Saturday, April 27, 2013


40 Beryl colors

As much as we love diamonds, we’re also in love with colored stones and gems like aquamarines and morganite, which can range from peach to lavender in color, are becoming more and more prevalent in gemstone jewelry.

Beryl is the mineral from which emeralds are created. But beryl comes in a variety of colors, making it a versatile gem. Morganite is probably the most popular of the other beryls. It has a pastel pink to peach or lavender which is similar in intensity to the blue of aquamarine. Morganite has been marketed as "Pink Emerald" and "Pink Aquamarine" to emphasize the kinship to its popular cousins. It was first discovered in California. It was also discovered in 1908 in Madagascar. There are also deposits in Brazil, Mozambique, Namibia, Afghanistan, and Russia. However, morganite is relatively rare, which stands in the way of it becoming a jewelry stone.

Heliodor, or golden beryl, is named after the Greek words for sun - helios - and gift - doron. The sunny yellow color of this beryl lives up to its name. Heliodor was discovered in Namibia in 1910 in a pegmatite that also produced aquamarine, which is also colored by iron. Heliodor is also found in Brazil and Madagascar. The largest faceted heliodor, 2,054 carats, is on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.

Red beryl is the rarest member of the beryl family. It is mined in only one place: the Wah Wah Mountains in Utah. The color is stoplight red. Unfortunately this deposit produces only a small quantity of this gem. Most of the gems produced are under a carat in size, and many have inclusions. Specimens that are over a carat and clean are fantastically rare and are priced as such.
Colorless beryl, which is also known as goshenite, is also relatively rare. It is named after a deposit where it was found in Goshen, Massachusetts. The Greeks used colorless beryl as lenses; the first spectacles were probably beryl.

   

Sri Lanka
One of the world’s most beautiful and exotic islands, Sri Lanka, (formerly Ceylon) lies just below the southern tip of India. This pear-shaped bit of tropical paradise, about the size of Sicily, is a tourist’s delight offering British teahouses, rubber plantations, and gem mines.
Marco Polo wrote of his visit in 1292: “I want you to understand that the island of Ceylon is, for its size, the finest island in the world, and from its streams comes rubies, sapphires, topazes, amethyst and garnet.” Little has changed since Marco Polo’s time except that Sri Lanka faces overpopulation and a faltering economy.  
Its gemstones, however, seem to occur in endless supply. Known as the “Jewel Box of the Indian Ocean,” Sri Lanka, like possibly no other locality on earth, has yielded precious stones and fine gems in a great profusion of gem species and varieties. The island was known in the ancient world as Taprobane (copper colored in Greek). Native Veddahs, bathing in smooth flowing streams, noticed colored pebbles scattered in sandy bottoms. It was not until 500 B.C. that conquering Buddhists from northern India also discovered gems in the rivers and began to set rough stones into crude jewelry. They bartered stones with traders from abroad and eventually the treasures found their way to the marketplaces of Asia and Europe. Ancient Greek and Chinese historians referred to the beautiful gems of Ceylon, and King Solomon reportedly wooed the Queen of Sheba with Ceylonese precious stones.
The crown jewels of royalty all over the world contain extraordinary spinels, sapphires, and zircons mined from Sri Lanka streams. The Imperial Treasury of the Soviet Union houses a 400-carat red spinel of great beauty which was once given to Catherine the Great. The British Imperial Crown features a giant oval-cut spinel (previously supposed to be a ruby), known as the “Black Prince.” Crowns in the Green Vaults of Dresden are covered with sapphires from Sri Lanka.
         

Hindu lore rubies

Rubies are a type of corundum, a rare mineral made up of densely packed aluminum and oxygen atoms, which are normally colorless. When other atoms are substituted for a few of the aluminum ones, bright hues emerge. Small amounts of chromium impart the deep red color of ruby, traces of titanium and iron produce the stunning blue of sapphire, and chromium and ferric iron create the delicate orange shades of the extremely rare and costly padparadscha.
Rubies with their fiery hearts have inspired passion and legends throughout history. Rubies are even more rare than was once believed. Since chemical testing has become more common, it's been discovered that many of the world's most famous rubies are not rubies at all, but either garnet or spinel. While still beautiful, they don't possess the hardness nor the rich depth of color found in true rubies.
The color of rubies has given rise to numerous legends, associating the gemstone with courage, power, devotion, passion and love. In Hindu lore, rubies were believed to be the crystallized blood of the demon, Vala, whose body seeded all the mines of the world. When his body was divided, his blood fell over Sri Lanka and Burma, creating the rubies that can be mined from the ground. The sparkle and luminescence of rubies is said to be created by an inextinguishable fire in the heart of the stone. The fire is linked to the life of the person who wears it or owns it, and as long as the ruby burns bright, it is said, the person will enjoy good fortune and good health. So clear is this connection, according to some legends, that a ruby will darken in color if its wearer's life is in danger. In healing, rubies are the gem of choice to cure diseases of the blood and the heart.

