Gem Identification Made Easy: A Hands-On Guide to More Confident Buying & Selling by Antonio C. Bonanno, Antoinette Matlins and Antoinette L. Matlins (2003, Hardcover)

From the same writing duo that authored "Jewelry & Gems: The Buying Guide", this excellent book goes into much deeper detail that any individual new to the industry will appreciate.

Generally organized by the different tools used by jewelers and gemstone labratories, this book goes into great detail on how to correctly use and intrepret findings. Also included are over 70 full color photographs showing common inclusions and blemishes on a varity of materials.

Embassy Emeralds highly recommends this book to any individual serious hobbiests and professionals alike, and we keep a copy on our own bookshelf as well.

The whole experience of purchasing and receiving this book was easy. The book was brand new, still in shrink wrap. It was well below retail and it came so quick I was very surprised.

This book is good if you are planning on purchasing and setting up a lab of sorts to identify gemstones. It gives detailed instructions on how to use the equipment which is usually lacking when your purchase the actual equipment. Since I don't have much amassed yet (the tools aren't cheap) I have flipped through the book and put it aside for when I can get my collection of tools together. Great deal and will always be useful. Thanks for the excellent deal and service. My only complaint about the book is that there aren't a lot of good photos to use as a comparison for my unscientific gemstone identification.

I have so many cut and uncut gemstones that I have had for quite some time. Over the past several years there have been so many new gemstones and colors of the more well known stones. I bought this book so my identification skills are up to date. This book allows you to learn how to identify which gemstone you are looking at. By using the proper tools, this book describes exactly what to look for and what you should see to identify each type of stone as well as the quality and any type of treatments that may have been done. The color photos are very helpful. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in gemstones.

My wife is learning about gemstones and making her own jewelry, and this book is great for the level of knowledge it contains - for the beginner, as well as for the more advanced gem enthusiasts. It shows what tools are the best and how to use them.

I now have a growing gemstone collection and when I received some of these gemstones I had now idea what they were. I bought some testing equipment from China,since it was more cost effective. The using of these instruments has been made a lot easier with this book, also the results of these instruments is very well explained. Refractive index between toumaline and topaz overlaping and sometimes overlaping between toumaline and apatite, with a hugh difference in evaluation of gemstone at hand. I use this book as a primary reference point.