Modern Jeweler’s Consumer Guide to Colored Gemstones

250 Pages·1990·8.347 MB·English

by  David Federman (auth.)

MODERN JEWELER'S
CONSUMER
GUIDE
TO COLORED
GEMSTONES
Copyright© 1990 by Modern Jeweler Magazine,
a division of Vance Publishing Corporation
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 89-22478
ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-6490-0 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4684-6488-7
001: 10.1007/978-1-4684-6488-7
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Federman, David.
Modern jeweler's consumer guide to colored gemstones 1 David
Federman; with photographs by Tino Hammid.
p. cm.
1. Precious stones-Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title.
TS752.F387 1989
553.8-dc20 89-22478
CIP
The author and publisher have exercised their best judgement in selecting data to be
presented in this book, have reported in good faith the information from the sources, and
have made every reasonable effort to make the data presented accurate and authoritative. But
neither the author nor the publisher warrants the accuracy or completeness of the information
contained in this book or assumes liability for its fitness for any particular purpose or use.
Readers have the responsibility to seek expert advice for their specific applications.
MODERN JEW E L E R' S
CONSUMER GUIDE TO
COLORED
GEMSTONES
DAVID FEDERMAN
PHOTOGRAPHS BY TINO HAMMID
~ VAN NOSTRAND REINHOLD
~ _____ New York
• •
TABLE OF CONTENTS
BRAZILIAN ALEXANDRITE ........................ 14
RUSSIAN ALEXANDRITE ......................... 18
AMBER ...................................... 22
AFRICAN AMETHYST ........................... 26
ANDALUSITE ................................. 30
AFRICAN AQUAMARINE ........................ 34
BRAZILIAN AQUAMARINE ....................... 38
CAT'S-EYE CHRYSOBERYL ....................... 42
CITRINE ..................................... 46
CORAL ...................................... 50
AUSTRALIAN PINK DIAMOND .................... 54
FANCY BLUE DIAMOND ........................ 58
FANCY BROWN DIAMOND ..................... 62
THE HOPE DIAMOND .......................... 66
THE TIFFANY DIAMOND ........................ 70
FANCY YELLOW DIAMOND ..................... 74
COLOMBIAN EMERALD ......................... 78
ZAMBIAN EMERALD ........................... 82
DEMANTOID GARNET .......................... 86
MALAYA GARN ET ............................. 90
RHODOLITE GARNET ........................... 94
INDICOLITE .................................. 98
IOLITE ..................................... 102
BURMA JADEITE .............................. 106
KUNZITE .................................... 110
LAPIS LAZULI ................................. 114
MOONSTONE ............................... 118
MORGAN ITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
AUSTRALIAN BLACK OPAL ...................... 126
AUSTRALIAN WHITE OPAL ...................... 130
Gemstones
... have intrigued us since the beginning of time.
Desired for their rarity and natural beauty; gemstones have been
valued as objects of personal adornment and symbols of wealth
and status by every culture throughout history.
Occurring in a remarkable variety of colors, from subtle pastels to
brilliant hues, gemstones make a personal statement that captures
and expresses your Individuality with sparkle and style. Worn as
accessories, collected, or given as gifts, the beauty and enduring
value of natural colored gemstones make them desirable treasures
to enjoy today and pass on to future generations.
