You may have noticed from all the Post-It notes crammed into the pages of this book, I absolutely devoured it. A mix of history, fact, technical elements, and superstition, this book is good reads for the gem professional as well as the hobbyist.
A good example of how Pearl intermixes science with story is this bit about the tourmaline. "Tourmaline was brought to the attention of the Western World when some Dutch children found that sun heated stones attract and repel ashes..." Tourmaline can have positive and negative electricity at the ends and the poles reverse themselves as the stone cools. Jewelry stores have noticed that tourmaline displayed in warm windows will become dustier faster due to this pyroelectricity.
Interesting facts and details about each gem. For example, he brings up some dated trade terms for spinel. Spinel has had a hard time breaking out of the collector's market and into the mainstream but it has some fun monikers such as "balas ruby" and "almandine spinel" to describe various shades of red. Green spinel is also called "chlorospinel" brown is "picotite" and nearly black is "ceylonite"
No surprise, I was excited to learn that in the Middle East, turquoise is used as an amulet to keep horses from falling. This superstition must have traveled West because turquoise is common to find in Western horseman accessories.
I appreciate how Pearl gives plenty of attention to synthetic gems and imitations. He discusses their importance in jewelry history for the Egyptians, the Romans, and European cultures.
The end of the book contains a selection of recommended books. Yay! More books! One of them is "Quartz Family Minerals". I jumped on eBay immediately and found a copy. I'll be featuring that one in a future book review.
'Popular Gemology' is easily digestible and by intermixing technical with beautiful odes to gemstones, he kept the pages turning for me. Here's one of my favorite passages that will remain bookmarked:
"There, in a folded paper, lies a thing of rare loveliness--a mass of glittering light, a scintillating glow of varied colors, now separating into tints of spectral purity, now blending into a splendor of a twinkling star. It is a diamond, some day to be owned by an Indian maharajah, worn by and English duchess, or placed on the left hand of an American girl."