   

Ruby and Sapphire

It’s hard to imagine that a mineral with a name as mundane as corundum yields gems as exquisite as the ruby and sapphire, or even that these two stones, so different in color and mystique, are actually the same mineral family.

Lucky you if your birthstone is sapphire (September) or ruby (July). These are among the richest-colored of all gemstones with a romance and history as colorful as they are. Rubies are actually rarer than sapphires, and only red corundums are called rubies. Any other color is a sapphire. When grading colored stones, the density and hue of the color are part of the evaluation, and it’s the richest, deepest colors that are the most prized. In rubies, the most prized variant of color is called pigeon’s blood. Large gem quality rubies can be more valuable than comparably sized diamonds and are certainly rarer. There is a relative abundance of smaller, (1-3 carat,) blue sapphires compared to the scarcity of even small gem quality rubies, making even these smaller stones relatively high in value.

Stones of Burmese origin generally command the highest prices. The vast majority of rubies are "native cut" in the country of origin. High value ruby rough is tightly controlled and rarely makes its way to custom cutters. Occasionally, such native stones are recut to custom proportions, albeit at a loss of weight and diameter. Custom cut and recut stones are usually more per carat.

Sapphires exist in all the shades of blue from the deep blue of evening skies to the bright and deep blue of a clear and beautiful summer sky.  Sapphires also come in many other colors, not only in the transparent grayish misty blue of far horizons, but also displaying the bright fireworks of sunset colors – yellow, pink, orange and purple. So sapphires are really and truly heavenly stones, although they are being found in the hard soil of our so-called "blue planet”.


 

Diamond durability
Diamonds are among the hardest substances on earth; in fact they use diamonds and diamond dust to cut diamonds. Other gemstones are hard as well, but not nearly as hard as a diamond. Diamonds and other gemstones are measured by the Mohs scale.  It runs from 10 (hardest) down to 1 (softest). It is somewhat arbitrary and not linear. The range from 9 to 10 is much greater than 8 to 9.Harder minerals of course tend to be more durable and will not scratch easily. They’re good choices for jewelry because of their ability to withstand changes in elements or the arbitrary scratch or knock. Talc, with a Mohs hardness of 1, is the softest mineral and can be scratched with a fingernail. Quartz is the most common gem mineral (citrine and amethyst) and ranges at 7 and above. Rubies and sapphires are nearly as hard as diamonds, with a scale of 9 on the Moh’s scale.
People mistakenly think diamonds are indestructible and this is not true! Pliny the Elder in his Natural History stated that “these stones are tested upon the anvil, and will resist the blow to such an extent as to make the iron rebound and the very anvil split asunder.” If you tried that, however, you would more likely shatter the diamond, rather than the anvil!
Many diamonds are cut to prevent accidental nicks, scratches and breaks. Except for the Princess cut, which is a square-cut diamond with pronounced corners, most corners on angular diamonds are rounded. A protruding point of a square or rectangular diamond could inadvertently  be knocked against a surface and chip or scratch.
Your diamond should be protected in a soft, velvet-lined case if you’re not wearing it. Have the setting checked periodically and have the stone examined by a professional. Your diamond is not only an investment in money, but an investment in yourself or your relationship and is worth the small amount of extra care it takes to preserve it forever!
 

Diamond mines
The very mention of diamond evokes fantasies of fabulous riches and dreams of love and power. Up to the Middle Ages they were so rare and expensive that only royalty could afford diamonds. But in modern times even ordinary people are able to possess a few, thanks to the discovery of numerous diamond deposits elsewhere on the planet plus high, albeit controlled, production.
Diamonds were discovered in India by the 4th century BCE. In addition to the diamond legends, India yielded many legendary diamonds, including the Koh-i-Noor, the Orlov, the Hope, and the Sancy. Today the Majhgawan pipe, a primary source near Panna, is the India’s only producing diamond source.
At one time, India appears to have been the only source of this valuable gem until about the early eighteenth century when diamonds were discovered in Borneo and later elsewhere, such as in South Africa and Russia. Although ancient Sanskrit texts mention several areas where diamonds were found, verifiable historical records are available for only a few deposits. Mining activities in southern India – which in its time was the leading producer of this gem and had yielded some of the most famous stones in history – gradually declined and had become defunct by the time diamonds were discovered elsewhere in the world.
The 1867 discovery of diamonds in the Cape Colony, now a province in South Africa, changed forever the supply and marketing of diamonds. As annual world diamond production increased exponentially, a once extremely rare material became more accessible to Western society with its growing wealth, science learned that diamonds came from volcanoes, and everyone learned of Cecil John Rhodes, Barney Barnato, Kimberley, and De Beers. Today South Africa maintains its position as a major diamond producer. If not for the controlled production and distribution of the South African diamond mines, diamonds could have been easily devalued and lost much the mystique they hold for us today.


