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Glossary

Facet	A flat side of a cut gemstone.
Faience	An ancient glaze made of crushed quartz, small amounts of lime and metallic colourants.
False Filigree	Style of decoration that imitates filigree.
Fibula	An ancient brooch often used for fastening garments.
Filigree	Decoration created with very thin wires. Often seen as openwork but occasionally soldered to a background.
Fire-gilding	Coating an object in gold. The possess involved combining mercury to gold creating a spreadable liquid. Once the object is covered in this mixture, fire is used to boil off the mercury leaving a solid coating of gold.
Fleur de lis	A design motif based on lilies. Often used in heraldry and associated with French nobility.
Florentine	A textured finish that is composed of many intersecting lines which creates a slightly matt appearance.
Fluorescence	The visible light emitted by some diamonds when exposed to UV rays.
Fob	A chain attached to a pocket watch often with an ornament or seal attached.
Foil Back	A technique where a thin sheet of material (metal or coloured piece) is put behind a gemstone in order to reflect more colour or light.
Fossil	The remains of plants or animals preserved in rock in a petrified form.

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