The Book of Diamonds: Their History and Romance from Ancient India to Modern Times PDF Download

Author: Joan Younger Dickinson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Diamonds
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Includes a practical guide to cuts and carats.

Author: Joan Y. Dickinson
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486156826
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Perhaps the most prized of all gems, diamonds have a long and fascinating history. In this engrossing, profusely illustrated volume, that history is covered in detail — from early discoveries in the Golconda mines of India (probably the site of the first diamonds ever unearthed) and digs in Brazil, to the South African diamond rush and development of major mining companies. Over 200 illustrations include step-by-step photos showing how these valuable stones are mined and the intricacies of cutting and faceting, while reproductions of museum paintings and photographs depict famous individual diamonds as well as outstanding rings, bracelets, brooches, pins, earrings, watches, tiaras, and other traditional and modern diamond pieces. Here also are stories of the most famous and infamous diamonds: the Koh-i-Noor in the Tower of London, the Hope in the Smithsonian Institution, the Regent in the Louvre, the Orloff in the Kremlin, and many other celebrated jewels. More than a dramatically told story of diamonds, this volume will also serve as a practical guide for anyone who owns a diamond or plans to buy one. It explains and illustrates different diamond cuts, the role of carats, and how to buy diamonds — for sentiment, beauty, show, flawlessness, or investment. Anyone who has ever been captivated by the matchless brilliance of these rare gems will find this book an informative, highly readable addition to their personal library.

Author: Cynthia Clark Northrup
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317471520
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 2481

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Book Description
Written for high school or beginning undergraduate students, this four-volume reference valiantly attempts to provide a historical framework for the perhaps overly broad concept of world trade. Entry topics were selected on trade organizations, influential people, commodities, events that affected trade, trade routes, navigation, religion, communic

Author: Richard Kurin
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
ISBN: 1588344193
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 405

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Book Description
An entertaining and well-researched history of the Hope diamond Since its discovery in seventeenth-century India, the Hope diamond, a glimmering deep blue gem weighing over 45 carats, has been shrouded in mystery and steeped in intrigue. In this groundbreaking work, Dr. Richard Kurin goes beyond the speculation to reveal the truth behind a legendary stone. Kurin, a cultural anthropologist, spent more than a decade on the trail of the legendary gem. But the 'curse' that surrounds it, which Kurin puts to rest once and for all, is only one small piece of a long and lustrous story that moves between ancient religion and modern magic, royal power and class rivalry, revenge and greed. Richly illustrated, Hope Diamond works in a grand historical tradition: depicting the specific to reveal the universal.

Author: Dina Siegel
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387959602
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
The academic study of diamonds is as multi-faceted as the precious stones themselves. Mineralogists and geographers have written about them, as have historians and economists and students of art and fashion. They each shine their light on a different aspect of this source of luminous radiance. But who would venture to describe the entire complicated worldwide system starting in the diamond mines and ending with the consumers of Western metropolises? In The Mazzel Ritual: Culture, Customs and Crime in the Diamond Trade, Russian-Israeli cultural anthropologist and criminologist Dina Siegel follows the route of a diamond from the mines of Africa to the shops of Europe and the United States, as it passes through countless hands and places and is smuggled, stolen, cut, polished, sold, exchanged and, finally, worn as jewelry. In the course of this long and exciting journey, a wide range of people face all sorts of risks and criminality, as well as various moral and ethical judgments. Siegel describes the range of ethnic groups that are active in the diamond trade and the culture and customs that are specific to this business. She analyses the dangers and threats to the industry and aims to uncover the strategies and tactics to deal with them. Finally, this story of risk, trust and crime examines the vulnerability of diamond production and distribution to illicit and criminal activities. This book is about the diamond business itself as well as about those involved in it. It tells the story of people who simply cannot stay away from this expensive and alluring commodity.

