Lapidary

Lapidary

A lapidary (or lapidarist) is an artist or artisan who forms stone, mineral, gemstones into decorative items such as engraved gems, including cameos, or cabochons, and faceted designs, or who is an expert in precious stones; and can be a collector of or dealer in gems. Related, but in contrast, hardstone carving is the term in art history for some of the objects produced and the craft. Diamond cutters are generally not referred to as lapidaries, due to the specialized techniques which are required to work diamond. In modern contexts "gemcutter" typically refers to people who specialize in cutting diamonds, but in older historical contexts; it refers to artists producing engraved gems such as jade carvings and the like.

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