This book is the latest in the popular Fred Ward Gem Book Series. The full-color photographs give the buyer and enthusiast all the information needed to understand the various types of opals and the ability to buy them wisely.

"Written especially for the opal collector and gemmology student, as well as for the opal miner or visitor to the opal fields, this bokk names every recorded opal deposit in Australia and pinpoints every location on concise geologial maps. The text claifies in understandable terms the many mioneralogical, gemmological, and commercial complexities of the opal gemstone and explains the scientific factors involved in opal formation." - book jacket.

Precious opal is a rainbow made tangible. Its spectral blaze of color moves, changes, intensifies, fades, or disappears with the slightest change in perspective. Opal?s intriguing play of color and unique atomic arrangement has made it the subject of scientific probing from early optics in the 1850s to high tech photonics today. Equally challenging has been discovering opal?s place in history. Its beauty begs to be enshrined in myth and legend when facts are as scarce as the stone itself.Opal, both precious and common, is found in disparate environments from the unbearable heat of the Australian outback to the higher elevations of the Canadian Rockies, from a centuries old site in Slovakia to a number of little known places in the American west. A unique assortment of characters collect and mine this equally individual stone, of which no two are exactly alike.This blazing gem of chemical simplicity?just silica and water?has ignited a complexity of human emotions: a compulsion to mine, the desire to wear, an urge to fashion, the challenge to imitate, a need to possess. A natural, wearable stone with magical depth, movement, and color, opal is a truly phenomenal gemstone.

New edition with added chapters and sections. Provides all the information necessary for complete analysis and evaluation of any opal from a true gem. Properly identify opals from all over the world and what characteristics affect value. Breathtaking color photos throughout.

Finally the real truth about how master jewellers, gemmologists and major auction houses value diamonds and colored gemstones.

Proven step-by-step approach to cutting opal. Easy-to-use guide that takes the beginner through the first stone to advanced cutting techniques, including doublet and triplet making.

A comprehensive manual of the world's gemstones and includes more than 1,400 examples. Opposite each illustration, this text provides a description of the particular stone, including details of the properties and chemical composition which makes the stone unique. It also gives information on location of major deposits, and alternative names.