A Treatise on Gems, in Reference to Their Practical and Scientific Value.

A useful guide for the jeweller, amateur, artist, lapidary, mineralogist, and chemist, accompanied by a description of the most interesting American gems, and ornamental and architectural materials.

Gilt-stamped cloth 8vo; 178, (2)pp, with leaf of reviews tipped in opposite the title page. Very Good with sunning and minor foxing, tidemark to foredge after p.155. The first edition of the popular treatise, which went into a second edition the same year. Inscribed by the author to [J. C. N.?] Whittlesey, Esq. on the front flyleaf.

The first monograph on gemstones published in the United States. "The text begins with general gemology: properties, chemistry, geology, geographical distribution, enhancement of color, gem setting, cleaning of gems, imitations, commerce, and gems used in optical applications. The second part considers individual gemstones and ornamental materials beginning with the diamond and working through the major and minor species into such rarities as natrolite, apatite, pyrite, and numerous ornamental stones. Feuchtwanger took special care to record as much information as he could find on native gemstones and the localities that furnished them, and while some localities were previously recorded by Samuel Robinson in his Catalogue of American Minerals, 1825, these were treated very briefly and without amplifying details such as characterizes Feuchtwanger’s treatment. Another "first" of the present work is the extended description of pearls, artificial pearls, and corals, but nothing was said about the freshwater pearls of the United States which apparently were largely unknown at the time. As alluded to in Renwick’s letter, Feuchtwanger’s writing sometimes borders on the quaint, but all of it is easily followed and forms much pleasant as well as informative reading. Very rare." Sinkankas 2082. Gemology: An Annotated Bibliography (1993).