gems, lapidary arts, ancient lapidary, gem cutting, diamond cutting

A descriptive catalogue of machines, instruments and models held in the repository of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (later the Royal Society of Arts), compiled by William Bailey. The work illustrates and explains mechanical inventions and improved manufacturing processes submitted to or recognized by the Society, covering a broad range of trades and practical arts. Of particular interest to gemology and jewelry history are descriptions and engravings of equipment associated with lapidary and related crafts, including machinery for cutting and polishing hard materials. The work provides valuable documentation of the mechanization and technological development of British crafts and manufacturing during the later eighteenth century.

corundum, history.1, chemistry.2, gems

An early chemical investigation of gemstones by the German chemist Franz Carl Achard. The work reports experiments intended to determine the constituent substances of several precious stones through the analytical methods then available, particularly treatment with heat, fusion and chemical reagents. It belongs to the important late eighteenth-century transition from identifying gemstones principally by external properties toward understanding them through chemical composition. Achard’s analyses contributed to contemporary attempts to distinguish mineral species that could appear similar and to establish a chemical basis for mineral classification. The work is consequently of historical importance in the development of analytical mineralogy and gemology.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book, pounamu, greenstone, nephrite, Māori, New Zealand

A firsthand narrative of James Cook’s second Pacific voyage (1772–1775), written by the German naturalist Georg Forster, who accompanied the expedition with his father, Johann Reinhold Forster, aboard the Resolution. The two-volume work describes visits to the Cape of Good Hope, New Zealand, numerous islands of Polynesia and Melanesia, and other parts of the southern Pacific, combining travel narrative with detailed observations of geography, natural history, Indigenous peoples, customs and material culture. Of particular gemological and ethnographic interest are Forster’s observations on the greenstone (pounamu/nephrite) of the Māori of New Zealand, including ornaments, tools and weapons fashioned from the material and its importance in Māori society. The work is an important primary source for eighteenth-century European knowledge of Pacific natural history and material culture.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book, bibliography, history of mineralogy

A major bibliographical history of practical medicine compiled by the Swiss physician and naturalist Albrecht von Haller. Published in four volumes between 1776 and 1788, the work surveys medical writings from antiquity through the eighteenth century, arranged broadly chronologically and accompanied by Haller’s bibliographical and critical comments. It forms part of Haller’s extensive series of specialized bibliographies documenting the literature of medicine and the natural sciences. Of interest to gemological research are its references to early medical and pharmacological works in which precious stones, minerals and other natural substances were prescribed as remedies, making it a useful bibliographical source for tracing the medicinal use of gemstones and the literature of the older lapidary tradition. Lists obscure reference to nephrite from 1636.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book, tourmaline

A substantial eighteenth-century treatise devoted specifically to gemstones by the German physician and mineralogist Urban Friedrich Benedict Brückmann. The work surveys precious and ornamental stones and discusses their names, varieties and distinguishing characteristics, drawing together contemporary mineralogical knowledge and earlier gemological literature. The 1773 edition is the second, substantially revised and enlarged edition, expanding the original 1757 work from 143 to 415 pages. Particularly valuable is an appendix on the obscure gemstone names used by earlier writers, effectively providing a glossary of historical gemological and mineralogical terminology. It is an important source for European gemstone knowledge and nomenclature in the period immediately preceding the development of modern systematic mineralogy.

corundum, Thailand.12, gems

A historical and natural account of the Kingdom of Siam by François-Henri Turpin, compiled from earlier European sources rather than from personal travel in the country. The work describes Siam’s geography, government, religion, customs, commerce and natural products, drawing particularly upon seventeenth-century French accounts produced during the reign of Louis XIV and King Narai. Of interest to gemological research are its notices of the mineral and commercial resources of Siam, including precious materials and luxury goods traded in the kingdom. The book provides a useful eighteenth-century synthesis of European knowledge of Siam, although its statements should be treated as derivative rather than eyewitness observations.

gems, mineralogy, Naldi

A systematic survey of the mineral kingdom intended to arrange minerals in what Bomare regarded as the most natural order and to describe their physical properties and practical uses. The work treats earths, salts, stones, ores, metals, waters, and related mineral substances, with attention to color, transparency, hardness, fracture, crystallization, fusibility, occurrence, and uses. Gemologically important material is included under precious and ornamental stones, including quartz, crystal, chalcedony, jasper, ruby and other “Oriental” stones, together with discussion of crystal form and mineral nomenclature. The two volumes are supplemented by an alphabetical subject index, a nomenclatural dictionary, and folding synoptic tables intended to clarify the proposed classification. It is representative of mid-eighteenth-century mineralogy at the transition from descriptive natural history toward more systematic chemical and crystallographic classification.

gems, minerals, mineral collecting, mineralogy, history of gemology

The Spectacle de la Nature (1732–1750) by the Abbé Antoine Noël Pluche. In eight volumes, the Abbé discussed current issues in natural philosophy, such as Newtonianism, the origin of fossils, artisan techniques, natural history, machines, gardening or insect collection in a polite conversation format. It was translated into English (1735), Dutch (1737), Italian (1737), German (1746) and Spanish (1753). But the four Spanish editions were very different from their European counterparts. In Spain, it was delivered in 16 carefully printed and extensively commented volumes. In Pluche’s original, there was a concern for the young gentleman’s education, new pedagogical methods and an enthusiastic defence of experimental knowledge. However, Le Spectacle in Spain was conceived as a useful tool for modernizing the country, it served political and propagandist goals, defended Spanish culture and science (in particular with respect to American flora, fauna and geography) and the Jesuit contribution to science and aimed to harmonize experimental knowledge and scholastic tradition.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

Dezallier d’Argenville’s L’histoire naturelle éclaircie… l’oryctologie (1755) is an important mid-eighteenth-century treatise on what would later develop into mineralogy and geology. The work systematically describes and classifies earths, stones, metals, minerals, and other substances then grouped under the broad category of “fossils,” presenting parallel Latin and French terminology and discussing the principal earlier literature on the subject. Of particular gemological interest are its descriptions and classification of precious and ornamental stones, including diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, topazes, garnets, opals, agates, jaspers, rock crystal, and other lapidary materials, with attention to their physical appearance, varieties, localities, and contemporary nomenclature. The volume is also notable for its engraved plates, drawn by Hyacinthe Collin de Vermont and engraved by Pierre Quentin Chedel, illustrating minerals, crystals, fossils, and related natural-history specimens. It provides a valuable picture of European mineralogical and gemological knowledge immediately before the major advances in chemical mineralogy and crystallography of the later eighteenth century.

gems, jade, nephrite, medicinal use, Fischer-Other

A systematic account of medicinal substances by the English botanist and apothecary John Hill, covering materials derived from the vegetable, animal and mineral kingdoms. Hill describes individual substances, their sources, physical characteristics, preparation and supposed medicinal properties and uses. Of gemological interest is the section on mineral substances, which includes precious stones and other minerals employed medicinally, reflecting the persistence in eighteenth-century European pharmacology of therapeutic uses traditionally attributed to gems. The work is useful for tracing the transition from older lapidary and pharmacological traditions toward increasingly empirical descriptions of natural substances.