Jewels: A Secret History

by Victoria Finlay

Throughout history, precious stones have inspired passions and poetry, quests and curses, sacred writings and unsacred actions. In this scintillating book, journalist Victoria Finlay embarks on her own globe-circling search for the real stories behind some of the gems we prize most. Blending adventure travel, geology, exciting new research, and her own irresistible charm, Finlay has fashioned a treasure hunt for some of the most valuable, glamorous, and mysterious substances on earth.With the same intense curiosity and narrative flair she displayed in her widely-praised book Color, Finlay journeys from the underground opal churches of outback Australia to the once pearl-rich rivers of Scotland; from the peridot mines on an Apache reservation in Arizona to the remote ruby mines in the mountains of northern Burma. She risks confronting scorpions to crawl through Cleopatra’s long-deserted emerald mines, tries her hand at gem cutting in the dusty Sri Lankan city where Marco Polo bartered for sapphires, and investigates a rumor that fifty years ago most of the world’s amber was mined by prisoners in a Soviet gulag.Jewels is a unique and often exhilarating voyage through history, across cultures, deep into the earth’s mantle, and up to the glittering heights of fame, power, and wealth. From the fabled curse of the Hope Diamond, to the disturbing truths about how pearls are cultured, to the peasants who were once executed for carrying amber to the centuries-old quest by magicians and scientists to make a perfect diamond, Jewels tells dazzling stories with a wonderment and brilliance truly worthy of its subjects.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Art, Science, Microhistory, Travel, Jewellery

560 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Victoria Finlay is a writer and journalist, known for her books on colour and jewels. Her most famous book is Colour: Travels Through The Paint Box.

(from Wikipedia)

I studied Social Anthropology at St Andrews University, Scotland and William & Mary College, Virginia, after spending time in Himalayan India, teaching in a Tibetan refugee camp and realising how amazing it was to learn about different cultures. My first job was as a management trainee with Reuters, in London and Scandinavia, but I had a dream to be a real news journalist, writing about people’s lives at times of drama and trauma. So I left to study journalism for a three month diploma at the London College of Printing.

When I was there, being told just how hard it would be to find a job, a fellow student asked me where, if I could choose any newspaper or magazine in the world, I would most like to work. I still remember the street we were walking along in south London, as my answer, quite unplanned, would change my life. I said: “Hong Kong, South China Morning Post, during the Handover”. At that time I had neither visited Hong Kong nor ever read The South China Morning Post. However, I had spoken my wish, so I applied as an intern, and spent the next 12 years in Hong Kong writing for The Hong Kong Standard, RTHK (briefly) and finally The South China Morning Post, as news reporter, then arts editor.

I left to fulfil another wish, which was to write a book about where colours came from – a subject that had interested me ever since I was eight years old and heard that we could no longer make the beautiful blue glass of Chartres Cathedral. Two years later, in 2002, that was published as Colour, Travels through the Paintbox, by Sceptre (and Color: the Natural History of the Palette, by Ballantine in the US). My second book, Jewels: A Secret History, followed in 2004. Since then I have returned to the UK, got married (the two were connected), and have spent the past few years working on development programmes (another wish) with my husband, through his charity, ARC. And now I am venturing – very, very slowly – into the world of fiction-writing. In April 2014 my first published short story was published in a book called The Stories of the Stranger: a reimagining of some of the stories that just about every religion and community has, about looking after people you don’t know. In 2014 my book The Brilliant History of Color in Art was published by Getty Publications in LA, and was named the Huffington Post’s top art book for that year.

One of the surprising things that writing the books led me to was being invited onto the BBC Radio 4 programme The Museum of Curiosities a couple of years ago. On the pilot I talked about purple, and then in the first series I was asked to propose Pliny the Elder (I have a thing about Pliny the Elder) to be one of the first entries into the Museum of Curiosity. I give lots of talks, and write for several publications including Orion, Apollo, The Independent, The Smithsonian Magazine and The South China Morning Post.

Reviews

[Daren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quirky, informative and insightful, this book is an exploration of gems.
A chapter per jewel, arranged according to their 'relative hardness' on Moh's Scale:
Amber, Jet, Pearl, Opal, Peridot, Emerald, Sapphire, Ruby, Diamond. There are also a few dozen pages of Finlay's Miscellany of Jewels, which includes lists of birthstones, anniversary stones, and lists of other jewel related things, as well as a thorough index, and bibliography.

There are pictures - many of which are black and white and printed within the text, as well as colour plates at the centre. They add to the writing, but are not all of particularly good quality.

Each chapter explores the jewels origins, history, legends and superstitions, uses, and usually some sort of quirky story or fact. It is easy reading, it is interesting, but for me, I enjoyed it because is was well structured. Small details like the chapter numbers being the value of 'hardness' on Moh's Scale, and the thorough research into how the gems are created.

Some of the aspects I enjoyed were the places mentioned which I have visited - the Amber Room at the Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo in Russia, Coober Pedy in central Australia (for opals), places in Sri Lanka (for sapphires), parts of Burma (for Rubies), Western Australia for pearls, and the Hagia Sophia in Turkey, which has the personal connection for the author, as the stones in her ring originated there.

There are also a lot of references to books and people involved from Sinbad and Marco Polo to Cecil Rhodes and Richard Burton, and numerous kings and queens. Finlay does a great job of sharing the stories of the gems, modern science, the historical beliefs and the history (often of exploitation). She speaks to industry specialists and shares some of the details that, while perhaps are not secrets, are not widely known.