How diamonds made

Diamonds form between 75-120 miles below the earth's surface. According to geologists the first delivery of diamonds was somewhere around 2.5 billion years ago and the most recent was 45 million years ago. The carbon that makes diamonds comes from the melting of pre-existing rocks in the Earth's upper mantle. There is an abundance of carbon atoms in the mantle. Temperature changes in the upper mantle forces the carbon atoms to go deeper where it melts and finally becomes new rock, when the temperature reduces. If other conditions like pressure and chemistry is right then the carbon atoms in the melting crystal rock bond to build diamond crystals.
There is no guarantee that these carbon atoms will turn into diamonds. If the temperature rises or the pressure drops then the diamond crystals may melt partially or totally dissolve. Even if they do form, it takes thousand of years for those diamonds to come anywhere near the surface.

It takes millions of years to make a diamond. When you own a diamond, you own something which is a legend in the making. It has not been made in a factory just the other day. A diamond comes from the bosom of the earth. More interestingly not all the diamonds mined are made into jewelry. Only one fourth of the diamonds that are mined are made into jewelry. Every 100 tons of mud produces one carat of a diamond. And this one carat is not one stone! It could be anything from 0.005 ct to 1 ct. because much of the original stone is cut away in the process of cutting, shaping and polishing the diamond.

Diamonds come in different rough shapes. The next time you look at your diamond, think about the amount of time, energy and resources have gone into making that one.

 

American Topaz

The world’s largest cut topaz, called the American Topaz, resides at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. A 172-faceted topaz weighing 22,892.50 carats (5785 kg), it’s the largest cut yellow topaz in the world, and one of the largest faceted gems of any kind in the world. Originating from Minais Gerais, Brazil, it was cut over a period of two years. It was purchased by the Rockhound Hobbyists of America and presented to the Smithsonian Institution in 1988.

As stunning as this cut topaz is, another display at the Smithsonian is equally dazzling and awe-inspiring. That’s a sherry-colored topaz “spray” from the Thomas Range in Utah. This color of topaz can be found in Mexico and Utah, but when it’s exposed to sunlight, will become clear.

Other spectacular displays of natural crystals include a cluster of Stibnite, an ore of antimony, which has a bright metallic luster. This spectacular group of crystals is from Iyo, Japan and look like something from Superman’s home!

Another huge mineral in the exhibit is the Smithsonite, named for James Smithson, who bequeathed the funds to establish the Smithsonian Institution. He first discovered this greenish zinc carbonate mineral from the Kelly Mine in New Mexico.

Some of the other don’t miss items in the Smithsonian’s Gem Collection are the Smithsonian Canary Diamond,  a huge canary and diamond ring. The 98.6-carat Bismarck Sapphire is also part of the collection and is one of the world’s largest sapphires. It originally came from Sri Lanka. It’s also fascinating to see some of these gems in their raw uncut state, such as the large corundrum crystal which is the mineral that sapphires are made of, and a very large beryl crystal, from which the emerald and aquamarine family of stones is derived.
   

Victoria Transvaal Diamond

The Victoria-Transvaal is a 67.89-carat, brownish-yellow pear shaped stone. It was cut from a 240-carat crystal that was found in the Transvaal, South Africa. The first cutting produced a 75-carat 116-facet stone that measured 1 x 1³/8 inches; a recutting retained the same length and width, but reduced the depth to better proportions, making it more brilliant. The diamond has been featured in several Hollywood films, including a Tarzan episode from 1952 titled Tarzan's Savage Fury, and in leading exhibitions in the United States and Canada.
The necklace was designed by Baumgold Brothers, Inc, and consists of a yellow gold chain with 66 round brilliant-cut diamonds, fringed with ten drop motifs, each set with two marquise-cut diamonds, a pear-shaped diamond, and a small round brilliant-cut diamond (the total weight of the 106 diamonds is about 45 carats). The configuration of these stones makes them look like small angels! The necklace was donated by Leonard and Victoria Wilkinson in 1977 to the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.
Other colored diamonds in the Smithsonian Collection include the 8.30-carat Shepard Diamond. This stone is from South Africa, and was acquired by the Smithsonian Museum in exchange for a collection of small diamonds that had been seized as smuggled goods by the United States Customs Service. The diamond is named for the Smithsonian employee who helped facilitate the transaction.
An extremely rare red diamond resides at the Smithsonian as well. This is the De Young Red, a 5.03-carat, brilliant cut red diamond. The main kite-shaped facets on the crown are divided in two, giving the stone more brilliance than a standard round brilliant cut. The stone is not pure red but has a slight brown hue, which makes it appear like a fine red garnet and indeed, it was once purchased as such at an estate sale.
It is the third largest red diamond in the world, after the Moussaieff Red (5.11 carats) and the Red Diamond (5.05 carats).


