Long undervalued, Hellenistic Greece has in recent years experienced a renaissance of interest. No longer considered decadent, the literature and art of the three centuries from the spectacular conquests of Alexander the Great in the late fourth century BC to the fall of the last independent kingdom of his successors to the Romans in 31 BC now receive serious consideration. Although Hellenistic art is not accorded as much space in textbooks as Archaic or Classical, the achievements of Hellenistic architects, sculptors, and painters are widely appreciated. Accounts of Greek (and for that matter Roman) art, however, continue to be dominated by anachronistic emphasis on the Vasarian triad of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, while other media, arguably more significant to the ancients themselves, remain underexamined. While the poor survival of ancient ivory- and wood-work, textiles, and precious metals might, perhaps, excuse their absence from modern art histories, engraved gems survive in better condition than pots and greater number than marbles and bronzes. Some have been recovered from graves, but many never went underground. Prized for their materials as well as their craftsmanship, ancient gems were treasured in the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Enlightenment, when their study was at the forefront of...