Credits and Acknowledgments: The author wishes to thank all the people who have given time, information and encouragement to the work on this book. Particular thanks are due Mr. George D. Skinner of N. W. Ayer & Son Inc. for supplying invaluable information; Miss Dorothy Dignam, of the same firm, for her inspiring enthusiasm and knowledge; Mr. Lansford F. King, publisher of the Jewelers’ Circular Keystone, for his endless confidence in the work which made the completion of this book possible; and Mr. Albert E. Haase, president of the Jewelry Industry Council, for the many helpful facts from his special fund of knowledge.

For contributing to the visual quality of this book, grateful acknowledgment is made to the Jewelry Industry Council for the frontispiece colorplates; The Metropolitan Museum of Art for Illustrations 1 through 8; the British Information Service for Illustrations 11, 12 and 15; and Trude Fleischmann for Illustrations 28 and 29.


©1958 by Marianne Ostier

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 58-10224

Manufactured in the United States of America

All original designs as well as the text by Marianne Ostier are protected by copyright and may not be copied or reproduced without permission in writing from the author and publisher.

THE BIRTHSTONES