Hooker emerald

There’s something incredibly mysterious about the largest emeralds. It’s one of the rarest of gemstones, unattainable for most of us, at least in a good-quality stone. This magnificent 75.57-carat emerald was supposedly owned by the Ottoman Empire until 1900. Legend has it was used in the belt buckle of a sultan!

The stone was featured in Tiffany's 1950 Christmas Catalog. Mrs. Janet Annenberg Hooker bought the stone in 1955 from Tiffany's and donated it to the museum in 1977.
Emeralds are part of the beryl family of jewels. Green beryls are called emeralds, while blue-green beryls are called aquamarines. A pink shade of beryl is called Morganite. There’s even a red beryl that’s rarer than emeralds themselves.

The name emerald comes from the Greek smaragdos via the Old French esmeralde, and really just means 'green gemstone'. Innumerable fantastic stories have grown up around this magnificent gem. The Incas and Aztecs of South America, where the best emeralds are still found today, regarded the emerald as a holy gemstone. However, probably the oldest known finds were once made near the Red Sea in Egypt. Having said that, these gemstone mines, already exploited by Egyptian pharaohs between 3000 and 1500 B.C. and later referred to as 'Cleopatra's Mines', had already been exhausted by the time they were rediscovered in the early 19th century.

But it has also, for centuries, been the color of beauty and of constant love. In ancient Rome, green was the color of Venus, the goddess of beauty and love. And today, this color still occupies a special position in many cultures and religions. Green, for example, is the holy color of Islam. Many of the states of the Arab League have green in their flags as a symbol of the unity of their faith. Yet this color has a high status in the Catholic Church too, where green is regarded as the most natural and the most elemental of the liturgical colors.
                     

Portuguese diamond

There’s something so exciting about these incredibly large and perfect stones. Sometimes they have well-documented histories and we know where they came from and who owned them and when. But others have a past that’s not as well-known, and that only adds to the romance and mystique surrounding them.

One such diamond is called the Portuguese Diamond and is a 127-carat, cushion-cut diamond, shaped in an octagonal emerald shape. It’s nearly flawless. While it’s called the Portuguese Diamond, with a story that it was mined in Brazil and became part of the Portuguese Crown Jewels, there’s really no true documentation that says definitively that that’s where the diamond was mined. Must of the diamond’s history is pure legend and conjecture. One can only imagine who wore this incredible stone!
One part of the diamond's history that is well-documented is that in February 1928 Peggy Hopkins Joyce traded a $350,000 pearl necklace for the diamond and $23,000 in cash. According to New York newspaper accounts, it was mounted on a diamond-studded platinum choker to be worn close around the throat (probably the same necklace described above). Miss Joyce performed in the Ziegfeld Follies, and had six husbands, at least five of whom were wealthy. She was said to be almost as fond of jewels as of men. Sometime prior to 1946 Miss Joyce placed the diamond on consignment to the group of jewelers mentioned above, in an unsuccessful attempt to sell it.
Harry Winston acquired the Portuguese Diamond from Miss Joyce in 1951, and for the next several years it traveled the country as part of his "Court of Jewels" exhibition. In 1957, Winston sold the diamond to an international industrialist, who then traded it back in 1962. In 1963, the Smithsonian acquired the Portuguese Diamond from Mr. Winston in exchange for 2,400 carats of small diamonds.

Spanish Inquisition Necklace

One doesn’t normally associate beautiful jewelry with the time of the Spanish Inquisition. But in the Smithsonian Institution’s collection of gems, there is an exquisite necklace of diamonds and emeralds.

It is a spectacular double row of diamonds and emeralds ending in a chandelier of emeralds. There is unfortunately very little information about the provenance of this necklace. The large diamonds and Columbian emeralds were most likely cut in India in the 17th century. This would make them one of the earliest examples of cut gemstones in the Smithsonian’s Collection. There are really only legends surrounding this necklace. They indicate that it was worn at times by Spanish and French royalty. In the early 20th century, it was purchased by the Maharajah of Indore, whose son sold the necklace in 1947 to Harry Winston. Winston subsequently sold the necklace to Mrs. Cora Hubbard Williams of Pittsburgh. She bequeathed it to the Smithsonian in 1972.

Emeralds are a form of crystal known as beryls. Beryls are normally clear crystals, but when infused with chromium or vanadium, they attain various gradations of green. The purest green are the rarest emeralds and many people actually prefer an emerald that has a blue-green tint.

Before the 16th century, the only known emerald deposits were in Cleopatra’s Egyptian mines. But after emeralds were discovered in Columbia, those became the “gold standard” in emeralds. Columbian emeralds have been discovered by archaeologists among artifacts of such tribes as the Inca, Maya, Aztec, Toltec and the lesser-known Chibcha Indians. Emeralds are among the rarest of gemstones and can be more expensive per carat than even the finest diamonds! They are a hard mineral, with a Moh’s hardness scale of 7 or 8 (compared to a diamond’s 10). While most emeralds are found in Africa, Russia and Africa, there have been discoveries of emerald deposits in North Carolina!


