1987) References to rocks and stones in medieval Arabic literature. Gemological Digest, 1 C2.

SINKANKAS, J. (1981) Emerald and Othev Beryls. Chilton Book Company, Radnor, Pennsylvania, 49, 542-549.
 

jewelry, jewelry store, fine jewelry, wholesale jewelry, jewelry retailer, jewelry box