Four Treasures Reference Database
Record No. 29495
Sur la Roue du Lapidaire dont on se sert dans les Indes Orientales pour tailler les pierres fines
On the lapidary wheel used in the East Indies for cutting gemstones
Journal Article
de Latour, L. (1822) Sur la Roue du Lapidaire dont on se sert dans les Indes Orientales pour tailler les pierres fines. [On the lapidary wheel used in the East Indies for cutting gemstones] Mémoires du Muséum d'histoire naturelle, Vol. 11, pp. 230–238, plate.
Sinkankas/Born No.: NIS/NIB | Language: in French | RWHL*
gems, corundum, India.12, Sri Lanka.12
De Latour describes the lapidary wheel and techniques employed in the East Indies for cutting and polishing gemstones. He discusses the construction and operation of the apparatus and the manner in which the lapidary holds and works stones against the rotating wheel. Accompanied by a plate illustrating the equipment, the paper provides an important early nineteenth-century account of Indian gemstone-cutting technology and traditional lapidary practice.