Marie Antoinette Earrings

There’s no more fascinating subject in history than the doomed French Queen Marie Antoinette. Much maligned by history (she never said “Let them eat cake,” in response to the people’s need for bread), she was an unwilling part of the one of the greatest revolutions in history. And met an untimely end at the guillotine in 1793. While she loved jewelry, and possessed many magnificent jewels, she often preferred simple muslin gowns and very little jewelry. Many of the portraits of her by Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun show her dressed just like that.

Two large, pear-shaped diamond earrings, weighing 14.25 and 20.34 carats respectively, are part of the Smithsonian Institution’s collection. The diamonds once were supposedly set in earrings that belonged to Marie Antoinette and some sources say they were her favorite pieces of jewelry and she wore them constantly. They were taken from her during an attempt to flee France as the Revolution dawned and the position of the Royals became dangerous.

The diamonds were later acquired by the Grand Duchess Tatiana Yousupoff of Russia. When jeweler Pierre Cartier puchased the diamond earrings in 1928, their authenticity was attested to in an affidavit by Russian Princess Zenaide Yousupoff and her son, Prince Felix Yousupoff, stating that they originally belonged to Queen Marie-Antoinette and have never been reset in the one hundred years that they were in the family. Marjorie Merriweather Post acquired the earrings from Pierre Cartier in October 1928. Harry Winston reset the large diamonds in platinum replicas of the original silver settings in 1959. Cartier, Inc. designed the triangular tops. In November 1964, Mrs. Post's daughter, Mrs. Eleanor Barzin, donated the earrings, along with the original setting to the Smithsonian Institution. The diamonds are originally from India or Brazil, the only significant sources of diamonds in the eighteenth century.

Monday, April 1, 2013


23 Marie Louis Diadem

There were a few benefits to marrying the Emperor Napoleon, if you loved jewelry, that is! The Marie-Louise diadem, now part of the Smithsonian Collection, was a wedding gift from Napoleon I to his second wife, Empress Marie-Louise in 1810. The diadem was originally part of a set that also included a necklace, comb, belt buckle, and earrings, all made of emeralds and diamonds set in silver and gold. They were all made by French Jeweler Etienne Nitot et Fils of Paris.

In the original diadem, there were 22 large and 57 small emeralds, along with 1002 brilliant-cut and 66 rose-cut diamonds. The central emerald weighed 12 carats. After the fall of the Emperor, Marie-Louise fled to Vienna and took her personal jewelry with her, including the diadem and other pieces that were made as part of a set, including a necklace, a pair of earrings and a comb.

Empress Marie-Louise left the diadem to her Hapsburg aunt, Archduchess Elise. Archduke Karl Stefan Hapsburg of Sweden, a descendent of the Archduchess sold the set to Van Cleef & Arpels in 1953. Between May 1954 and June 1956, the emeralds were removed and sold individually in pieces of jewelry as emeralds "from the historic Napoleon Tiara."

Between 1956 and 1962, Van Cleef & Arpels mounted turquoise cabochons into the diadem. In 1962, the diadem was displayed in the Louvre in Paris with the necklace, earrings, and comb in an exhibit about Empress Marie-Louise. In 1971, Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to the Post cereal fortune, purchased the diadem for the Smithsonian Institution. There are 1,006 mine-cut diamonds weighing a total of 700 carats and 79 Persian turquoise stones weighing a total of 540 carats. In one respect, it’s a shame that the original piece was dismantled to sell off the emeralds. Yet the diadem, reset with the turquoise cabochons is equally beautiful and made even more distinctive with the use of the less valuable turquoise.


Blue Heart Diamond

There is a spectacular diamond in the Smithsonian Collection called the Blue Heart Diamond. Fans of the movie Titanic might think the “Heart of the Ocean Diamond” was based on this stone, and it may have been! However, this diamond hasn’t been cast in the ocean, but is safe and sound at the Smithsonian!

It has also been called the Eugenie Blue Diamond, although it’s uncertain that the Empress Eugenie ever owned this particular stone. It was cut in Paris between 1909 and 1910, but the stone’s origin – Africa or India – is unclear.

It is an enormous heart-shaped, blue diamond weighing 30.82 carats. Its current setting is in a platinum ring, surrounded by white diamonds. It changed hands among famous jewelers – such as Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels -  and owners until it was bought by Harry Winston in 1959 who mounted the diamond in its current ring setting. Winston sold the ring to Marjorie Merriweather Post. Mrs. Post donated the ring to the Smithsonian and it remains there with other famous blue diamonds, including the Hope Diamond and the Heart of Eternity Diamond.

