AN INSIDER'S JOURNEY INTO GEMSTONES

Lovish Agrawal

The Trained Eye

SECRETS TRADE TRUTH

For over a decade, Lovish Agrawal has lived inside the world few outsiders ever see - the back offices of Jaipur, the cutting houses, the trade desks where the world's gemstones quietly change hands.

The Trained Eye is the book he wishes every buyer had read before walking into their first jewellery store. Part memoir, part field guide, it teaches you to see what the market is hoping you won't.

10+ YEARS IN THE TRADE
12 CHAPTERS
Jaipur SOURCED DIRECT
INSIDE THE BOOK

What you'll learn to see

Twelve chapters that move you, steadily, from the side of the table where you are shown stones to the side where you can see them.

Chapter 1

Why Humans Are Wired for Gemstones

The 142,000-year-old reflex behind every ring you've ever wanted. Why a stone can move you before you can name why.

Chapter 2

The Great Gemstone Illusion

Why a $50 stone and a $5,000 stone can look identical - and how the room, the lighting, and the word "rare" do most of the selling.

Chapter 3

The Anatomy of Value

Origin, treatment, clarity, cut and colour - what actually moves the price, and what is window dressing.

Chapter 4

Certificates That Mean Something

Reading lab reports the way the trade reads them. Which labs to trust, which to question, and what they're not telling you.

Chapter 5

Treatments & What They Hide

Heat, oil, glass, beryllium - the invisible interventions that change everything, and how to spot them.

Chapter 12

The Investment Conversation

Why most gemstone "investments" aren't investments - and the small number that genuinely are.

The pull you feel toward gemstones is not manufactured by advertising. It is one of the oldest continuous behaviours of our species. This book is for opening your eyes without closing your heart.
Published By :
EARLY PRAISE

What readers are saying

"The book the trade did not want written. Honest, generous, and quietly devastating in places."

INDEPENDENT JEWELLER
London, UK

"I have bought stones for fifteen years and learned more in two chapters than in my last five trade shows."

DESIGNER & BUYER
New York

"Reads like a long, careful conversation with a friend who happens to know the market from the inside."

READER
Mumbai
FREQUENTLY ASKED

Questions, answered