One of the more interesting section was blowing apart the curse of the Hope Diamond -deaths under mysterious circumstances have been part of the mystique behind the diamond - really it was just a ploy to beat up interest. The diamond chapter also exposes the fact that De Beers basically owns all the stock of diamonds, and artificially controls the release of them onto the market to maintain the high prices. They are actually so common that they are practically worthless - or would be if they were released onto the market. Not only that, but synthetic diamonds are also readily manufactured, and for all intents and purposes impossible to detect as different from natural diamonds, except by specialist means. Finally, now that diamonds can be synthesised from carbon, one company offers to make a diamond from the ashes of a recently deceased relative - actually from the ashes - to live on in perpetuity. I suppose it is better than Keith Richards achieved with his fathers ashes - shorting a line like cocaine.

So, after the education this book provides, when I am next in Thailand, Sri Lanka or India - will I entertain the opportunity to make myself rich taking stones back home to sell? Yeah - nah... I will continue to give that opportunity a miss.

Four Stars.

[Madeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In the course of my research I found that although, of course, some rare stones have amazing and frightening dynastic tales, every jewel, however small or flawed, has its story: about the earth that was excavated to retrieve it, the families who depended on it, the people who designed the cutting method, those who bought or were given it, and the meanings and properties attributed to it. Whole human, geological, and cultural histories are wrapped up in every stone we wear or desire, even if it is only an imitation. So in one way it is the stones and jewels themselves, hidden in mines and oceans - and occasionally in tombs and wrecks and pirates' hoards - that are the 'secrets' of the subtitle; the other secrets are the cultural layers of meaning and fascination that can always be found wrapped around them."

Jewels always feel intensely personal. And they should be - there's really no rational reason why they're considered valuable. The value of jewels comes solely from people assigning value to them. Jewels are fundamentally useless, but we treasure them. Victoria Finlay understands this, and she approaches her history of gemstones from this direction - instead of being just a clinical, straightforward history of where and how certain gems are mined and cut, she's using this book to examine peoples' relationship with jewels, and trying to understand why they mean so much to us.

Finlay's book uses Moh's Scale of Relative Hardness as an outline - the book has nine chapters, featuring jewels from softest to hardest: amber, jet, pearl, opal, peridot, emerald, sapphire, ruby, and diamond. For each, Finlay explains how the jewel was first discovered, how it's formed, where it's mined, and its relative popularity over time. There's also a lot of practical information, like how to spot a fake gem (to test if a ruby or sapphire is real, put it in your mouth - rubies and sapphires have a high thermal conductivity, so if it's real the jewel will draw heat from your tongue and feel cold). She also, while exploring the romantic attractions of jewels, doesn't lose perspective. No matter what jewel is being discussed, there's always a heavy human toll. The sad truth of the jewelry industry is that it was built on the backs of slave labor (and in many cases, continues to be supported by it) and Finlay makes sure we understand how many people suffer in the service of pretty things.

The best aspect of the book is the way Finlay (a journalist) goes all-out in her research. She doesn't just tell us where the jewels are mined; she travels there and talks to the miners and the merchants. And she doesn't stop there - Finlay took spelunking lessons so she could explore Cleopatra's emerald mines, and she learned jewel-cutting in Sri Lanka. I can't even imagine how long the research for this book must have taken.

It's comprehensive and engaging, and the writing is clear. The only flaw (and it's not even really a flaw) is that Finlay is very clearly a journalist, not a novelist. The chapters felt more like individual magazine articles rather than parts of a larger work, and while Finlay's narrative voice is clear and informative, it's not the most dynamic. Also there are a lot of photos from her travels scattered throughout the book, and Finlay is not much of a photographer - most of the pictures look like the photos of your aunt's last vacation to Orlando.

The diamond chapter was probably my favorite, for three reasons: first, Finlay myth-busts the hell out of the legend of the Hope diamond (short version: the concept of the curse was made up to get people interested). Second,she dredges up all of the diamond industry's dirty little secrets (diamonds are common as dirt and have absolutely no resell value, plus the De Beers company owns literally all the diamond mines, so they can charge however much they feel like). And finally, I loved this chapter because it taught me that there's a company that can create lab diamonds from human ashes. That's equally morbid and amazing, and now I'm going around asking everyone I know - would you wear a diamond made from the ashes of a loved one?

[Antigone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Victoria Finlay, in her journalistic travels, became entranced by color. She wrote a book about the history of the pigments we find in the artistic palette - a history that led her to the world of gems. Here were treasures largely coveted for the depth and intensity of their hue, the refraction of light through their chiseled planes; their richness, their rarity, their glittering expense. She traveled the world, actively exploring the markets, the mines, and the means by which a jewel is crafted to ignite the fascination.

Nine gems are examined in these pages, along with the lore that accompanies them. We learn about the ancient Amber Route (a precursor of The Old Silk Road), and the Baltic regions that gave birth to the material of Imperial Russia's Amber Room. We learn how Queen Victoria's grief led to a resurgence in the popularity of jet. Scottish pearls reveal the melancholy tale of deformed mussels, shunned by their own kind, yet whose malformations make them the only candidates capable of bearing this lucrative prize. We hear of the Australian opal and the Apache peridot, but it is not until we reach the emerald that our author shifts into high gear. Honestly, the book begins here and dazzles through the sapphire, the ruby, the diamond - perhaps because of the incredible value society has long placed on these specific stones.