These famous blue diamonds have recently gone through a grading and examination process, to classify their colors and to determine the source of the color. The Hope Diamond is classified as Fancy Deep Grayish-Blue. The Heart of Eternity has been classified as a Fancy Vivid Blue. The Blue Heart Diamond has not yet been classified, but some experts categorize it as either Fancy Vivid Blue or Fancy Deep Blue. Blue diamonds are of particular interest to scientists not only because of the color and the impurities that create it, but because blue diamonds also have an electric conductive property that makes them unique among clear and other colored diamonds.


Napoleon Diamond Necklace


One of the most spectacular all-diamond pieces of jewelry in the Smithsonian Insitution is the Napoleon necklace. Thought to have originally been owned by Catherine the Great of Russia, it was presented by the Emperor Napoleon of France to his second wife, Marie-Louise of Austria on the birth of their son in 1811. The silver and gold set necklace contains172 diamonds weighing 275 carats - 28 oval and cushion-cut diamonds, dangling 19 briolette-cut oval and pear shaped diamonds and accented by small, round diamonds and diamond set motifs in a silver and gold setting. The diamonds are cut in "old mine" style, the precursor to the modern brilliant cut, and have a high degree of fire (flashes of color as the stone moves in light), but less brilliance due to less light refraction through the top of the stone.

The necklace has an estimated total gem weight of 275 carats, and the largest single diamond on it weighs approximately 10 carats. When Marie-Louise died in 1847, the necklace was given to her sister-in-law, Archduchess Sophie of Austria, who removed two stones to shorten the necklace. Earrings were made with the two removed stones, the whereabouts of which are unknown.

In 1872, the necklace was bequeathed to the Archduchess' son, Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria. In 1948, Archduke Ludwig's grandson, Prince Franz Joseph of Liechtenstein, sold the necklace to a French collector who then sold it to Harry Winston in 1960. Marjorie Merriweather Post obtained the necklace from Winston and donated it to the Smithsonian Institution in 1962.

It’s difficult to value a piece like this in today’s market. However, in 1993, the auction house Christie’s in Geneva sold another necklace that Napoleon had given to Marie-Louise that was composed of rubies and diamonds. This necklace sold for $13 million.


Hope Diamond

Is there anyone who hasn’t at least heard of the famous Hope Diamond? Many people are surprised when they first learn that this famous stone isn’t a clear diamond, but instead is a brilliant blue stone, surrounded by white diamonds and suspended from a diamond necklace.

It first appears in history in the mid 1600s when it was purchased by a merchant named Jean Baptiste Tavernier, who sold the stone to Louis XIV of France. At that time it was a 112-carat stone, described as having a beautiful violet color. It was recut into a 67-carat stone and the color was named French Blue. During the French Revolution, the diamond was stolen during a looting of the crown jewels. It reappeared in 1812, but recut once again and was acquired by George IV of England who had to sell the stone to pay off debts. The exact transaction is unknown, but the diamond is next found as an entry in the collection of Henry Philip Hope, whose name is attached to the diamond to this day.

Eventually the stone was owned by the Cartier jewelry firm in Paris and purchased by Evalyn Walsh Maclean of Washington, DC. It was at her request that the stone was reset and made into the necklace that we know of today. It was acquired by Henry Winston who purchased it from Mrs. Maclean’s estate in 1947 and eventually became part of the Smithsonian Collection.

There is a long-standing legend of a curse attached to the Hope Diamond, which the story says was plucked from an idol in India. True or not, many who have owned the Hope Diamond have met with misfortune, including the Hope family, who supposedly went bankrupt from owning the diamond. It’s possible that the whole concept of the curse originated with Pierre Cartier who sold it to Mrs. Maclean with the story of a curse, because she thought objects surrounded with bad luck were actually good luck for her. Sadly, Mrs. Maclean’s first son was killed at age 9 in a car accident and her 25-year old daughter committed suicide. Her husband was declared insane and was institutionalized until his death in 1941. Was it part of a curse?

 

Smithsonian Collection

Some of the world’s most spectacular diamonds and other gems are located in the National Gem Collection in the Museum of Natural History in Smithsonian Collection in Washington, D.C.  In the collection are diamonds known to almost everyone, such as the Hope Diamond, as well as other large diamonds and other precious gems and jewelry.

In the National Gem Collection are examples of spectacular minerals and crystals, as well gemstones and jewelry. You can see a beautiful purple quartz amethyst crystal, or the mineral azurite, which is a bright blue copper compound mineral. You can also see a huge green beryl crystal. Beryls are the mineral family that include emeralds, aquamarines, heliodor and morganite. It’s almost as exciting to see the raw crystal as it is to see the finished product when it’s been cut and polished.

Some of the finished pieces in the Smithsonian Collection include the crown Napoleon used for the second Empress, Marie Louise. It originally was made of 700 carats in diamonds and 79 emeralds. The emeralds have been replaced with Persian turquoise cabochons.

You can also see the 182-carat Star of Bombay star sapphire that was given to Mary Pickford by Douglas Fairbanks and a brilliantly colored black opal. Black opals are the most valuable of the opal family of gems.

