KUNZ, George Frederick and Charles Hugh STEVENSON. The Book of the Pearl. The History, Art, Science, and Industry of the Queen of Gems. New York: The Century Co., 1908.
KUNZ, George Frederick and Charles Hugh STEVENSON. The Book of the Pearl. The History, Art, Science, and Industry of the Queen of Gems. New York: The Century Co., 1908.

细节
KUNZ, George Frederick and Charles Hugh STEVENSON. The Book of the Pearl. The History, Art, Science, and Industry of the Queen of Gems. New York: The Century Co., 1908.
Large octavo (285 x 195mm). Colour portrait frontispiece of Tsarina Alexandra, 99 plates, some of these in colour, some with captions on printed tissue guards. Publisher's original light blue cloth, spine and upper cover richly blocked in gilt, top edge gilt, others rough-trimmed (some wear to the spine, edges rubbed, hinges split but holding).

FIRST EDITION of this richly illustrated work, and still one of the most important books in the field. Sinkankas, Gemology, 3690.

拍品专文

Natural Beauty
The rare pearls contained within this section have been gathered from around the world and appropriately brought to the Gulf, which for centuries was by far the most important source of pearls.

Fine coloured pearls and exceptionally large examples are difficult to find nowdays and this section of 30 lots must be considered one of the most important groups of natural pearls to have appeared at auction for a very long time.

There is no official record of important and historic pearls and information in books regarding weights and measurements is sparse.

Christie's have however compiled a database of almost 200 of the worlds largest and most historic pearls on which our references in this catalogue are based.

In order to add pearl's to Christie's International records please e-mail David Warren at dwarren@christies.com with weights measurements and an image of any individual pearls over 160 grains (40 carats).