Where can I farm Pages/Tomes of Crafting?

So I have found that these pages are needed for progressing crafting to grandmaster and illustrious. I have also been able to discover that in nightmare difficulty you get the pages, in hell you get the tomes and then in inferno you get the Tome of Secrets.

What I am looking for is areas where I can go and find them more often. Are they world drops from destroying the environment and/or opening chests and if there is a preference which one? Or are they mob drops and, again, is there a preference towards a type of mob?

Solution 1:

Total Blacksmith Leveling Cost and Materials

• 593,000 gold
• 50 Page of Blacksmithing
• 50 Tome of Blacksmithing
• 35 Tome of Secrets

Source

Total Jeweler Leveling Cost and Materials

• 140,000 gold
• 20 Page of Jewelcrafting
• 20 Tome of Jewelcrafting
• 40 Tome of Secrets

Source

Drop Rate and place

 - Page of Blacksmithing  - Drops in Nightmare, Hell, Inferno difficulty
 - Tome of Blacksmithing  - Drops in Hell, Inferno difficulty
 - Tome of Secrets        - Drops in Inferno difficulty

 - Page of Jewelcrafting  - Drops in Nightmare, Hell, Inferno difficulty
 - Tome of Jewelcrafting  - Drops in Hell, Inferno difficulty
 - Tome of Secrets        - Drops in Inferno difficulty

These items do not drop in Normal mode

Source

Aside the above information, there are reports about pages droping in ACT IV normal.¹²

I believe is because some monster have a iLv in ACT IV normal equivalent to the early monsters from nightmare (Like the gems, where you get better quality based on the item level), but I couldn't find source to support (or to invalid) this information. (still looking)

Solution 2:

I have no hard data to base this on, aside from watching drops as I play through, but the drop rate does not seem to be specific to any areas.

Rather, pages and tomes seem to drop randomly the same as with potions and gems.

Champions/uniques/bosses seem to have a much higher chance of dropping them than regular mobs, as do chests (particularly Resplendent Chests), but it is not 100%. However, I frequently receive both jewelry and blacksmithing pages from the same chest, so it appears the chances of either type dropping are independent of each other.

As was mentioned, pages drop in Normal mode are almost non-existent.

From my experience, the best way to obtain them (aside from the Auction House), is simply grinding champion/unique/bosses, and looting every available chest you come across.