The following collection of articles and photographs is a treasury
of fascinating gemstone information. As sponsor of this publication,
the American Gem Trade Association suggests that you supplement
your knowledge and enhance your appreciation of gemstones by
viSiting retail Jewelers who can help you ",
')\dd More Color to Your Life
'" With Natural Colored Gemstones,"
MEXICAN FIRE OPAL .......................... 134
AMERICAN FRESHWATER PEARL .................. 138
CHINESE FRESHWATER PEARL ................... 142
CONCH PEARL .............................. 146
JAPAN ESE AKOYA PEARL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
TAH ITIAN BLACK PEARL ........................ 154
BURMA PERIDOT ............................. 158
RUBELLITE ................................... 162
BURMA RUBY ................................ 166
EAST AFRICAN RUBY .......................... 170
STAR RUBY .................................. 174
THAI RUBY .................................. 178
EAST AFRICAN FANCY SAPPHIRE ................. 182
KASHMIR SAPPHIRE ........................... 186
PADPARADSCHA SAPPHIRE ...................... 190
PINK SAPPHIRE ............................... 194
SRI LANKAN SAPPHIRE ........................ 198
STAR SAPPHIRE ............................... 202
YELLOW SAPPHIRE ............................ 206
YOGO SAPPHIRE ............................. 210
PINK SPINEL ................................. 214
TANZANITE ................................. 218
BLUE TOPAZ ................................. 222
PINK TOPAZ ................................. 226
PRECIOUS TOPAZ ............................ 230
CALIFORNIA TOURMALINE ..................... 234
CHROME TOURMALINE ....................... 238
TSAVORITE .................................. 242
TURQUOISE ................................. 246
ZIRCON ................................... 250
INTRODUCTION
Since early 1989, a gem dealer I've known for years has been calling
me every few weeks to brief me on mounting mayhem in Colombia's
lucrative emerald market. The troubling gist of these calls is always this:
There is a full-fledged turf war going on between that South American
country's bustling drug and gem trades for control of its emerald ex
port business. According to this dealer and several others, anywhere from
two to four thousand emerald industry people, mostly miners and deal
ers, have been murdered since 1980. No doubt the gem sector, itself
never gun shy, has retaliated in full and in kind. After all, the two groups
have banded together in an intermittent alliance against a common
enemy-Communist guerillas-with results the CIA would envy.
I mention this bloodshed because of something the gem dealer once
said to me: "I bet you never think of what a gem has to go through to
get to a jewelry store:'
He's right.
I tend to think of colored stones as things of beauty, not objects of
gruesome power struggles between mining kingpins and drug lords. Can
you blame me, or anyone with insider knowledge, if a gem sheds any
connection with its past once sculpted by a cutter into the glittering mar
vel we see in a jeweler's showcase? Like Odysseus listening to the sirens'
song, we become victims of an aesthetics-induced amnesia. All we can
or care to-remember is the gem's particular dazzle. Just by dint of the
fashioning feat called cutting, a tiny rock is transformed into the world's
most concentrated and prized form of wealth-as well as its most en
during and universal status symbol.
Gems have always had such stature. For thousands of years, these mor
sels of magnificence have inspired exploration and conquest. The Su
merians of ancient Mesopotamia traversed Asia to find lapis lazuli. Nero
sent an army to northern Europe in search of amber. The Spaniards dis
patched conquistadors to South America for emeralds. And a little more
than a century ago, the British annexed part of Burma to take control
of its famed ruby tracts.
Pardon me if the preceding sounds like over-romanticized gem in
vestment propaganda. It's just hard to deny a resonance of near-wor
shipful admiration for gems that spans the entirety of human history
and links the present to the past and, I'm quite sure, the future. True,
few nations today keep gems as part of their national treasuries. And
the thought of finding this mineralogical booty (in any other than dia
mondiferous form) is far from uppermost in the plans of most of the
world's major mining companies.
INTRODUCTION
But today there is a subtle yet undeniable undercurrent of investment
jewelry buying around the world. Smart money, in Asia and Europe es·
pecially, seems strongly aware of gems as portable stores of wealth.
There is no other way to explain the rapid emergence of high-fashion
custom jewelry markets for once-ignored gems like pink sapphire and
indicolite (pure-blue tourmaline). Affluent consumers are taking to col
ored stones that combine the two classic gem attributes of beauty and
rarity but that don't (not yet anyway) cost an arm and a leg. And a grow
ing number of jewelers are stocking these exotic species.
The end result: The "rainbow revolution;' a term coined in the 1970s
when this demand for a wider range of colored gemstones began.
