Home›Sources›The Curious Lore of Precious StonesSourcesThe Curious Lore of Precious StonesCitation FormatsGeneral ReferenceGeneral Reference Citation TextDivinity Atlas. "The Curious Lore of Precious Stones." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/sources/the-curious-lore-of-precious-stones.Copy General ReferenceAPA StyleAPA Style Citation TextDivinity Atlas. (n.d.). The Curious Lore of Precious Stones. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/sources/the-curious-lore-of-precious-stonesCopy APA StyleBibTeXBibTeX Citation Text@misc{divinityatlas-the-curious-lore-of-precious-stones, author = {Divinity Atlas}, title = {The Curious Lore of Precious Stones}, year = {2026}, url = {https://dev-divinity.interactiveatlas.org/sources/the-curious-lore-of-precious-stones}, note = {Accessed August 30, 2026} }Copy BibTeXGeorge Kunz was chief gemmologist to Tiffany and this record states that professional interest plainly rather than presenting him as a disinterested outside scholar: he had a direct commercial stake in gemstones as a category, which is exactly why this atlas holds his popular compendium at the tier appropriate to an interested party's collection of folklore rather than independent scholarship. Its real documented value is as the source of much gem folklore still repeated in English today, including the specific claim that Walter Scott's 1829 novel collapsed the market for opal. Use it to document what gem folklore this book itself records and to trace where a specific piece of repeated folklore actually originates; it is not independent verification that any of the folklore it records is historically accurate.FactsClaims Backed By This Source (147 claims)Comments (0)Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)FactsCitationAuthorWell-attestedGeorge Frederick KunzPublisherWell-attestedDover PublicationsThis is the 1971 Dover reprint; Kunz's Curious Lore of Precious Stones was first published in 1913.Publication YearWell-attested1913URLWell-attestedhttps://archive.org/details/curiousloreprec00kunzgoogSource TypeWell-attestedreferenceAssessmentReliability TierWell-attested2George Kunz's popular compendium of gem folklore; Kunz was chief gemmologist to Tiffany, a direct commercial interest this record states plainly, which is why it is held at the tier for an interested party's collection of folklore rather than independent scholarship.NotesWell-attestedThe source of much repeated gem folklore in English, including the claim that Walter Scott's 1829 novel collapsed the opal market. Kunz was chief gemmologist to Tiffany and not a disinterested party.Claims Backed By This Source (147 claims)This source backs 147 claims across the atlas. As facts: 128 well-attested. Plus 19 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.Disposition By TopicArticles, 95 claims: 95 well-attested.Gemstones, 44 claims: 25 well-attested, 19 general references.Sources, 8 claims: 8 well-attested.Well-attested128ArticlesA Group, Not a StoneA Mineral That Comes Pre-MagnetizedA Modern Stone with an Old NameA Twentieth-Century TraditionAdularescence, and How the Sheen WorksAlexandrite, the Stone That Changes ColourAquamarine, the Sailors' Stone and the FurnaceBeryl, Chromium, and the GardenBishops, Sobriety, and FebruaryBlood, Courage, and MarchCalcite, Cleavage, and Double VisionCalcite, the Most Consequential Mineral in the WorldCarbon, Hardness, and What Adamas MeantChalcedony, Iron, and the Seal That Would Not StickChrysoberyl, and the Eye That OpensCitrine, Mostly Born from AmethystColourless Corundum, and the Furnace That Changed the TradeCopper, Phosphate, and a Stone That ChangesCoral, and the Long Argument About What It IsCoral, the Stone That Was AliveCordierite, and What Pleochroism Actually IsCorundum Again, and the Medieval Stone of HeavenCorundum, Chromium, and the Line Between Ruby and SapphireCorundum, Heat, and the Question of DisclosureFire Agate, Iridescence in ChalcedonyFluorite, the Mineral That Named a PhenomenonGomed, Rahu, and Agrippa's Regulus StoneGoshenite, and the Beryl That Became a Word for SpectaclesGreen CalciteGreen Calcite, and How a Colour Prefix Invents a StoneGreen TourmalineGrossular, and the Garnets of the Migration PeriodHathor, Nishapur, and the SouthwestHeliodor, and the One Mineral Behind Five Gem NamesHeliotrope, and a Legend With a DateHematite, the Bleeding StoneHematite, the Streak That Names ItHessonite, the Cinnamon Stone of RahuHow a Cat's Eye WorksHow a Cultured Pearl Is Made, and the Trial That Defined OneHow Tiger's Eye Formed, and the Argument About ItImperial Topaz, and the Cleavage ProblemIolite, and the Viking-Compass ClaimJet as Protective AmuletKyanite in the Rock RecordKyanite, Hard One Way and Soft the OtherMalachite, Green Copper and Green PoisonMalachite, the Ore, the Eye Paint and the Winter PalaceMay, and Where That Came FromMost Citrine Is Heated AmethystShowing 1 to 50 of 110 entities carrying this claim. NextGeneral References19GemstonesBlack ObsidianBloodstoneCarnelianCoralEmeraldGarnetHematiteJadeLapis LazuliMalachiteMoon StoneOpalRed CoralRed TourmalineRose QuartzSeaWater PearlTissue Nucleated PearlTurquoiseYellow TopazComments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.View At A Past YearThe atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.Show This Year