Remember those sappy 1986 headlines about a hulking 1,905-carat Idaho star sapphire supposedly purchased for $10 at a gem show…
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Likening the color of fancy yellow diamonds to that of the canary seems to have been around forever. But in…
When London jeweler and author Edwin Streeter published the fourth edition of his book “Precious Stones” in 1884, he devoted…
It’s a shame that the word “semantics” doesn’t begin with a “c.” If it did, it might prove as powerful…
As poetry, this early 17th century quatrain lacks merit, but as a capsule summary of diamond fever, it has no…
When it comes to value based purely on measurable factors like color or clarity, gemologists point to the diamond world…
April 28, 1987 was already a historic day in jewelry auction annals before the sale of the stone—a 95-point purplish-red…
The diamond market is the gem world’s last bastion of prissiness about gemstone treatment.Whereas colored stone dealers have faced such…
Till recently, the most one could hope for color-wise from a pink diamond was a shade reminiscent of cotton candy…
Late in the 1970s, when ads hawking emeralds for $5 apiece started appearing nationwide, gem dealers weren’t sure if these…
Until recently, it wasn’t easy being green for any gem except emerald. Things began to change when tsavorite came on…
Next time you feel like cursing the IRS, think about life under Mogul rule in India. Until these Moslem nomads,…
You’ve heard of Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher who taught that everything in the material world is a more or…
When in the early 1980s researchers at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) unveiled a system to classify the breeds…
It has been more than four years since Louis Spaulding Jr. last found a mineral specimen or gem rough of…
The world of phenomenon gems was dealt a severe blow when Sri Lanka’s deposit of “blue-sheen” moonstone ran dry around…
Around the turn of the century, miners extracting copper at various sites in Bisbee, Ariz., tunnelled into cavernous rooms whose…
Ask the average jeweler which variety of opal is the most prized in the world and chances are pretty good…
During the 1980s, when the Japanese pushed black opal prices to levels beyond the reach of nearly everyone but themselves,…
It took gem-oddities specialist Lowell Jones five years to accumulate the greatest modern-day collection of fine abalone pearls—and just five…
Like Babe Ruth, a fine pitcher who switched to playing outfield and became a far greater hitter, John Latendresse is…
Can an all-nacre, non-nucleated pearl from a cultivated salt-water oyster or freshwater mussel be called natural? Gemologists will answer this…
Now hear this, now hear this: Lightning Ridge, Australia, the planet’s most celebrated source of opal since shortly after its…
To most retail jewelers, opal means Australia and almost no place else. Few know that America is thought of fondly…
No fancy color diamond collection is complete without a green stone. But since, next to red, green is probably the…
In 1922, while extracting meats for fish bait from James River clams in South Dakota, John Latendresse’s father found a…
The once small league of South Sea pearl farms is growing so fast one is tempted to think that growers…
Although it gets so little respect from mainstream dealers it could be Rodney Dangerfield’s birthstone, smoky quartz boasts a small,…
When it comes to ruby, one word has long sufficed to summarize this gem at its best: “Burma.” Mere mention…
Connoisseurs may glorify rare Kashmir sapphire with its soft velvety blue. Collectors may extol the hard-to-find Burma breed with its…