Pastes, replicas of gemstones made from a type of glass, were complex to produce; this made them rarer and more expensive than plaster casts, for example, in 18th century gemstone libraries. The manufacturer of the Würzburg pastes was Philipp Daniel Lippert (1702–1785), who also published the first systematically arranged gemstone library with accompanying indexes. The collection is the earliest of its kind. Volume 2 of the Würzburg Pastes contains mainly impressions of 16th and 17th century cameos and intaglios with antique motifs, whereby most of the originals have been lost. In the 18th century, most of them were considered antique. The beginning of scientific gem research is recorded here, with J. F. Christ (1700–1756) as its pioneer. Appendix I: Lippert’s books. Appendix II: Otto Zwierlein, Pliny on the Art of Gem Cutting.



First systematic annotation of the individual pieces of a "universal" gemstone library


Philipp Daniel Lippert’s only gemstone library