[Jewelry making - Article 00073] - Re: [Orchid] Using the term semi precious gems

[leonid surpin]

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>     no matter how long ago one's training, stepping up into today's
>     times, and recognizing times, and things do change. 

    Thing do change, so it will be appropriate to show the sequence of
    the change. 

    Problem of Gem Classification is as old as civilization. 

    The first attempt known to us was Pliny the Elder in his work
    "Natural History". Pliny divided gems into "men's stones" for
    brightly coloured and "women's" for gems of light coloration. The
    first 3 in the value sequence weRe: Diamond, Pearl, and Emerald. 

    There was curious development in the Middle Ages when gems were
    classified into "Eastern" and "Western". Eastern gems were more
    highly prized than others due to better brilliancy and hardness,
    which leads some to believe that Eastern gems were fancy coloured
    sapphires and chrysoberyl. 

    G. Cardano used classification: transparent, translucent, and
    opaque. 

    As I mentioned before the term "semi-precious" was proposed by
    Kludge. Kludge proposed 2 groups "precious" and "semi-precious".
    "Precious" was divided into 3 classes, and "semi-precious" into 2
    classes. 

    This classification was adopted and refined by Bauer and was widely
    accepted. 

    Fersman proposed division in "Lapidary", "Craft", and "Biogenic" Each
    "Lapidary" and "Craft" were subdivided into gems of 1st order, 2nd
    order, and 3rd order. Biogenic included pearls, coral, amber, and
    jet. ( Google for more info ). 

    V. I. Sobolevsky disposed with "Biogenic". His classification was
    "Jewels" and "Colour Stones". "Colour Stones" included 1st order, and
    2nd order gems and comprised of malachite, lapis, amazonite and
    others for the 1st order; and fluorite, marble onyx, jasper, and etc.
    for the second order. 

    E. Kievlenko used: "Jewellery stones", "Jewellery-Industrial
    stones", and "Industrial stones" Anybody who is interested in the
    details can research the subject on the net. 

    What needs to noticed is that with time classification only become
    more detailed and more complex until GIA decided to make things easy
    and lumped everything into nebulous term "Coloured stones". Adoption
    of this myopic view of Gemology is detrimental to developing
    understanding of what gems are. The beaten to death explanation that
    even the commonest gem can be beautiful is not applicable. Flowers
    beautiful also, but we do not classify them as gems. Beauty is of no
    use if gem is easily scratched or can shutter while one wearing it. 

Leonid Surpin.
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