There are also extraordinary examples of quartz crystals, including a 7,000 faceted clear quartz egg! Part of the Smithsonian’s collection includes pieces of jade and turquoise used in other cultures. This includes a collection of Zuni Indian turquoise jewelry and jade lanterns carved from nephrite for the Chinese emperor Chi’en Lung in 1750. A more modern piece is the Dragon Vase, carved from a rare piece of lavender jade.

But of course, the most dazzling items in the collection are the individual gemstones and jewelry that have been owned by royalty through the centuries.

           

Royalty diamonds


When did diamonds first become recognized as precious stones and used for jewelry? The earliest reference to them has been found in a Sanskrit document dated around 300 BCE. They were associated with the gods and were used to decorate religious icons and statues. In India, only kings, the highest caste, were allowed to own them.

Although diamonds were traded east and west of India, they were still prized in their natural crystal state, or polished to increase the shine and luster of them. The first guild of diamond cutters was established in 1375, and it was then that the practice of cutting the stones and faceting them was developed.

From the earliest times, diamonds were the province of kings and queens. In fact, in the 13th century, Louis IX of France decreed that only royalty could own diamonds, a dictate which faded away about 100 years later. By the late 15th century, they were used as wedding rings.

The largest diamond ever found was a 3106-carat diamond discovered in 1905 in a mine owned by Thomas Cullinan, for whom the stone was made. It was cut into smaller stones, the largest being made into the 530-carat Great Star of Africa diamond, cut by the Asscher Brothers, a famous diamond firm to this day. It’s also called the Cullinan I diamond, and is set in the Scepter of the Cross of the United Kingdom. A smaller stone cut from the Cullinan diamond is called the Lesser Star of Africa. It weighs 317 carats and is part of the Imperial State Crown. Both gems can be seen as part of the British Crown Jewels which are displayed in the Tower of London. The rest of the Cullinan diamond was cut into 11 smaller-weight stones and a number of fragments.

While the Cullinan diamond is the largest diamond ever found, there is a rumor that the man who discovered the diamond actually broke off part of the diamond before presenting it to the mine’s owner. This diamond, if the rumor is true, would have been 5,000 carats!
   

Care of diamonds

Diamonds are durable and strong, but should be cared for as though they were fine breakable china or more fragile gems. They can chip or scratch if you’re not careful, and they can get quite dirty with oils from your skin and cosmetics, hair sprays or perfumes.

There are several ways to clean and store your diamonds. You can clean a diamond pretty quickly with a commercial jewelry cleaner that you either dip your jewelry in or soak them in a tub that gives it an ultrasound bath. Cold water and ammonia also work very well to dissolve oils that accumulate on your stones.

You can use a soft brush like an eyebrow brush to clean in between the prongs of the setting. Hold the diamonds by their settings and don’t touch the stones. If you’re cleaning them in the bathroom, be sure to close the stopper on the sink! You don’t want to go fishing in the plumbing for your valuable jewelry!

We’ve also used a mild toothpaste and soft toothbrush to clean gemstones. Rinse them under cold water, also using a soft brush to get any toothpaste particles from the gaps in between the stones and the setting. Some experts don’t recommend this and there is risk of scratching the stone, so if you choose this method, make sure it’s a low-abrasive. The best solution really is a commercial preparation or ammonia and water.

Rinse the jewelry in a tea infuser or under running water and dry it on a lint-free surface or towel. When you put your jewelry away, put it in a soft, velvet-lined box. Keep rings separate and don’t lump them in with all your other jewelry, to help protect the setting and the stones.

When you travel with your jewelry, make sure it’s in a soft, lined jewelry roll or a case specially designed for jewelry.  Even if you wear your engagement and wedding rings all the time, take care of them. Don’t wear them if you’re using harsh cleaning chemicals or solutions or doing work that might cause them to knock against furniture or walls.
   

Certified diamond
 Diamond certification is essential when you're buying a diamond and is different from a jeweler’s appraisal, although the certification is part of any appraisal. Many diamonds look the same, but not all of them are going to be of the quality you might like. Diamond certification is the written proof of a diamond's attributes. Without it, you have no assurance that the diamond you are buying is of the quality you're paying for. With it, you know the precise grading for each of the 4Cs – color, cut, clarity and carat weight, and, therefore, the diamond value.
Certification gives you the information you need to assess a diamond's value compared to other diamonds. It also allows you to make an intelligent comparison with other diamonds either in the same jewelry store or in another.
Diamond certificates are issued by independent gemological laboratories, not your jeweler. There are several grading laboratories, the most prominent being: the International Gemological Institute (IGI); the Gemological Institute of America (GIA); the American Gem Society (AGS); the European Gemological Laboratories (EGL) and GemEx Systems.
When you buy a diamond, be sure to question the sales associate first about the characteristics or attributes of the stone. Ask to see the diamond certification that will accompany the diamond when you purchase it. If you do some comparison shopping, you will note that the quality of the diamonds each jeweler carries varies depending on the store.
A diamond certification will also give you indicators about other diamond qualities, such as fire, brilliance and scintillation, also called Return of Light. These qualities refer to how light is refracted back to the viewer when held stationary or when in motion. The certification will also give you a measure of the stones fluorescence. These factors also impact the beauty and brilliance of your diamond.

