The natural pearl isn’t the only worldwide casualty of environmental sea sickness. Now coral, the other great organic gem from the globe’s seas, is in big trouble—at least in its finest, most coveted red colors. Just shop the major movers of coral in New York’s Manhattan market.
At A.F. Greenwood on 47th Street, the closest to pure red in coral they have on hand is salmon-pink material. And because the current cost to them for decent red coral is so high, the firm doubts it will be buying premium grades any time soon. “The stuff is just not sellable at those prices,” says Dick Greenwood.
Downtown the news isn’t much better. “What you see is all we’ve had for months now,” says gemologist/buyer Charlotte Crosby of Lucien L. Stern Inc., a major coral dealer, as she hands the firm’s last three pieces of ox-blood coral to a visitor. “From now on, the industry will have to make do with hoarded goods or dribs and drabs of new stuff.
Basically, the sea is finished as a source of fine red coral.”
This news will probably jolt jewelers, used to seeing dealer booths at gem shows brimming with coral beads and carvings. Don’t let the largess fool you. “Most of what you see in coral today is lower grade if it’s natural,” Crosby continues. “Worse, many strands and pieces that appear to be fine quality are very often dyed or made of reconstituted material.” Whatever the case, a lot of coral sitting in jewelry counters is far less than meets the eye. The situation will only worsen if fine red coral becomes entirely a thing of the past.
Endangered Life Form
Highly treasured in ancient India, Persia and Rome, coral is nearly as much a mainstay of gemstone artisanry as amber and ivory, especially with American Indian craftsmen. As with other organic gems, coral was widely believed to have medicinal and mystical powers. Even today, coral powder is a popular aphrodisiac in India, which use prompts some gatherers to dynamite coral reefs. Such aggressiveness, of course, only aggravates the fine-goods supply problem. But coral must fend far graver threats than TNT.
As a living organism, coral faces a slew of challenges to its survival, especially as the waters in which it lives become progressively contaminated. Long, detailed articles have been devoted to the peculiar creation process of the gem coral. But, simply put, here’s how it works.
A multi-cellular animal called the coral polyp bands together in colonies with millions of its fellow polyps. For protection, each secretes a protective jacket for itself of pure calcium carbonate into which it retreats when not feeding or threatened. As the colony builds these shells, they couple together into branches and, if large enough, reefs.
Unfortunately, these calcium carbonate structures—which Gemological Institute of America senior gemologist John Koivula likens to “condominium complexes”—cannot withstand merciless predators such as the Crown of Thorns starfish which attach themselves to the colony and suck out all the lives. Often the polyps will abandon their homes when water conditions change for the worse. Whether ravaged or deserted, it is these coral skeletons (Koivula calls them “abandoned housing projects”) that coral fishers process into beads, cabs and carvings.
Because coral is pure calcium carbonate, it is sensitive to chemicals, detergents, perfumes, even body acids which can eat away at it. That’s why dealers and gemologists recommend periodic cleaning of coral in a mild soapy solution to rid it of all these abrasives. Even so, some softer corals, may need re-polishing every few years or so.
Red Sales in the Sunset
Luckily, some corals are more resistant to chemicals and acids. The toughest, according to coral specialist Roben Hagobian, R.H & Co, Los Angeles, come from the Sea of Japan, which is the prime source of true ox-blood coral. “The Mediterranean produces red coral, too,” he adds, “but it is not as hard as the material from Japanese waters.”
In recent years, Taiwanese coral fishers had replaced the Italians—famous for centuries as coral carvers and cutters—as the main harvesters of this gem off Japan. But lately the Japanese fish and wildlife authorities have been enforcing strict coral quotas in the Sea of Japan and, as a result, sharply curtailing Chinese activity in these waters.
That leaves the Mediterranean which, long before the Japanese reined in on coral fishing, was so thoroughly fished and polluted that it was well on its way to becoming a lost cause for red coral. Not surprisingly, supplies of ox-blood and deep-red coral are dwindling sharply—despite exploration of farther depths for coral colonies. “A year ago, I had 8,000 to 9,000 carats of better-to-fine pearls, ovals and rounds in red coral,” Hagobian says. “Now I’m down to around 1,000 carats and having real difficulty getting back to old levels.”
As dealer inventories of ox-blood and dark-red material disappear, prices for these coral colors soar. According to Hagobian, jewelers can expect to pay as much as $1,200 today for a very fine 18-inch strand of 8-9mm ox-blood beads. Same-grade cabs with deep-red colors in sizes around 14x12mm fetch $10 per carat, sometimes more, if their color is even and they lack imperfections. Even smaller 4-6mm dark-colored beads and cabs can cost $3 per carat.
Deep red is not the only coral hue that appeals to connoisseurs. Many prefer the far-lighter blush-pink shades of coral, commonly called “angel skin.” However, we did not find, as is often claimed, that prices for this lovely material exceed those of ox-blood. Although Tiffany is rumored to have paid $25,000 for a ring, earrings and 24-inch necklace ensemble of perfectly matched angel skin coral about four years ago, prices reported to us for top-grade angel skin cabs around 14x12mm were roughly $5-7.50 per carat, nearing those of comparable-quality dark-red material.
It goes without saying that the high cost of true red coral has invited rampant adulteration of this gem. Taiwanese and Hong Kong dealers, among others, are dyeing colorless to near-colorless material a reddish shade, one which dealers say is immediately distinguishable from natural-color coral. Worse, some processors are taking shivers and shavings of coral branches, combining them with a chemical binding agent, and selling the final reconstituted product as genuine coral. So far, reconstituted coral is not as rampant as, say, reconstituted turquoise. But, fears Crosby, it could become so if prices for red coral keep climbing. “I have no objection to ‘pressed coral,’ or whatever you want to call it,” she says, “but I just wish it would be sold as what it is—and not what it isn’t.”
Please note: this profile was originally published in 1988 in Modern Jeweler’s ‘Gem Profiles: The First 60’, written by David Federman with photographs by Tino Hammid.
The coral shown in the header image is courtesy of Gems and Minerals of Sarosi, Los Angeles.
