The Ruby, Sapphire & Emerald Buying Guide, 3rd Edition is a comprehensive full-color book that helps buyers identify, evaluate and select rubies, sapphires & emeralds. This 3rd edition has 173 new photos, and it updates gem professionals on new treatments, jewelry styles, grading systems and geographic sources of` rubies, sapphires and emeralds. Using close-up photos, it shows how to make visual judgments about clarity, transparency, cut quality and brilliance. In addition, the guide helps readers understand lab reports and find appraisers and labs. Guidelines are also presented on how to detect imitations and synthetic stones and how to care for rubies. sapphire and emeralds. As stated in a review of the previous edition by the Journal of Gemmology: “This is the book for anyone who buys, sells or studies gemstones and also for the casual reader. This style of book (and similar ones by the same author) is the only one I know which introduces actual trade conditions and successfully combines a good deal of gemology with them. Especially good are remarks on the influence of local lighting conditions – hardly ever mentioned elsewhere but profoundly affecting display and sales: color, taste, and preference are considered too and the purpose and effect of different cutting styles. As well as all this are all the details any gemologist would want. Last of all, the pictures are very good, and no Internet reproductions have achieved this quality so far. Buy it, read it and keep it.” Library Journal reviewed the previous edition of the Ruby, Sapphire & Emerald Buying Guide and said “In her new guide, Newman continues her tradition of user-friendly texts that are technical enough to help consumers make wise purchases. Like her other well-regarded guides, this book is profusely illustrated with color photographs showing not only the beauty of finished jewelry but close-ups and magnifications of details such as finish, settings, cut, clarity, flaws, and fakes. Sections on testing and judging the real from the fake are sophisticated enough for professionals to use. . . highly recommended for both academic and public libraries of all sizes.”