Still, the most amusing tale is tucked into one of those lesser chapters:

I heard one joke several times in Arizona. It tells of how, in the mid-1960s, an Apache elder and his son were driving in the desert. To their surprise they came across a space crew practicing for the moon landings. The old man became excited, and asked if he could give the astronauts a message to deliver to the moon. The NASA officials saw this as an excellent PR opportunity and called for a tape recorder. The elder spoke into the microphone, but when the official asked the son to translate, he grinned. Later the NASA people took the tape to an Apache village, where the people laughed and also refused to translate. It was only after they hired a government interpreter that NASA learned what the message meant: "Watch out for these bastards," the old man had said. "They've come to steal your land."

[Kam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A couple of years ago, my aunt went into a jewelry phase. She began to take interest in not just precious gems, but in semiprecious stones, primarily because some of them were reputed to have special properties for healing and protection. She then got my mother into it, and for a while they shopped without my knowledge, mostly because I had work at the time, and moreover was more inclined to put money away than spend it. But during one summer, I started accompanying my mother on her trips with my aunt while they went jewelry shopping, and that was when I - and they - realized that I had a real knack for figuring out real stones from fake ones. I attribute this to a passing interest in mineralogy while growing up, but more to the rather sensible idea (one that neither my aunt nor my mother knew at the time) that real gemstones feel cold to the touch, and generally feel heavier in the hand than a similarly sized piece of glass (unless one is looking at ). But what my aunt particularly liked was that I had an "eye" for identifying the good stones from bad. I can't truly account for this in terms of previous life experience, except to say that sometimes some stones don't "look" right, while others do. Either way, my mother and aunt started taking me out to more and more trips until they themselves got the knack for it, and no longer needed me around. They still do, on occasion, especially when they want to make a special purchase and need what my aunt has teasingly called "my expert eye."

As for myself, I got bitten by the same bug as they, mostly because I was a late-blooming fashionista and needed to build up a stock of accessories that suited my style. I started buying my own pieces, with my biggest purchase to date being a double strand of pearls of such a specific shade of silver-gray that all attempts by my mother, aunt, and myself to find pearls of the same color so I could have a pair of studs to match it have failed.

This fascination with gemstones - whether for their purported mystical properties, for the sake of fashion and beauty, or even for their ability to convey one's status in society - is a fascination that has followed the human race almost since the very beginning of civilization, and many stories have been built around not just the stones themselves, but also where they come from and how they are made. It is these stories that Victoria Finlay relates alongside her own adventures in Jewels: A Secret History.

Finlay is not a new writer to me: I read her first book Color: A Natural History of the Palette sometime last year, and while I enjoyed it, I thought it was rather uneven in its storytelling, and thought that while some chapters were interesting, others were not entirely compelling. I suppose part of this is because some colors do not interest me at all, but I also think part of the blame lies in that Color is Finlay's first book, and therefore errors in narrative flow are to be expected (or at least, that's what I've come to expect) in first efforts. Fortunately, it would appear Finlay has learned from her mistakes while writing Color, because Jewels does not seem to exhibit the same issues.

In Color, Finlay used the painter's palette as an organizational tool, and takes a similar tack in Jewels, choosing to use the Mohs scale as a guide in selecting the gemstones she tackles. Going up the scale, she has: amber, jet, pearl, opal, peridot, emerald, sapphire, ruby, and diamond. Even better, she does something I don't recall her doing in Color: using a personal story to frame the many other stories she relates in her book. In the case of Jewels, she kicks it off by talking about her engagement ring, made of stones taken from a mosaic in Istanbul. I really appreciate this concept, because it gives the rest of the book something stable to hang off of, and creates a sense of proper narrative opening and closure. It also helps that the story Finlay uses is both charming and touchingly personal, which is appropriate, given how jewels are often valued for their charm and sentimental value as much as their monetary value.

Finlay also does a fine job interweaving legends, superstition, history and the present of each individual stone, often traveling to their traditional sources (and sometime to new ones) in order to get a behind-the-scenes look at the industry of each individual stone. While there are parts that are touching, funny, and occasionally gruesome, many of the stories run on a similar theme: the hardships experienced by those whose main job is to get the stones out of the ground (or the ocean, in the case of pearls), and the constant possibility of collapse of some industries altogether. The story about the United Kingdom's freshwater pearl industry, in particular, is haunting in its sadness, and a potent warning about how greed and a lack of environmental concern can destroy a delicate resource and thousands of years of tradition.

And then there is the threat of artificially-made gems, and treated gems. Many labs can churn out lab-created sapphires, rubies, emeralds and diamonds (and can create specific qualities and sizes to-order); and pearls have been cultured ever since Mikimoto Kokichi first figured out how to do just that. Amber and jet can't be created artificially, but low-quality pieces of amber can be "pressed"to create larger, seemingly higher-quality chunks. Peridot is not a popular gem and so there's been no need to artificially create it, though I'm certain that if someone put their mind to it, it could be lab-created like any other crystal. As for opals, no one's quite found how to make them, either, but Finlay does meet one gentleman in Australia who thinks he's finally found a way to make artificial opals. All of this has, of course, led to a great amount of tension in the world of gemstone dealers, for whom the outcome of the natural vs. artificial debate has great repercussions upon their industry.