But now that the revolution in colored stone demand is here, there
is an equally revolutionary demand for product information, possibly
a spillover from other areas of retailing such as home electronics. Con
sumers are increasingly hesitant to spend money on gemstone jewelry
unless such purchases are justified in terms of quality and value.
Years ago, merchants rarely said much about the gems they sold ex
cept to arouse interest by repeating shop-worn bits of folklore about
them. That kind of information is hardly adequate in an age when many
gem species are either heated, irradiated, oiled, dyed and plasticised
to improve color, appearance and/or durability-occasionally all three.
Some of these enhancements are permanent, others are not. Consumers
need to know which if any of these touch-up methods have been ap
plied to gems they are buying and what precautions they must take as
a result when wearing or cleaning them.
But that's only the beginning of the shopper's product information
needs. Whether or not a gem has been beautified, consumers want to
know the pros and cons of ownership before buying. Are stones dura
ble? What special care and handling do they require?
To help jewelers meet their customers' need for basic gemstone pro
duct information, Modem Jeweler, a jewelry trade magazine that debuted
in 1901, launched a monthly column called Gem Profile in April 1983.
The idea behind the column was to give on-the-run jewelers a short, lively
essay and a suitable-for-framing photograph highlighting each and every
gem of consequence to consumers, collectors and connoisseurs-the
three main jewelry store patron groups. These essays, in turn, were to
be used to train employees and also educate customers.
To accomplish these goals, each Gem Profile was designed to serve
as a mini-course in gem appreciation-a radical departure in terms of
matter and manner from jewelry trade and gemology journal gem writ-
INTRODUCTION
ing of the past. Not only did this new kind of essay call for brevity, clari
ty and simplicity, it called for a new approach to colored stones-one
that viewed them as commodities rather than minerals_
From the outset, we veered sharply away from the dry, technical style
of the well-versed gemologist and opted for the leaner, more literate one
of the seasoned reporter_ Then, to make sure readers had a clear idea
of each gem's aesthetic pinnacle, we commissioned the well-known gem
photographer Tino Hammid to supply a photograph for each profile.
His superb images helped to make Gem Profile the most successful reg
ular feature in Modem Jeweler's history and to earn it two Jesse H. Neal
awards, the highest honor in business press journalism.
In 1988, the fifth year of Gem Profile, demand for a permanent refer
ence collection of these essays led Vance Publishing Corp., Modem
Jeweler's parent company, to publish the first five years' essays in a hard
cover collection called "The First 60." Jewelers then asked us for an af
fordable paperback reprint that they could offer to customers. We decid
ed on more than a mere reprint. We decided to revise and update each
profile to make it as relevant to shoppers as possible. Hence the new
title: "Modem Jeweler's Consumer Guide to Colored Gemstones."
A little on the book ''The First 60" has become. Our guiding prin
ciple in rewriting it was as old as the profile approach is new: Do to others
as you would have them do to you. In other words, we decided to tell
the reader, usually a jewelry industry outsider, exactly what any trade
insider would expect to be told. So you'll read, where important, about
the drug wars or other geopolitical dramas which affect the supply of
the gem being discussed. You'll also learn of any enhancements, both
legitimate and illegitimate, commonly performed on the gem under
scrutiny. And, of course, we haven't skimped on vital history.
Last, but far from least, we've addressed the well-being of gems by
discussing potential problems such as cracking or fading that a few del
icate gem species are subject to if worn or handled improperly. Please
keep in mind, however, that what we say about care and handling is
meant to alert readers to possible hazards, not offer a guaranteed pre
scription for trouble-free ownership. No matter what kind of gem you
buy, consult with your jeweler about the preservation of its beauty. It's
a beauty that nothing else gives, the product of a collaboration between
man and nature that is as old as man-or, at least, as old as his unique
ability to craft objects whose main purpose is to inspire awe.
David Federman, July 1989