Dr. Julia Kagan, Curator of post-Classical engraved gems in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, has devoted a lifetime of scholarship to the study of gem-engraving in Britain, in part inspired by the English Brown brothers who carved gems for Catherine the Great during the 18th century. The many articles she published in the 1960s and 1970s covering various aspects of the history of glyptics in Great Britain and the formation of the Hermitages collection of British gems, an earlier dissertation which originally formed the basis of this book, and the attached catalogue, comprise a suitable tribute to the immense richness and diversity of gem engraving in Britain from Antiquity to the present. This comprehensive study includes a catalogue of the British engraved gems in The State Hermitage Museum, appendices of archive documents, and a table of British engravers.

This book discuss different types of engraved gems in the collection of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden Leiden, their makers, users and re-users, combining archaeological, culture historical and geological perspectives.