The Opal Book - Frank Leechman

A complete guide to the famous gemstone.

They say opal is like gold. Once the fever gets into your blood you can never get away from it. This book knows all the reasons why.
Like the gemstone itself it has fascination, excitement, and colour.
It records authentic tales of opal all over the world, in Europe, America and Australia, in the mines, in the jewellers' shops, and even in the palace of Queen Elizabeth. It gives details of huge opals and of comparatively small stones that are still worth thousands. It tells where to look for opal, how to mine for it, how to polish the rough stones, how to be sure of buying genuine and not imitation opal, and how to take care of opal jewellery.

Frank Leechman (pictured on the back flap) is probably the only Englishman who ever migrated to Australia "mainly to get better acquainted with opal'
He has been working with minerals, in the field and as a lapidary, for nearly thirty years. He has written this book for the general reader and the rock-hound alike. It has an unequalled reference value (see, for instance, the sound but simple geological explanations, the notes on the causation of colour, the hints on opal polishing, the list of opal-bearing localities); but basically it is a true and picturesque story of opals and opal-mining yesterday and today.

In the author's words, "The pages of the past are slipping away all too fast as the old hands turn and leave us, taking with them what they know." What he has done is to gather all that history and that knowledge and turn it into a record that is always reliable and always interesting.

The Opal Book has eight plates in colour and eight in black-and-white. There are also several maps and diagrams.

• Condition: Used - Good, but dust cover is very damaged
• Type: Hardback
• Dimensions: 16 x 24 x 3cm