corundum, ruby, sapphire, history.1, sources, gems

Kunz’s long-running annual chapters provide a contemporary record of the gemstone industry during the first third of the twentieth century, combining reports on new discoveries and mining developments with information on production, prices, trade, cutting, jewelry fashions, and notable individual gems. Although strongly focused on the United States, the series ranges widely across the major gem-producing regions of the world and follows developments in diamonds, ruby and sapphire, emerald, pearl, tourmaline, beryl, topaz, turquoise, garnet, quartz varieties, jade and other ornamental materials. Individual installments commonly describe particular mines and deposits, changes in output and commercial importance, newly reported localities, unusual crystals and exceptional cut stones, and advances in lapidary practice and gem treatment. The early reports document the rapid growth of the American jewelry and diamond-cutting industries and the increasing demand for colored stones; for 1905, for example, Kunz records unprecedented U.S. precious-stone imports and vigorous demand across the gem trade. he series is also valuable for preserving contemporary geological observations and production statistics, including detailed accounts of South African diamonds, Burmese rubies, Colombian emeralds and numerous American gem deposits. Taken as a whole, these chapters constitute an unusually rich year-by-year chronicle of the transition of gemology from a largely descriptive and commercial field into an increasingly scientific and international discipline, while documenting the changing geography, technology and economics of the world gemstone trade.