Imagine my profound joy the first time I saw a really fantastic emerald–a deep, chrome tourmaline colored gemstone of several carats, with virtually no inclusions and a classic “emerald” step cut, my fascination was almost unimaginable.
I know people are “my people” in terms of generation when they remember the annual viewing of, “The Wizard of Oz.” I grew up with one television set in our living room, and it was black and white for a long time. I was the youngest of four, so I may have been part of the last generation to understand that there was a time when shows and movies didn’t play when you wanted them to–they played when they were on. You had to be there, or, you missed it. You missed Rudolph at Christmas? Too bad, wait until next year. You missed Elvis week? Too bad–wait until next summer. I remember there were kids who were too scared to watch the Wizard of Oz–my sister was one of them. Not me.
I remember when we finally got a color television, and what seemed to be a magical world sprung to life. Lee Majors’s eyes were blue, Wonder Woman’s boots were red. And the Emerald City was so green! I had never seen an emerald in real life, and I’m sure I didn’t see one in the Wizard of Oz either, but I remember the fascination I felt seeing those gleaming crystal formations in the distance.
Recently, famed jeweler to the stars Harry Winston paid a staggering $5.5 million dollars for an emerald at auction! According to Christie’s, John D. Rockefeller Jr. originally acquired the magnificent step-cut gemstone in 1930 to create a multi-stone brooch for his wife, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. When Abby died in 1948, individual stones from the brooch were handed down to her children. The central emerald–the largest–was given to David Rockefeller, who had it mounted on a ring.
Upon examination, the American Gemological Laboratories (AGL) described the jewel as “exceptional,” adding that it’s an “unusual combination of size, provenance, absence of treatment and quality factors contributing favorably to its rarity and desirability.”
Just what are emeralds, and why do we love them so much? Emeralds are a beryl, a mineral consisting of a silicate of beryllium and aluminum. Additional mineral “contaminants” like iron or manganese can determine their color. Most folks don’t know that beryls include aquamarine and morganite as well as emerald! In the simplest terms, the presence of chromium can render this mineral lovely deep green. Emerald is also often quite included, and inclusions can be cleavages waiting to happen, meaning these gems are vulnerable as ring stones. These inclusions are sometimes called, “jardin,” French for garden–which is just giving a pretty name to something we most likely would not prefer to see! One must also look out for “filling,” a process whereby a sample with cracks and fractures has been filled with a colored glass or resin material…this renders the stone subject to significant changes when heated, cleaned, or simply worn over time.
Gem hounds can learn more about emeralds by stopping in anytime, or researching the GIA’s material on the subject:
https://www.gia.edu/UK-EN/emerald
Beryl is a 7.5 to 8 on the Mohs hardness scale, but the scale is deceptive….each number is not just a “bit” softer than the one above it, but exponentially softer. Beryls will show wear if used in a daily wear ring, and may cleave if included such as emeralds often are. By the way, the ring below is a magnificent example of nature meeting our design team to spectacular result. Perhaps we love emeralds not in spite of their fragility, but because of it…something so rare and fleeting makes a profoundly beautiful gift.
See the type of custom emerald jewelry we can create by visiting or contacting our studio located in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis, MN.
