The jeweller's view
宝石・ジュエリー図鑑
Stones sorted by colour, then followed all the way to the finished ring and the people who make it.
Read the reviewGemstone & pearl reading room
A library for people who want to know why a stone is red宝石の図書室
Field guides, gemmology textbooks, pearl histories, children's encyclopedias and the odd manga, in Japanese and English. Search the shelves, or start with what we have reviewed.
18
books on the shelf
3
reviewed in full
17
publishers
和 · EN
Japanese & English
From the reviewers' desk
Read cover to cover, argued about, and kept.
One question at a time
世界でいちばん素敵な宝石の教室
A question on the left page, a photograph and an answer on the right. Read it in any order you like.
Read the review
How the earth made it
宝石のひみつ図鑑
The most scientific of the three. Crystal habit, colour chemistry and light, drawn as diagrams a child can follow.
Read the reviewThe catalogue
8 books
Reviewed
世界でいちばん素敵な宝石の教室
Sekai de Ichiban Suteki na Hōseki no Kyōshitsu
Tōgō Fumiko
Stoned
Jewelry, Obsession, and How Desire Shapes the World
Aja Raden
Pearls
Hubert Bari, David Lam
Jewels
A Secret History
Victoria Finlay
My Love Affair with Jewelry
Elizabeth Taylor
Pearls
A Natural History
Neil H. Landman, Paula M. Mikkelsen et al.
The Curious Lore of Precious Stones
George Frederick Kunz
The Book of the Pearl
Its History, Art, Science and Industry
George Frederick Kunz, Charles Hugh Stevenson
One book, read properly, every month
We review one gemstone or pearl book a month — Japanese and English, new releases and out-of-print classics — and tell you honestly whether it earns its shelf space.