This content was first published on IGR – Italian Gemological Review no. 14 in 2022. The information provided here is therefore current as of the original publication date.
“The Secret Teachings of Gemcutting: 50 Classic Gemstone Designs” is the new book by Justin K Prim. The 237-page volume features an attractive hardcover and includes a general discussion of the gemological properties determining the cutter’s choices, followed by a brief history of gemstone design.
The very heart of the text is made up of eight well-structured sections devoted to specific cut patterns, in the following order of presentation: round (brilliant, mixed, hearts and arrows, Portuguese, star, checkerboard, buff top, 8/8), oval (brilliant, mixed, simple and mixed Portuguese, barion), cushion (mixed rectangular, mixed square, double), rectangular (square, baguette, princess), emerald (octagonal, square, asscher, black C-axis, radiant), fancy (brilliant and mixed marquise, brilliant and mixed pear-shape, simple, mixed and Portuguese trilliant), historical cuts (scissor, French, bar, star, rose rectangular), rose (round, oval, double, baroque, triangular, Phoenix, V-shaped).
Gem cutting lovers know that the creative possibilities are virtually endless. Yet this doesn’t cause any trouble at all to the author‘s challenge. The different designs are comfortably grouped into coherent and comprehensive sets. On page 5 the key to lapidary creativity is then explained, that is the interchangeability of the many different designs: «If you wanted to use an emerald cut crown design with a radiant cut pavilion design you only need to follow the individual crown and pavilion instructions of each design».
Prim has a soundly pragmatic approach and for each type of cutting style, in addition to an indication of the degree of difficulty, a scheme for stones with high refractive index and along with another for those with low IR are proposed. Explanatory photos of rubies and citrine quartz offer an immediate rendering for each cutting pattern. At the top of the page, each design is described according to its own history with a technical commentary.
This is followed by the cutting diagrams with the indices to be used for crown and pavilion, something we would have been satisfied with in a discussion about cutting before this text broadened the spectrum and proposed a new approach.
As a matter of fact, with the exception of practical manuals intended mainly for artisans and hobbyists, the publications on gemstone cutting are rather scarce. Prim, who has already contributed to issue 12 of our magazine with the article “Lapidary technology through the ages: laps and polish”, must be given a great deal of credit for bridging the gap between gemstone design and the rich vein of jewelry design.
The latter is a fascinating field, yet one that engulfs and irreparably overshadows all the other components of creativity. Conversely, the author successfully puts gems at the center of the discussion and shows how they have a precise historical background and a cultural importance in themselves.
Will this beautiful book be bought just by people looking to become gem cutters? Not really, a far wider audience will browse through it. If gem-cutting is to become part of gemological studies, it must be taught (it is not by chance that the author is a lapidary instructor at the Gem Trading Institute of Bangkok). In short, knowing the basics of gem cutting is not the concern of the industry only, but of anybody who is involved, in whatever way, in the gemstone and jewelry universe. Prim teaches how to “read” stones and provides a grammar that can help us decipher the language of jewelry more extensively.
“The Secret Teachings of Gemcutting: 50 Classic Gemstone Designs”
Justin K Prim
Published in Chicago (USA) and Bangkok (Thailand) by Magus Publishing in 2021.
237 pages, hardcover and softcover formats available.
ISBN: 978-0-578-87071-7 (softcover)
ISBN: 978-1-7370578-0-2 (hardcover)
Available in English language on www.magusgems.org for the price of 80 $ (softcover) and 100 $ (hardcover).
Article by Paolo Minieri, published on IGR – Rivista Italiana di Gemmologia #14, Spring 2022