It all boils down to prestige: the rarer a gem is, the more difficult to acquire, the more precious and, therefore, the more expensive it is. Jewelry is all about luxury and rarity and status-projection - and the moment someone figures out a way to democratize a gemstone, the entire industry is shaken to its foundations. That's what happened when Mikimoto first began culturing pearls: what used to be some of the rarest and most expensive gemstones in the world had become far more common and, therefore, far more accessible to people who would originally not have had the wealth to purchase so much as a pair of stud earrings. It is the same story with diamonds: lab-created diamonds are far more common than people think, but prices are kept artificially high by the De Beers group of companies: careful management and clever marketing have ensured that diamonds are still considered prestigious to own and wear, even if, in truth, their value is not as high as they're made out to be.

But then Finlay raises an interesting question: given the problems inherent in acquiring natural stones (environmental pressures, severely underpaid workers who are constantly in danger, financing foreign wars and terrorism in the case of blood diamonds), should it not stand to reason that conscientious buyers and jewelers would choose lab-created stones? They have none of the same issues that are generally attached to natural stones; they are essentially the same as natural stones chemically speaking; and can be made to any shape, any color, and any quantity. It would seem that, in the twenty-first century, using lab-created stones wherever possible is the most logical way to go. And yet, as Finlay explains, the jewelry industry itself does not want to use artificial stones; it wants to keep on using natural stones because they have the prestige of not being "mass-produced" - and they are very good at making sure that buyers continue to believe that natural is better than artificial, when there is really very little visible difference.

That Finlay raises this issue throughout the course of the book is vital, and something I appreciate. I myself fall firmly on the side of lab-creates stones, because I feel that, no matter how beautiful a natural stone is, it is only as good as the designer that uses it - and a bad designer can ruin a perfectly good stone. Also, most of the time it's impossible to tell a natural stone from a lab-created one on the surface, and in the end that's all that really matters to buyers: how pretty the stone looks. Please note, however, that Finlay doesn't force this idea on the reader, but allows him or her to come to their own conclusions. All that matters is that she's put the question out there in the first place.

Overall, Jewels: A Secret History is an enjoyable, insightful read, a rich interweaving of legends, history, and present-day realities, striking a balance between all those elements and granting the reader insight into how the jewelry industry works today. Additional information is included in the form of a "Miscellany of Jewels," which includes lists of birthstones, anniversary stones, and sundry other bits and bobs of information that do not slot neatly into the rest of the book, but which might appeal to the reader regardless. Finlay's narrative style has significantly improved from her style in Color, and this shows in the way she tells the stories of the jewels themselves, turning each into a character in its own right: neither one more important than its fellow, but always with a unique quality inherent to itself that she brings out in the text. Although this will immediately appeal to jewelry fanatics and amateur mineralogists, Finlay's insight into the gemstone industry itself is something that any reader will appreciate and hopefully look into more deeply.

[Elentarri · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are looking for a text on the geological formation and chemical composition of precious stones, or detailed mining and manufacture processes, then this is not that book. The subtitle hints at the book's contents. This is a kaleidoscope of fascinating accounts about nine precious gems featuring travel adventures (Australia, Scotland, Burma, an Apache reservation in Arizona, Sri-Lanka, and the remains of a Soviet gulag amber mine in Kaliningrad), cultural legends, history, a bit of geology, jewel trading and cutting, a bit of mining, research, and personal experiences (what these gems mean to different people). Finlay starts with the "organic gems" - amber (the fossilized resin of a tree), jet (ancient compressed/ fossilized wood), and pearl (the secretions of an irritated mollusc) - then moves onto opals, peridots, emeralds, sapphires, rubies, and diamonds (in order of hardness on the Mohs scale). Each story or anecdote that is told in this book is like a collection of gems in a jewel box. The book is nicely written, contains interesting contents and I learned some new "stuff".

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know how much of a secret any of this information may be but Finlay approaches various gemstone in her own way - - which includes lots of travel to out of the way locales, exotic lands and some strictly restricted places as well.

Starting with an introduction of Mohn's hardness scale, we are treated to not only the origin of natural stones but trips to some of the most noted locations where they are found.

Amber - to the Baltic as well as the abandoned mine in Kaliningrad, Russia, an enclave surrounded by Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea. Of course, no discussion of amber is complete without the tale of the amber room.
Jet - is a type of coal and the town of Whitby in England was the main source for centuries through the Victorian era.
Pearl - from the naturally created pearls to cultured pearls which Mikimoto Kokichi made into an industry to the artificial man-made pearls.
Opal - and the dangerous individual mines of Australia. Surprising, there is a gentleman in Australia who has figured out how to artificially create opals - not as iridescent but certainly attractive and captivating in their flashes of color.
Peridot - off to a native reservation in Arizona for this warm olive-green stone.
Emerald - to ancient Egyptian sources as well as the history of Columbia where the Spanish mined practically tons of these brilliant stones.
Ruby - and the rich deep red of a Burma stone from mines which are vigorously restricted from outside visitors.
Sapphires - and Sri Lanka for the blue cousin of rubies (although sapphires come in a wide assortment of colors).
Diamonds - and the mines of Golconda, India along with the extensive mines of South Africa near the kimberlite pipes which consolidated under Cecil Rhodes and eventually De Beers and the diamond cartels. Debunking the Hope Diamond curse. Blood or conflict stones as well as synthetics

The book ends with some further bits of information - the four qualifiers and terms. Providing the reader with an illustration of how big some of the carat sizes actually are. A miscellany of gems - birthstones, traditional and modern anniversary stones.