Author: William Dalrymple
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1635570778
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 307

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Book Description
From the internationally acclaimed and bestselling historians William Dalrymple and Anita Anand, the first comprehensive and authoritative history of the Koh-i-Noor diamond, arguably the most celebrated jewel in the world. On March 29, 1849, the ten-year-old leader of the Sikh kingdom of the Punjab was ushered into the magnificent Mirrored Hall at the center of the British fort in Lahore, India. There, in a formal Act of Submission, the frightened but dignified child handed over to the British East India Company swathes of the richest land in India and the single most valuable object in the subcontinent: the celebrated Koh-i-Noor diamond, otherwise known as the Mountain of Light. To celebrate the acquisition, the British East India Company commissioned a history of the diamond woven together from the gossip of the Delhi Bazaars. From that moment forward, the Koh-i-Noor became the most famous and mythological diamond in history, with thousands of people coming to see it at the 1851 Great Exhibition and still more thousands repeating the largely fictitious account of its passage through history. Using original eyewitness accounts and chronicles never before translated into English, Dalrymple and Anand trace the true history of the diamond and disperse the myths and fantastic tales that have long surrounded this awe-inspiring jewel. The resulting history of south and central Asia tells a true tale of greed, conquest, murder, torture, colonialism, and appropriation that shaped a continent and the Koh-i-Noor itself.

Author: Marjorie OʹRourke Boyle
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004106758
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
This cultural analysis of the divine indwelling from the fourth through sixteenth centuries reverses the history of doctrine to venture doctrine as history. It discovers a fundamental disparity between domestic values and the exilic asceticism that once dominated western civilization.

Author: Cindy J. Smith
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135193843
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 717

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Book Description
The Routledge Handbook of International Criminology brings together the latest thinking and findings from a diverse group of both senior and promising young scholars from around the globe. This collaborative project articulates a new way of thinking about criminology that extends existing perspectives in understanding crime and social control across borders, jurisdictions, and cultures, and facilitates the development of an overarching framework that is truly international. The book is divided into three parts, in which three distinct yet overlapping types of crime are analyzed: international crime, transnational crime, and national crime. Each of these perspectives is then articulated through a number of chapters which cover theory and methods, international and transnational crime analyses, and case studies of criminology and criminal justice in relevant nations. In addition, questions placed at the end of each chapter encourage greater reflection on the issues raised, and will encourage young scholars to move the field of inquiry forward. This handbook is an excellent reference tool for undergraduate and graduate students with particular interests in research methods, international criminology, and making comparisons across countries.

Author: Maurice Dufrène
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486141950
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 51

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Book Description
Over 300 spectacular pendants, combs, buckles, rings, bracelets, brooches, umbrella handles, penknives, buttons, clasps, and scissors in detailed photographs reprinted from rare, turn-of-the-century folios.

Author: Zohar Amar
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748697829
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Explores the impact of drugs introduced by the Arabs on medieval Mediterranean medicineFor more than one thousand years Arab medicine held sway in the ancient world, from the shores of Spain in the West to China, India and Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in the East. This book explores the impact of Greek (as well as Indian and Persian) medical heritage on the evolution of Arab medicine and pharmacology, investigating it from the perspective of materia medica a reliable indication of the contribution of this medical legacy.Focusing on the main substances introduced and traded by the Arabs in the medieval Mediterranean including Ambergris, camphor, musk, myrobalan, nutmeg, sandalwood and turmeric the authors show how they enriched the existing inventory of drugs influenced by Galenic-Arab pharmacology. Further, they look at how these substances merged with the development and distribution of new technologies and industries that evolved in the Middle Ages such as textiles, paper, dyeing and tanning, and with the new trends, demands and fashions regarding spices, perfumes, ornaments (gemstones) and foodstuffs some of which can be found in our modern-day food basket.Key FeaturesAssesses the assimilation of theoretical and practical Greek, Indian and Persian medicine into Arabic medical cultureReconstructs and presents a list of medicinal substances distributed by the Arabs as a result of their conquestsTells the stories of 33 new Arabic drugs within the context of their natural historyDescribes the contribution of the Arabs to the daily medieval cultural material (medicine, cosmetics, perfumery, dyeing of materials, industrial products and precious stones)Includes 35 colour illustrations