End of March Book Review by Manon Kavesky How to be a Jewelry Detective By C. Jeanenne Bell, G.G. QUANTITY OF PICTURES: 7 QUALITY OF PICTURES: 8 QUANTITY OF INFORMATION: 9 QUALITY OF INFORMATION: 9 USER FRIENDLY: 8 This is a great hands-on how to book. In ten concise chapters the author teaches the reader how to deduce information from the clues presented by a piece of jewelry. Chapter one Getting Started instructs the reader how to use their basic built in tools, sight, touch, teeth, smell plus the loupe. Yes your real teeth, they are used to test pearls. The next chapter, Clues for Fine and Costume Jewelry walks the reader through the deduction process to determine if several pieces of jewelry are fine or costume. There are photographs of the pieces and the author tells the reader what to look for. For example, how the stones are set, prongs or glue or a mixture of both. She also shows the reader what to look for on the back of a piece of jewelry, the findings, marks, open backed settings, foiled stones. There is a section on Maker?s Marks. You probably already have better books for this purpose but another list won?t hurt. She shows drawings of marks for fine, silver and costume jewelry makers. A chapter on Metals and Marks, decodes the hallmarks on fine jewelry from a variety of countries. She also discusses testing metals with acid solutions to determine their content scientifically. A recent mystery that I solved with How to be a Jewelry Detective was the marking on a bangle bracelet. I purchased a mangled ?gold? bangle bracelet for $1.00 it looked like 14K and was marked so I bought it for my scrap gold box. When I got home and looked at the mark under strong light and used my loupe (yes I forgot it that day) I noticed the marking was 14KP. I thought, as did the seller who priced the bangle that this marking means 14K plate. But no, according to Jewelry Detective, this marking means 14K plumb gold! In the USA gold content can actually be 13 1/2k instead of 14K. The KP mark was introduced in 1978, and it certifies that my bracelet is 14K gold. Stone Clues illustrates the cuts of stones and the different parts of a stone. There is discussion of marcasite, rhinestones and paste as well as doublet and triplet stones. Plus, how to use your loupe to determine if a stone is glass. She does not claim you will be a gemologist but you should be able to determine if you have a glass stone in your piece. Fittings and Findings is one of my favorite sections it is well illustrated with black and white photos showing different types of clasps, ear wires and hinges. There are also hand drawn illustrations of different findings with dates when they were introduced or popular. This is a very useful section for zeroing in on correct dates for your shiny mystery pieces. Testing Other Materials covers ?Black Jewelry? of interest to those who collect Victorian Mourning Jewelry (Whitby Jet, Black Glass, Bog Oak and Crepe Stone). Testing Bakelite, Ivory, Coral, Celluloid, Amber, Tortoise Shell and more. Unfortunately there is no information on Turquoise in this section. In the last chapter ten fun jewelry mysteries are presented for the reader to solve. The answers are on the author?s web site www.jewelryboxantiques.com. There are also extras like bibliography, glossary, a resource list and an order form for basic ?tools? of the trade. My only complaint is that this book could use an index. This is a basic book in my collection, and it will make a great addition to your collection too. | |
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