Gemstone Enhancement

By Kurt Nassau
Butterworths
1984 ISBN 0-408-01447-4

Butterworths writes:

In recent years there has been a tremendous expansion in the use of treatments to enhance the color and appearance of gemstones. This includes various types of irradiation and heat treatments, colorless impregnations, bleaching, dyeing, diffusion, and other processes. Some of these processes date back at least two thousand years, others are of quite recent origin.

Gemstone Enhancement begins with a short account of the history of gemstone treatments, followed by three chapters giving an outline of the technologies of irradiation, heat, and other enhancement processes. A chapter deals with the techniques used in the identification of treated gemstones and the question of disclosure. The core of the book is an extended alphabetical listing of all the gemstones and related materials which have been applied to each. This includes details of the processes used where known, methods of identification, and references to published descriptions. Additional technical details and scientific explanations are given in Appendixes for the interest of the reader.

The book is written for the gemologist to simplify his or her work: by knowing the details of the possible treatment techniques, the treatments that have been applied to the gemstone under study can be more readily recognized. Collectors, dealers, jewelers, appraisers, pawnbrokers and others interested in gemstones will also gain added insight from knowing the range of possible treatments. All the fundamental concepts are covered, so only a general knowledge of gems is required of the reader.

About the author
Kurt Nassau is the author of Gems Made By Man and The Physics and Chemistry Of Color.