 

Clarity

Diamond clarity is one the 4Cs of diamond qualities. It refers to any flaws, or inclusions in the diamond, and how visible or detectable they are. Inclusions can be foreign substances, or minute cracks or flaws. It also refers to the appearance of any surface flaws or scratches. As with the color grading scales, clarity also has a grading scale, with FL used to denote a flawless diamond. What FL means is that there are no flaws or inclusions that can be seen when the stone is examined under 10X magnification, the standard for examining for flaws.

Other clarity designations are:

IF stands for internally flawless. This means there are no internal flaws or inclusions, although there may be small surface flaws.

VVS1 and VVS2 stand for Very Very Slight inclusions that are difficult to see under magnification.  VS1 and VS2 indicate Very Slight inclusions that can be seen under magnification but are invisible to the naked eye.

SI1 and SI2 denote Slight Inclusions that may or may not be visible to the naked eye.

I1, I2 and I3 are "imperfect", with inclusions clearly visible to the naked eye. For I3, the inclusions impact the brilliance of the diamond and are large and obvious.

In most cases, there is nothing that can be done about flaws or inclusions, although in recent years lasers have been used to enhance some inclusions or fractures in diamonds by filling them in, much the way small dings in a windshield are filled in.

Certainly the most highly valued diamonds are those that are flawless – FL - or internally flawless – IF. But excellent values can be obtained at the VVS and VS grades, as these are flaws not visible to the naked eye, but only to an experienced grader under magnification.

Color

When it comes to the 4Cs of diamonds, color, or lack of it, is an especially important characteristic. Diamonds are given letter grades to denote the level of color, starting with the letter D for a flawless, colorless diamond.  Why D, and not C, B, or A? The reason we’ve heard is that when diamonds started being graded for color with this scale, it was decided to start with D, to leave room for the extremely rare possibility that a diamond would be found that was even more flawless than flawless. It hasn’t happened yet!

The color grades of D, E and F are the rarest and most colorless. The gradations in color can only be seen by an expert gemologist. The grades G-H are called near colorless and the difference can be seen by a casual observer only when compared to a higher-grade diamond. A stone in this grade category is an excellent value. The grades I-J are also near colorless, but not to the same extent as G-H. These also are an excellent value.

The color grades move up the scale to Z, with an increasing amount of color. These are inferior gem-quality stones and should not be confused with canary or other colored diamonds. Colored diamonds are graded differently than white diamonds and are also highly prized among collectors. They’re especially beautiful when combined with white diamonds. Consider that the Hope Diamond, one of the most famous diamonds, is a rich blue color. Out of all colored diamonds, a red diamond is the rarest of all.

The colors in colored diamonds come from impurities between the cells of the crystals, or structural defects. There are many different colors that diamonds can come in, but they’re limited to steel gray, white, blue, yellow, orange, red, green, pink to purple, brown, and black
 

Shapes

The cut of a diamond refers to the way the stone is shaped and polished, how the facets are arranged and how deep or shallow it’s cut. There are various cuts of diamonds that refer to that, many of them patented. Both Asscher and Princess diamonds are square-shaped diamonds, but they are vastly different in how the facet are cut and arranged.

Cut also refers to the shape of the diamond. The shape is often determined by how the molecules of the crystal are arranged. If it’s an octahedron, it will be cut as a round brilliant, and often two round brilliants can be cut from the same original crystal. Other crystal configurations, such as macer, will be cut as marquise or oval diamonds.

The modern round cut brilliant stone has 58 facets, or 57 if the tiny bottom facet, the culet, is omitted. The Princess cut is unique in that it’s a square diamond with pointed corners. Many diamonds, even square and emerald cut diamonds will have rounded or cut-off corners, because contrary to popular opinion, a diamond can chip or scratch if it knocks against something at the wrong angle. It’s a bad idea to try to scratch a mirror with any diamond!

An emerald shaped diamond is a rectangle cut with longer, flat facets. It’s a good cut for a diamond that’s exceptionally clear. If it’s not, then an emerald cut diamond can appear cloudy.

The Asscher diamond is similar to an emerald shape, except it’s square. It’s cutting resembles a spider web when viewed from above.

Other diamond shapes are self-explanatory. A pear- or tear-shaped diamond is exactly that.  It’s an oval that’s wider at one end and curves to a point at the other end. An oval is a perfect oval. The marquise-shaped diamond can maximize the carat weight of a stone because it’s a longer and flatter cut, yet highly faceted. The marquise comes in a variety of length-to-width ratios.