Disclaimer: I received an ARC via Netgalley.
Helen
Molesworth book is a love letter to jewelry and gems. It also is at times a quasi-memoir. Quasi because it focuses on her experience
with some jeweler y as well as the discovery of some of her grandfather’s
travels. But it is far less of a memoir,
and far more a love letter.
And that
is pretty awesome.
Molesworth
absolute love of what she is writing might not be the most obvious selling
point for the book, but it makes the book work so well. It’s
always fun to read or listen to someone who really loves their work. The other selling point, and most likely the
one that is going to be highlighted, is that Molesworth has worked with the
collections that were held by Elizabeth Taylor, Wallis Simpson, and Princess
Margaret.
But that’s
icing, that really is.
Molesworth’s
book is divided into chapters centered around various gems. The heavy hitters are here – diamonds, emeralds,
rubies. However, and this is great, she
includes less games (at least lesser to Western audiences) – garnet, spinel and
quartz. Each chapter gives what is in essence
an overview of how it is made, where it can be found, possibly a trip to a
mine, and famous examples.
Now many
of those examples come from the jewelry of Elizabeth Taylor whose two time
husband Richard Burton put really nice pieces into stockings. She just had to make sure her dogs didn’t
chew them. But they aren’t the only ones
mentioned.
Three
words -Jade Burial Suits.
Eight
words -Goose being feed gems to make them glow.
(Other
famous people with jewelry mention here include Cleopatra, Monroe, and Beyoncé).
In some
class, such as with jade and spinel, Molesworth discusses why in some cases the
West viewed them differently than the East.
This is particularly true for spinel, where Molesworth traces why the
stone fell out of favor in the West.
There is
science here as well. Molesworth speaks
of the various ways the gems are developed.
She goes into the difference between the types of pearls as well as the
different types of diamonds. But it isn’t
overly scientific writing, so you don’t have to be a geologist to understand
it. Furthermore, the love for the subject shines though so even the
science bits are not dry at all.
In some
cases, Molesworth journeys to the mines and places where the gems are found. This includes Burma and that section is particularly
interesting. She also visits mines in Columbia
and helps look for gems in Sri Lanka (another wonderful chapter). She goes into some of the traditions surrounding
not only the crafting of the gems but also the mining of them. The chapter detailing is particularly well
written in this regard. She talks to the
big names but she also talks to the workers whose names are not remembered.
It would
be fair that Molesworth does not address colonialism and the various gem trades
head on. But she does acknowledge it,
and in the case of the Koh-I-Nor gives the unvarnished story about how the British
monarchy got the basically stolen gem, which isn’t bad for a book that is also
an introduction to gems.
I enjoyed
this book so much. IT was so fun to read
a book that was fan girling as it were about gems. I’m going to buy a hard copy. You should order your copies now.
A quick
shout out to Emma Thomasch who sent me an email and Netgalley invite for the
book. Thank you. You should get a raise.
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