About the Book
George Frederick Kunz was Tiffany & Co.'s gem expert for more than half a century, the man who bought the Tiffany Diamond's rivals and assembled the collections that went to the Morgan halls of the American Museum of Natural History. Kunzite is named after him.
This booklet — a twenty-third edition, copyright 1909 by Tiffany & Co. of Fifth Avenue and 37th Street — sets out the sentiments and superstitions attached to precious stones, and the month each stone belongs to.
Its most interesting pages are the comparative tables. Kunz gives the birthstones of the Jews, the Romans, Isidorus Bishop of Seville in 635 A.D., the Arabians, the Poles, the Russians, the Italians, and the eighteenth to twentieth centuries — and they disagree with each other constantly. He traces the whole idea back to the twelve stones of the High Priest's breastplate.