Ye lovers of gemstones, your attention please! Are you somewhat of a bookworm? Do you like poking around old maps? Is your apartment cluttered with collections of all sorts? Most important: Do your friends consider you a Diehard Romantic? If you can lay claim to any of these traits, then read on, for this article may be right up your alley.
Just about everyone who takes their stones seriously either owns, has borrowed or is otherwise familiar with the “standard” gemstone reference books, meaning those written by Webser, Liddicoat, Arem, etc. But how many people have read (or even heard of) Ivory and the Elephant by G.F. Kunz, the Mani-Mala by S.M. Tagore or E.W. Streeter’s classic volume Precious Stones and Gems? These three books were published between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Like may other works of that era, they contain a treasure trove of facts and lore which, though certainly dated, often makes for fascinating reading.
The authors of these books were –just like you—lovers of gemstones. In the case of Kunz, love seemed to know no bounds. His writing style embodied that rare talent for combining detail with readability. His lengthy discourse on ivory and natural pearls has hardly been improved upon since he published Ivory and the Elephant and The Book of the Pearl. Each volume is beautifully bound, replete with rare photographs and illustrations, and contains bits and snips of information which you would be hard pressed to find elsewhere.
What kind of “hard to get” information does Kunz have to offer? Let’s take for example what he has to say about so-called elephant pearls.
While working in Bangkok the past four years, I have heard periodic stories (tales, I thought them to be) about the elusive elephant pearl. The story went that “pearls” were sometimes found in elephant tusks. These objects were said to be heard, rolling back-and-forth along the length of a living elephant’s tusk as the creature would sway its head. This was said to be a rare event –occurring only upon the most infrequent of occasions. In such instances, and on removal and dissection of the tusk, a pearl-like object could be found, which was aptly termed an “elephant pearl.”
Whenever someone would tell me this story, I felt obliged to dismiss it as (to put it bluntly) rubbish. After all, neither Webster, AIGS, the GIA or the FGA People ever spoke of elephant pearls! Then one day, about two years ago, I was sitting in the National Library in Colombo, Sri Lanka, looking through some old tomes on gems and jewelry. It was there that I first came across Kunz’s Ivory and the Elephant and, sure enough, he not only referred to elephant perals but actually described what they were: lead bullets which had lodged in and elephant’s tusk and were subsequently enveloped by concretions, the total mass assuming a pearl-like appearance. Try and find THAT information anyplace else!
The Mani Mala also houses its share of obscure, though interesting, tidbits. Published in English and in two volumes, Tagore wrote the Mani Mala in what was then British India. When doing so, he took great pains to relate all he knew of Sanskrit,,, Arabic and Persian writings on various gemstones. Beautifully bound, Tagore intended these volumes as presentation pieces to a limited readership. As a result, publication was limited and existing copies are scarce. The very few copies I have seen, all worm-eaten, were purchased in secondhand Indian bookstalls.
Streeter’s magnum opus, Precious Stones and Gems, was to nineteenth-century London retailers what Webster’s Gems is to the modern-day gemologist. Rich in information on the various gem species, their characteristics and sources, it also discusses mining techniques. Precious Stones and Gems was published in many editions, a fact which helped make Streeter a household word among the London jewelers of his day. However, the author’s fame was not due solely to his writing abilities; he was himself a London jeweler of considerable stature and also controlled a ruby-mines concession in Mogok, Burma.
It’s difficult to talk about old gem books without acknowledging due respects to some of the early government publications on the subject. I am referring here mostly to British colonial papers describing the gem deposits of British India (which included Burma) and Ceylon. These official reports and gazetteers were often accompanied by detailed maps, some of which are eminently suitable for framing.
The Burma Gazetteer is a choice example of his type of publication. It is somewhat of an encyclopedia in content, offering a quick, nutshell-purview of the history, archaeology, customs, mores and economics of different parts of Burma: the perfect introductory compendium for the novice colonial! Some editions of the Gazetteer had much to say on gem deposits and local mining techniques. For instance, the 1915 edition by E.C.S. George concerned the Ruby Mines District. Besides rambling on at length about the region’s cultural and historical attributes, not to mention the escapades of Lieutenant Smyth’s Ruby Mines Battalion, George speaks of the Mogok gem deposits, including a summarial description of the ruby “classification” (=graging) system used by the Burma Ruby Mines Company.
The Myitkyina District by Deputy Commissioner W.A. Hertz was another contribution to the ongoing Burma Gazetteer series. In addition to the standard cultural and historical stuff, Hertz offers a detailed description of the Jade mines, complete with maps. Bear in mind that Myitkyina (pronounced Mitsheena) is yet today the prima donna jadeite-mining region in Upper Burma.
