Three times since 1971, a sizeable Burma sapphire once owned by John D. Rockefeller Jr. and now named after him…
Modern Jeweler is part of Loupe Media Network
Browsing: 2
Just a few years ago the presence of numerous Thai rough buyers in Sri Lanka’s sapphire fields was cause for…
David Stanley Epstein, one of the best known of America’s young gem cutters, recently began an experimental series of rutilated…
Tons of the stuff are mined every year, but chances are great that you won’t see a single piece of…
If pyrite is known as “fool’s gold,” then rock crystal—the clear, colorless variety of quartz—could be called “fool’s diamond.” Certainly,…
Until a year or so ago, having exclusive distribution rights for the world’s largest chrysocolla quartz mine would have been…
Options for retirement careers and sidelines are few in Globe, Ariz., a desert town 90 miles east of Phoenix. So…
Tamerlane, the Mongol conqueror, Henry VIII of England and Peter the Great of Russia are among the fabled rulers who…
What’s in a name, you ask? Quite a lot when it comes to gems. Try getting excited about the likes…
It is generally thought that quartz, the rock family that gives jewelers such gem staples as amethyst and black onyx,…
In 1912 the National Association of Jewellers overhauled the birthstone list for the American market. Among the changes the group…
If you are among those who believe that United States history begins with Christopher Columbus and not the native peoples…
When smuggling of tanzanite, a popular blue zoisite found only in the Merelani hills of Tanzania, got out of hand…
The world has lived so long with a 2,500-plus Dow Jones average that it comes as a shock to be…
Creation plays by very frustrating rules when it comes to pure red and orange diamonds. Yet with nearly 100 million…
Let’s test your powers of visualization. Imagine you are holding an emerald crystal and looking down its barrel, along what…
Pity lavender jade, that pink-to-purple member of jadeite’s rather extensive color family. Far rarer than this gem’s much-coveted green and…
Royal patronage has long been the cornerstone of fame for gems. Where would a sales pitch for emerald be without…
Joel Arem, who specializes in making collector markets for neglected gems, thought he knew a good thing when he saw…
Think of quartz and words like “commonplace” and “abundant” come to mind. That any member of this rather broad gem…
At first glance, rainbow calcite makes you feel like someone slipped you a Mickey Finn. While it is dazzling your…
If mining company owner Rod Dallas hadn’t sent two prospectors up into the southern Mt. Diablo range to look for…
Until 1912, the year a Jewelers of America forerunner revised this country’s birthstone list, chalcedony boasted five, and at earlier…
The owner of the luscious green beryl you see on the page opposite had every right in the world to…
In an ideal world, red beryl would be prized just for what it is. And what it is, to quote…
Test your gem marketing skills by solving this problem based on actual history:It’s somewhere around 1913. You work for a…
During that great 300-million-year flowering of marine life called the Paleozoic era, a squid-like animal known as the ammonite thrived…
When in 1981 the gem trade got wind that ametrine, a combination of amethyst and citrine, could be concocted in…
At last count, four South American neighbors—Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Uruguay—are producing, at the very least, 75% of the world’s…
There are two distinct cultures in the world of colored stone retailing—the jewelry store and the rock shop. Rarely do…