It's an interesting read that includes some of the more unusual minerals that humans use as gemstones and sparkly bits.

2022-026

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Victoria Finlay is a gifted storyteller. She profiles nine different jewels (pleasingly, in order of Moh's scale). She discusses the geological origin, cultural history, historical symbolism and economics of each stone, but in a way that's entirely conversational and engaging. Her book never feels like a lecture, it always feels like a story you'd hear from a fascinating, well-traveled friend over drinks. Findlay is adventurous in her quest for detail, often going down (or at least considering going down) into mines you couldn't pay me to consider for a fistful of rubies. In addition to an educational read, this is a very fun book that you find yourself reluctant to put down.

I would recommend this book to anyone who's even slightly interested in gems or geology, who likes wearing jewelry or knows someone who does, or is interested in the cultural and historical symbolism of these charismatic stones.

In fact, I've been (probably too vehemently) recommending this to anyone I've come in contact with in the past few days. It really is a book almost everyone would enjoy.

[Missy J · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a much better and more coherent book than Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World. Jewels: A Secret History was exactly what I was looking for when I wanted to read a book about gemstones. What I liked best about this book was the author's personal touch. She travelled to different places to gather first-hand information about the gemstones and also muse about life in general. She has a very healthy attitude towards life - very positive woman.

Divided into 10 chapters, the writing was easy to follow and contained a lot of interesting information. She uses the Mohs Scale of Hardness to talk about 9 gemstones:

1.) Amber, how they were shaped out of pools of resins millions and millions of years ago. The author travels to Kaliningrad and Poland, the homeland of amber.

2.) Jet, a stone that came to symbolize mourning during the Victorian Age and how it was formed out of wood, again millions and millions of years ago. The author didn't have to travel far, jet is native to the UK.

3.) Pearls, first the author talks about river pearls in Britain and then she traces the history of how cultured pearls came to be invented in Japan by Mikimoto.

4.) Opal, the author travels to the Australian Outback, where immigrants from around the world flock, trying their luck to find the world's best opals.

5.) Peridot, the history of a Native American settlement in Arizona that has hills full of peridots in its territory. The author meets up with several indigenous people and learns why peridot didn't take off like other stones.

6.) Emerald, the author visits the emerald mines of ancient Egypt and talks a little bit of how the Spanish conquistadors found emerald in South America.

7.) Sapphire, the author travels to Sri Lanka and tries to understand the origins of her parents' sapphire stone, which they gave her. She also learns a little bit of lapidary work.

8.) Ruby, now the author travels to Burma/Myanmar and talks about the British colonial syndicates in the ruby trade. I was a bit lost in this chapter even though it is actually a very interesting topic.

9.) Diamond, how the DeBeer company bought all the diamond mines they heard of (though this has changed now, 15 years later, more diamond mines have since been discovered in Canada and Australia and Russia), basically forming a diamond cartel to keep the prices high.

In the end, she concludes that the gemstone trade industry is truly in crisis with the rise of synthetic stones and the difficulty in tracing the origins of a stone where even lab technicians struggle to see the difference between real and fake. Not to mention how the market could collapse and how buyers would react if they knew the reality behind the stones. I think this was the perfect introduction to gemstones.

"[...] reminder to me of how the most precious thing about stones in a jewel box is not always their rarity, their size, or their perfection. It is their stories."

"These creatures are a barometer of how we are treating our planet. Sometimes in our greed to make them produce pretty things for our pleasure we forget that they deserve our respect." [about pearls]

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author Victoria Finlay takes the reader on a diverting rummage through the jewel box.

The book is partly a travelogue and partly a micro history of the subject. It is structured in 9 chapters looking at a different type of gem in each. Broadly speaking the chapters cover the geographical sources of each featured gem, the people who mine/collect it, and the part each type of gem has played in human society, in particular how the value of particular gems has risen or fallen at different times in human history. The author travelled widely across the world to visit the mines from which gems are sourced, frequently at considerable risk to herself. One theme that runs throughout the book is how the value of almost all gems either has been lowered or is threatened by the production of artificial versions, many of which can now only be distinguished from the natural varieties by an expert with a raft of scientific equipment. At times the author can jump to some fairly unscientific conclusions, but she is not overly afflicted with romanticism, and in one of the most enjoyable sections completely debunks the "curse" stories around the Hope Diamond.

The book does not pretend to be a scholarly work, and is written very much for the general reader, but there was plenty in this that was completely new to me. At the end there are a number of appendices containing what might be unkindly described as "interesting factoids". Some of these were actually interesting, and without giving spoilers away, it was illuminating to see just what can achieved by a good marketing campaign.

A book that left me pondering on the arbitrary value that humans place on objects of no practical use, and how that value has impacted on human lives over thousands of years.