British Ceylon definitely produced its fair share of official gem-related documents. Most notably, there is Sessional Paper XVI of August, 1839, titled Report of the Sub-Committee of the Executive Committee of Labour, Industry and Commerce on the Marketing and Cutting of Ceylon Gems. With thirty-three pages plus fold out, colored maps and photographs, this rare publication goes into excruciating detail on Ceylonese gem deposits, occurrences, methods of mining and so forth.
So, just how rare are all these books and papers, where can they be found and what kind of value do they have to a collector?
First of all, the books, papers and gazetteers I have cited barely –BARELY (so there’s no doubt)—scratch the surface of what is available in this kind of literature. Certainly, some of these works are rarer than others, because they each vary in the number of copies and editions that were printed. Precious Stones and Gems is not too hard to come across, as thousands of copies were printed in many editions. Conversely, Ivory and the Elephant and the Mani Mala are exceedingly rare. British colonial papers and gazetteers (including some of the limited-edition reprints) are usually rare and, for the most part, highly sought after by collectors.
Finding these publications can be difficult, and the approach you use depends on whether or not you are a collector. For starters, let’s assume you are simply an interested reader who entertains no notions of collecting, buying or selling these materials. If that is the case, your best bet is to consult a good library. Earlier, I mentioned the National Library in Colombo. This place has a particularly fine collection of nineteenth and early twentieth century books on gemstones. Unfortunately they are kept in a pitiable state, with some volumes literally crumbling to the touch. Moreover, if one wants to photocopy something—even a single page—an incredible protocol is encountered, entailing forms, signatures of library supervisors, etc. I once asked one of the librarians why all this protocol was necessary. The response was “because it is necessary.”
An excellent source for old books and government publications on gems is the British Library of the British Museum. Mind you, you have to hunt for these materials, as they are scattered about in various parts of that library, including the section devoted to (declassified) government intelligence documents. But there is a central catalogue which, with a little patience, will lead you to these written treasures. Requesting photocopies and microfilms is no problem at the British Library. Though a little on the expensive side, their photo-reproduction work is of good quality. They will even mail materials, if you find yourself pressed for time.
Within Asia, the best collection of books and periodicals on gems and jewelry is in the library of Bangkok’s Asian Institute of Gemological Sciences (484 Rachadapisek Road). Included in the AIGS collection are many old volumes, the earliest of which is in Latin and dates back to 1836. The AIGS library is open to students and members alike. The annual membership fee is 500 Baht (about US $20) per year.
Finally, how does one go about collecting original copies of these old works? There is plenty of investment incentive to do so, since prices for these materials are constantly climbing. As one person recently put it to me “If you want to make money in the gem business, buy old books on the subject.”
Few purveyors of used books specialize in gem and jewelry publications. Those that provide this exclusive service sometimes advertise in the classifieds section of magazines like. The Mineralogical Record and Lapidary Journal. Among the names to look for are The Gemmary and Peri Lithon Books, both of which are in California. Other vendors of rare and out-of-print geosciences literature are New York’s Frederick Black Company and the Oklahoma-based Hannum Company.
Another source worth checking is the many secondhand bookshops, catering more to the generalist, which occasionally have old gem books to sell. Some of these places publish mail order catalogues, listing inventory and prices. For instance, London has several such shops, mostly in the neighborhood of the British Museum and in and around Cecil Court. The catalogues themselves are worth saving, if for no other reason than to keep abreast on price trends. Nonetheless, be warned: competition from other collectors is especially stiff in London! On a recent trip there, antiquarian book dealers kept telling me they did not have any gem-related tomes because “another customer just bought them all.”
Naturally, London is not the only place where these books can be bought. Good buys are sometimes had in the used bookshops of Rangoon and Colombo, despite the ever-present specter of the ubiquitous WORM. Even Bangkok has a large antiquarian book dealer whose shelves have been known to house the old gem book or two.
Admittedly, timeworn books and bygone maps are not the average man’s cup of tea. But gem connoisseurs like yourselves tend to be a little bit out of the ordinary anyway. Am I right? After all, how does anyone get to be a gem connoisseur in the first place? One basic requirement is to be gifted with the proverbial romantic streak. Well, if you have read this far then you probably love gemstones and are most certainly a romantic. That being the case, borrow or buy one of these old works, lose yourself amidst its pages, conjure in your mind the forgotten images of events long-since past and, above all, have fun!