Jewelers are very interesting type of workers and lovers of stone which has developed for many centuries. Jewelers were mainly gold and silver technicians at first, and old stone processing workshops were closely concerned with coinage of gold and silver.

No wonder that the great masters, such as the famous Benvenuto Cellini in Florence (1500 - 1580), were sculptors, stonecutters, chasers-medalists, diamond cutters, and jewelers at the same time. These are the best jewelers of the last time: Lalique in Paris, Berfel in St. Petersburg, Maseev and especially the Czech Kotler in Leningrad, and in Czechoslovakia then. All of them were closely concerned not only with metal, but also with stone. Birbaum F.P., who was Swiss by birth, but Russian by his life and love to Russia, was the most vivid personality in this.

Among “the riches”, the organizers of entire firms and workshops, it is necessary to mention: Fabergé (father and sons) in Leningrad, whose firm is described in the Chapter VII, and especially Rosenthal, the Parisian jeweler, a true lover of stone, one of the largest traders of stones in the world, especially diamonds and colored stones. His vast cash assets which were made as a result of sale of gems and jewelry afforded an opportunity not only to collect the most remarkable treasures of stone in the world, but also to give a part of assets to the science itself (for example, the foundation of outstanding Institute of physical chemistry in Paris). We can mention Tiffany (in New York) of the major jewelers of America, who put forward new various types of minerals, such as californite, manganese, and green chalcedonies, etc. George Kunz, well-known mineral specialist and expert, who had come to Russia and Ural twice in order to buy stones, played a great part during creation of stone industry in America.

Academician Fersman A.E. (Archive of the Russian Academy of Science, collection 544, list 7, file 59)