[D.A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

An indispensable exploration of the role jewels have played in human culture economically, socially, spiritually and decoratively. Finlay looks closely at 9 gems, starting with the soft organic amber, jet and pearl, ending with the heavy hitters of gemology: emeralds, sapphires, rubies and diamonds. Structurally, the book begins with gems that are formed by or within living matter. By the time we get to diamonds, we have gone oddly full circle, as Finlay introduces us to gems that may be produced by various kinds of organic materials, from peanut butter to people. It underscores the fluctuations and volatilities that make gems so risky and alluring, as well as the larger fluctuations of matter that cause gems to form or to disappear. Finlay visits the birth mines of each stone and talks with lapidarists, jewelers, miners, and the ad hoc economies that pop up in response to a supply of desirable stones. Finlay is shrewd and funny, she gives us an adventure along each way, and she fills us with plenty of stories of great jewels that were smuggled or ransomed or purchased as a sign of power. Like her previous book "Colour," we also get to understand the cultural significance of certain colors and the powers associated with the gems. It's a bit of a romance and a travelogue, this book. Absolutely fitting for the subject: substances that have risen and fallen in value do to our fickle fashions. Well worth a second or even a third read.

[Larkin J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Victoria Finlay remains one of my favorite non-fiction writers, the way she approaches how to deliver information makes the stories feel very personal, because she was there! Finlay of course will give broad overviews of history concerning each gemstone, but she won't spend time trying to convey too much so she can focus on writing about what she actually experiences. The opal chapter for example - Finlay only visits Australia, as opposed to trying to visit places like Ethiopia and Mexico, but the chapter has space to breathe and fully explore this one community and the economy of their opals instead of being rushed or vague about all of these places.

This topic of gemstones and jewelry from an anthropological perspective is also just wildly interesting; I am so full of cool facts and history now that I feel fit to burst. Someone better ask me about amber!!!!!

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another well researched book by Victoria Finlay. With her books, you really have to read the preface to learn how she began her research, what's her resultant thesis, where the tale will take you. Her books are classic examples of a fully developed research project.
Finlay organized her book using Mohs' scale of hardness for gemstones. She begins with the softest, amber, and ends with the hardest, diamonds. The book covers where they are found, what they are made of, some history of their popularity and the decline of their popularity. It includes myths, mysteries, and mayhem associated with the gems.
I didn't know the fashion for diamonds was relatively recent. They used to be ignored because they aren't very pretty. Just like Mother's Day was an advertising campaign to sell greeting cards, diamond engagement rings were an advertising campaign to get people to buy diamonds. Before, colored stones were the popular gift. Personally, I prefer sapphires.
This isn't an easy book to read, but Finlay is a very good writer and makes her subject both informative and entertaining.

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

In her third book Ms. Finlay has mined historic literature for the mythology and mystique that surround gems of note; her debunking of the curse of the Hope Diamond, for instance, is hilarious. She also globetrots to the countries of a gems origin, at times literally descending into the mines. Her own anecdotal experiences become part of the scintillating, like being stalled in a taxi during an elephant parade in Sri Lanka (elephant parades are good for the sapphire business, as such a gem that has been worn on an elephant tusk is believed to have been blessed by Buddha himself). She has undergone no small amount of risk on these excursions. She skillfully interviewed sometimes reticent subjects; some from within the mines, others within the marketing, trading, and gem cutting fields. The histrionic and social ramifications of our fascination for these useless rocks ("You can't eat them, you can't read them, you can't shelter under them ..." she quotes her Burmese taxi driver as saying) are on display here, as colorful and surprising as any of the gems themselves.

[Meaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really fascinating book, each chapter telling the in-depth story of the history of each particular gemstone. I would recommend it for anyone interested in jewelry and/or microhistories. Amber, pearls, jet, peridot, emeralds, sapphires, rubies and diamonds were all covered. My only complaint would be that I wish more stones had been covered; for example amethysts or citrines or really anything in the quartz family.

[Mandy Partridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Victoria Finlay has produced a true treasure with this book. Full of maps, well-researched history, in chapters for Amber, Jet, Pearl, Opal, Peridot, Emerald, Sapphire, Ruby and Diamond. A masterpiece of narrative nonfiction. Finlay takes us around the world, from England to the Baltic Sea, Japan to Australia, Egypt and the Red Sea, The American desert, South America, India, Burma and Sri Lanka, and South Africa. This book made me love my treasured jewels even more.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this kind of non-fiction - is is enjoyable, readable and informative. The combination of history, science, philosophy, travelogue and memoir in this book was fantastic. It is one of the easiest ways to learn about something which could be quite dry if handled differently. I know more about jewels than I could have possibly imagined before and not one piece of it was boring.

[Adam White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book. History and Gemmology who could find a better introduction. Also some ripping yarns thrown in. Did I say, I love this book!

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoroughly enjoyable history/travelogue with jewels at its focus. I really enjoyed learning about Scottish pearls and Arizonan peridot

[victoria marie]

really enjoyed this as an audiobook! not usually a subject I search to learn more about, but lovely histories, myths, & legends of some of the most beautiful gems.

[SR · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conditions of reading: I started it in a psychiatric hospital.

I enjoyed this, despite the rampant colonialism (...) and the entire chapter on the scam that is diamonds (I have a lot of feelings about this). Finlay's writing is a cool mix of travelogue, history, and science for the layperson - as a materials scientist I was rolling my eyes a bit at the simplifications and metaphors shoved into things like ion exchange. The structure is clever, despite the unnecessary (to me) distinction between sapphire and ruby - they're chemically identical, come on. The end matter is kind of a junk pile.

I don't know if I'd reread, but it makes a good counter to Stoned: Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World and Diamond: The History of a Cold-Blooded Love Affair.

