Modern Jeweler’s Consumer Guide to Colored GemstonesSince 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. |
Contents
| 15 | |
AMBER | 23 |
ANDALUSITE | 31 |
CATSEYE CHRYSOBERYL | 43 |
CORAL | 51 |
FANCY BLUE DIAMOND | 59 |
THE HOPE DIAMOND | 67 |
FANCY YELLOW DIAMOND | 75 |
DEMANTOID GARNET | 87 |
RHODOLITE GARNET | 95 |
BURMA JADEITE | 107 |
LAPIS LAZULI | 115 |
MORGANITE | 123 |
AUSTRALIAN WHITE OPAL | 131 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
1-carat African aqua African ruby alexandrite amber American Gem amethyst andalusite aquamarine beauty black opal blue topaz Brazil Brazilian brown Burma Burma ruby Burmese buyers buying cabochon called carats cat's-eye century Chinese chrome tourmaline citrine collectors colored stone conch pearl connoisseurs consumers coral corundum cultured pearls cutter demantoid East African especially fancy color diamonds fancy sapphire fancy yellow fire opal freshwater pearls garnet gem dealer gem's Gemological gemologists gemstone grades green heating indicolite iolite irradiated jadeite Japanese jewelers jewelry manufacturers jewelry store Kashmir sapphire Kunz kunzite lapis less malaya material mining moonstone morganite orange oyster padparadscha peridot phire pink sapphire pink spinel pink topaz precious topaz produce purple retailers rhodolite rough rubellite rutile sell sizes sold specialist spinel Sri Lanka star ruby tanzanite term Thai rubies Thailand Tiffany diamond Tiffany's tourmaline trade tsavorite turquoise variety white opal yellow sapphire York zircon