Precious Stones: Their History and Mystery1880
Every famous gem with its legend attached.
We discover, augment and publish old information that is still relevant today. Often it comes from rare, out-of-print books, and even unpublished manuscripts. We make it findable, searchable, and available to all — completely intact, with commentary where appropriate.
Here that means the natural world: bird books and butterfly guides, herbals and gem lore, garden encyclopedias and the beasts of the fossil beds — beautiful plates, coupled with our commentary.
12 books live · 35 more coming soon



In 1909 your April birthstone was a sapphire and August was a sardonyx — the modern list wasn't standardized until 1912.
— A Book of Precious Stones, 1909
The Nature Library's fifteen volumes cover 622 species — and you can keep a spotting checklist against the whole set.
— The Nature Library, 1904
In 1900 the only field guide was this book — its photographers went into the field so you wouldn't have to.
— The Nature Library, 1904
A 1901 book introduced dinosaurs to the general public — thrillingly, and sometimes gloriously wrong.
— Animals of the Past, 1901
1909 jewelers had bench tests for fake gems — a file, a lens, and nerve. The book teaches all of them.
— A Book of Precious Stones, 1909
47 books in this collection — 12 here now, another 35 coming soon — shelved the way a good bookshop would do it. The book's cover is the door; you are invited to walk in anywhere.
The Gem Vault (9 books)·The Jeweler's Bench (8 books)·Birds (3 books)·The Insect World (7 books)·The Lost Worlds (3 books)·The Naturalist's Library (6 books)·Learning Nature (4 books)·Field & Stream (4 books)·Flowers & Trees (3 books)
Famous stones, their curses and their legends.
Every famous gem with its legend attached.
Tiffany's expert on every superstition a stone ever carried.
The Koh-i-Noor and its rivals, theft by theft.
Meteorites, bezoars and amulets from every age.
England's crown jewels, stone by stone.
The famous stones and the stories they trail.
Every ring with a story, from signets to charms.
The jewelry of the ancients, piece by piece.
Your birth month's stone, and what it promises.
Gems as the trade knows them.
A working jeweler's tour of gems — cut, priced and myth-checked.
Gemstones for the student and the trade.
A pocket handbook to the precious stones.
The precious stones, plainly described.
The world's great gems, gathered in an album.
The diamond and its kin, from mine to setting.
Diamonds, pearls and the stones worth knowing.
The nation's own gem collection, catalogued.
Field guides and camera hunts.
Chapman's classic that taught America its birds.
Wild birds stalked with a camera instead of a gun.
More birds for young readers, nest by nest.
Butterflies, bees and everything that hums.
The Comstocks' guide to the butterflies, plates and all.
The grasshopper's world, observed up close.
The insect world, introduced species by species.
The honey bee's whole world, from hive to clover.
The insect folk introduce themselves to children.
The winged and the stinging, for young readers.
A state museum's deep study of insects and trees.
Dinosaurs and the deep past.
The dinosaurs as 1901 knew, guessed and got them wrong.
The vanished giants, restored by Victorian imagination.
The fossil record, laid out for students.
The great multi-volume surveys of the living world.
Doubleday's fifteen-volume guide to the living world.
Jardine's forty-volume library of the living world.
The animal kingdom in one readable volume.
Four volumes of wonders from the natural world.
Every mammal in the world, systematically arranged.
A prairie academy's scientific proceedings.
Nature study for young readers.
The animal alphabet, for the youngest naturalists.
Nature study in one hundred classroom lessons.
Buster Bumblebee's adventures, for bedtime.
Freddie Firefly lights up the meadow, for bedtime.
The sporting life outdoors.
The sporting life afield, in one volume.
Why the open country calls, and how to answer.
Every British field sport, explained in full.
The hunter's complete reference.
The green world, bloom by bloom.
The field classic that taught botany by color.
Twelve months in the woods, squirrel banking included.
Flowers and the insects that keep them company.