[Linnea Dalvi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think today is the day I give up on this book: DNF (about 60% done).

It's interesting at times, but it feels like it is so unbelievably long because each chapter reads like pasted-together articles. She sometimes says some very casually bigoted things (e.g. "American Indian, which is shorthand for poor") that really take me out of it.
I think it could have been a lot more interesting and engaging if it had been edited more thoroughly.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly what I was looking for in a gem history book. Also second book I’ve read about this author. I like how she combines history, little bit of fiction, and technical knowledge to make it a pleasurable read. In fact, because of this book I’ve gained a new appreciation of pearls and would call them my favorite gem now.

[Tanja Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe it was just me, but I didn’t find the book as interesting as I thought it would be. I liked the ancient stories of the various jewels highlighted in here, but did t find the stories of the author’s adventures in finding the gems, how they are mined, sold, etc., very interesting. The diamond chapter was the most interesting as a result. It does say something that it took me a month to read it — while I was reading other books.

[Csenge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved that the chapters go by the Mohs scale, and that each chapter had an individual, personal adventure of the author attached, next to the well-researched science and history. Truly entertaining book, loved it!

[Hella · Rating 4 out of 5]

oh, dit was ook weer zo'n boek stikvol weetjes, erg van genoten
plus het sluit prachtig aan bij The Lost Jewels van Kirsty Manning wat ik nu aan het lezen ben

[Audrey Approved]

This narration is putting me to sleep!

[Alex Sarll]

Starting with the softest gems, amber and jet, and running up the Mohs scale to diamond, Finlay looks at nine types of what I want to call precious stones, though of course not all of them are exactly stones and only four are technically precious*. Indeed, in the case of opal she catches someone in the process of upending the accepted theory of its origin, and here as elsewhere I would be interested to get a coda explaining what has changed in the 15 years since I grabbed this from the work free box, reasoning that I'd get around to it one day. Which I have! Eventually. Finlay can generally turn up an interesting old-timer with some particular insight into each jewel, and not always where you'd expect; yes, it's Australia for opals, but I wasn't expecting her pearl fisher to be in Scotland. Nor did I know that it was one Japanese man's skill at juggling cabbages with his feet which would ultimately lead to an 85% fall in the price of pearls a century later, from which the market would never altogether recover, or that jet comes from a prehistoric tree not unlike the monkey puzzle. But if the book is excellent at turning up this sort of weird information, of the sort you resolve to remember but of which only a small portion actually remains lodged in the noggin, it never quite makes that leap the best non-fiction surveys of a topic do, the one where a reader is left feeling like they've grasped the whole equation. There are hints of it, as in the brief discussion of tsavorite, and how the market responds to new and unknown types of gem – or, in the short chapter on peridot, the corollary whereby a once-prized stone can become a marginal proposition. Certainly there's a recurring theme whereby science's increasing ability to tart up flawed gems, or outright create them, is shaking old certainties and the places built around them. But perhaps through having been written that couple of years too soon, the account as a whole never quite pulls together that last step into the transcendent. Still, it has plenty of interest to offer, and I doubt anyone could read it without finding themselves at least a slight preference among the stones; I have absolutely no idea what I'd do with any of them, but I do know that if I could pick any jewel from the ones here, I wouldn't have a moment's doubt before selecting an opal. Diamonds, on the other hand, I already knew were a colossal scam, but reading this has really reinforced my sense that their status (outside that conferred in certain contexts and industries by their specific physical properties, obviously) is like a nightmare vision of a world where everyone fell for NFTs.

*This distinction itself now unfashionable, we learn in the backmatter. Which is all well worth reading, containing a grab-bag of stuff which didn't fit in the narrative proper, like the fact that the man to whom Linnaeus sold his pearl-making method was called Peter Bagge - clearly an immortal who would later use it to fund his indie comics. Or what about the existence of a type of garnet called uvarovite, which inevitably set me thinking that if Steven Universe really had to have a bumptious male lead, how much better if it had been Vic Reeves.

[Luis Busso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great historical stories of the world's most precious gems cleverly written by Victoria Finlay. She took her time to understand many of the mines, people, and places where these gems originate. Truly concise storytelling that left me wanting more.

[Deb Omnivorous Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! Victoria Finley took me on a rambling journey through the world of gemstones, by the end I almost felt as if I had been on an actual holiday.

Instead this book took me on an extended ramble through the world and time, in search of specific gems. We spend time in Egypt, visiting the ruined remains of Cleopatra's Emerald mines. Jet had us visiting part of the Uk and extensive period was spent back in time on the Baltic and in Northern Europe discovering Amber. Sapphires took us to Sri Lanka, in Asia and the Indian ocean.

Rubies, Opals, Diamonds and Peridots were also explored and for each gem their history was embellished by their geology, formation and a myriad of anecdotes and stories.

I would recommend this story to anyone who enjoys gems, geology and mineralogy. Well, really, who does not enjoy gems? Anyone who likes Non-Fiction then.

[Майя Ставитская · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Secret History of Precious Stones by Victoria Finley, whose book about the history of natural dyes you may know, has chosen the ideal format, as it seems to me. Of all the variety of minerals that people have decorated themselves with for centuries, she took nine, with the Mohs hardness scale as a starting point, and dedicated a chapter to each. From the softest amber to the hardest diamond.

Origin and history, in what form it occurs, where and in what way it is extracted, how it is processed, when and how it is used, which synthetic or artificially grown variants have appeared today. Clever Victoria has succeeded in a format that perfectly combines mineralogy, history, geography, a production novel with personal impressions - because she tries to search everywhere and learn to process.

Потому что они красивые
Если хотите, чтобы камень защищал вас от злых сил, то следует просверлить в нем дырку, повесить на ослиный волос и носить на левой руке.
Марбод Реннский. "Лапидарий"
На самом деле совет вроде этого, который на взгляд современника выглядит дремучим средневековым мракобесием, вполне может дать специалист по ведической астрологии Джйотиш в наши дни. Разве что без ослиного волоса и просверливания - нарушение целостности не идет на пользу благотворным свойствам камней, разумнее оправлять их. И кверент, который совету последует, вскоре ощутит, как его жизнь меняется к лучшему в тех сферах, каких касалась консультация. Да и может ли быть иначе, когда история этой практики насчитывает больше четырех тысячелетий действенной помощи.

Не значит, что для привлечения удачи нужно с головы до ног увешаться ювелиркой, когда так - это будет хаос. Определенные камни нужно носить в оговоренные дни на конкретном участке тела: рука, шея, голова. Отдельно для каждого случая, всякой ситуации. И, немаловажная подробность: драгоценности должны быть натуральными весом не меньше двух каратов. В этом основная причина, по которой я не стала уделять много внимания геммологии в рамках своего знакомства с Джйотиш, отдав основное мантрам и янтрам, обладающим сходным, хотя слабейшим, действием.

Виктория Финли в своей книге о драгоценных камнях не касается этого аспекта их использования. Может быть она убежденная противница всякой эзотерики, может формат нонфикшн предполагал лишь небольшие вкрапления легенд с непременным: "в старину верили, что". А скорее всего потому, что это специфическая область знаний, о которой непосвященные не имеют представления. Да и в любом случае, нельзя объять необъятного и берясь за определенную тему, лучше не распыляться, пытаясь поделиться с читателем всем массивом своих знаний о предмете, но сделать аккуратную удобочитаемую выборку.
картинка majj-s

"Тайная история драгоценных камней" как раз такая, Финли, чью книгу об истории натуральных красителей вы можете знать, выбрала идеальный, как мне кажется, формат. Из всего многообразия минералов, которыми спокон веков украшают себя люди, она взяла девять, со шкалой твердости Мооса как отправной точкой, и посвятила каждому по главе. От самого мягкого янтаря до самого твердого алмаза.

Происхождение и история, в каком виде встречается, где и каким способом добывают, как обрабатывают когда и как используют, какие синтетические или искусственно выращенные варианты появились сегодня. Умничке Виктории удался формат, идеальное сочетающий минералогию, историю, географию, производственный роман с личными впечатлениями - потому что она везде пробует искать и учиться обрабатывать.

Янтарные рудники в Калининграде, янтарный ГУЛАГ и янтарная комната, целебные свойства янтарной кислоты и гданьский янтарный алтарь. Гагат, о котором я до этой книги не знала ничего, даже и названия не слышала, а вы могли в изобилии видеть черные гагатовые украшения, если смотрели первую серию "Аббатства Даунтон", где все леди семейства облачаются в траур. Жемчуг с кучей легенд вокруг него, истории морских жемчужин и речного жемчуга. Создатель культивированного жемчуга Микимото: "у каждой женщины должна быть возможность лицезреть красоту, обладать красотой и носить красоту" (и да, жемчужных украшений у меня много, люблю их).

Опал, дивные и жуткие истории австралийских опаловых приисков и кошка в шляпе, чей скелет превратился в опаловый. Перидот (хризолит), один из библейских камней, месторождения в резервации индейцев Навахо. Изумруды Клеопатры, колумбийские пещеры и Кэролл Чатэм с его выращенными кристаллами искусственных изумрудов. Сапфировое путешествие на Шри-Ланку, шахты в Ратнапуре и рынок самоцветов, прокаливание и промасливание камней, которое улучшает их внешние качества, звездчатые сапфиры - будучи разбитыми на любое количество частей, в центре каждой будут иметь звезду.

Бирманские рубины и история английской оккупации, описанная в "Стеклянном дворце" Амитава Гоша, самый легкий способ отличить настоящий рубин или алмаз от стеклянной подделки - положить в рот, низкая теплопроводность и от них отчетливо потянет холодом. Алмаз, король драгоценностей, исторические камни, иные с другого конца Атлантики, не "Орлов", "Шах" и "Кохинур", о которых всегда вспоминают у нас, когда речь заходит об алмазах с историей, а "Надежда" - приносящий несчастье бриллиант, о котором я прежде не слышала. Южноафриканские, родезийские и якутские алмазы, корпорация "Де Бирс" и амстердамские алмазные аукционы. Алмазы, выращенные из праха дорогих покойников.

Подробностей много, все интересные, но везде одна и та же история - старатели, добывающие неимоверные ценности, живут на грани нищеты. Вкладываться для сохранения финансовых активов имеет смысл в эксклюзив по цене самолетного крыла, а обычное ювелирное украшение, только вынесенное из салона, тотчас теряет шестьдесят пять процентов цены - лишь треть от потраченного вы получите, попытавшись его продать.

Интересно, увлекательно, назидательно. Отличная книга.