This stone, paradoxically celebrated for its beauty yet feared for its curse, is the Hope Diamond. The size of a walnut and a deep blue gem in color, it is the world’s best-known diamond. Over its 370-year-long, often murky history, it has become immersed in legend, stolen at least twice and cut four times. Its owners have included sultans, kings, bankers, jewelers, thieves, a popular stage performer, and a fabulously wealthy heiress.

Since 1958, the Hope Diamond has been a major attraction at the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution) in Washington D.C., where it has been viewed by more than 100 million visitors and is currently valued at over $250 million.

Plucked From the Eye of an Idol

The Hope Diamond’s strange story began in 1653 when French gem merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier visited India’s Golconda Sultanate. There he purchased a crudely cut, triangular, flat, blue diamond of extraordinary size—115 carats. According to legend, this diamond, now known as the “Tavernier Diamond,” had been cursed since it previously had been plucked from the eye of a statue of a Hindu idol.

After returning to Europe in 1668, Tavernier sold the diamond to King Louis XIV of France, who ordered the stone recut. Tavernier wrote extensively about the gem before his death in Moscow the following year—when he was reportedly dismembered by a pack of wild dogs.

The “French Blue” and the Guillotine

The 1691 French crown jewel inventory describes the recut stone as “a very big, violet (the period term for “blue”) diamond, thick, cut with facets on both sides and in the shape of a heart with eight main faces.” It weighed 67.1 carats and was valued at the equivalent of $4 million in 2023 dollars. Formally known as the Blue Diamond of the Crown of France and popularly as the “French Blue,” this smaller stone, with its enhanced symmetry and additional pavilion facets, was substantially more brilliant than the original Tavernier Diamond. The French Blue was likely the first large diamond to be cut in a modern brilliant style.

Louis XIV had the blue diamond, along with a 117-carat red spinel and 195 smaller diamonds, set in an elaborate pendant that symbolized the Order of the Golden Fleece, a Catholic order of chivalry. Despite this prestigious setting, the idea that the French Blue was cursed gained credibility with the misfortunes of Louis XIV. Five of his legitimate children died in infancy. And the king himself died in agony of gangrene in 1715.

Setting the Stage

Ownership of the French Blue then passed to Louis XV, a monarch who enjoyed great popularity early in his reign—but his good fortune did not last. He engaged in costly wars that drained the French treasury, weakened royal authority, and set the stage for the French Revolution. Louis XV died a hated man in 1774.

The French Blue then became the property of King Louis XVI and his wife, the infamous Marie Antoinette, both of whom often wore the stone. But when the French Revolution erupted in 1789, the monarchy fell and, in September 1792, Louis was beheaded in a public execution. Marie Antoinette also died at the guillotine four months later.

A Convoluted Trail

During the French Revolution, the blue diamond, now widely believed to be cursed, was stolen from a royal warehouse and never seen again, at least not as the French Blue. The history of the stone then became uncertain. In 1812, just as the statute of limitations regarding the theft took effect, a 45-carat blue diamond appeared in the hands of London diamond merchant Daniel Eliason. Amid widespread accusations that this diamond was actually a cut-down version of the stolen French Blue, Eliason committed suicide.

In 1820, Britain’s King George IV acquired the diamond. Following his death in 1830, his bankrupt estate sold the stone to pay off debts. Attention then shifted to London banking heir Henry Philip Hope, who some suspected had secretly bought the diamond from French thieves in the early 1800s. Hope publicly listed the stone in his 1839 gem catalog—only to die just months later.

The Hope Diamond

The blue diamond remained with the Hope family for the next 57 years, the last owner being the American actress, playwright, and concert-hall singer May Yohé (Mary Augusta Yohé, Lady Francis Hope), whose writings and stage productions often called attention to the stone’s purported curse. The diamond was sold in 1896 to settle Yohé’s pressing debts. Many believed that the celebrated singer herself fell victim to the stone’s evil power: After enduring two disastrous marriages, she died in poverty in 1938.

The blue diamond, now known as the “Hope Diamond,” next passed through the hands of several gem merchants and jewelers, and two Ottoman sultans. The stone was then acquired by the prestigious Paris jewelry firm Cartier and director Pierre Cartier, a renowned wheeler-dealer in the gem world, who immediately began seeking a buyer and a quick profit.

On to America

The story of how the Hope Diamond came to the United States began in 1896 in the gold-mining camp of Ouray, Colorado, where prospector Thomas F. Walsh bought two abandoned claims for back taxes. This purchase turned out to be one of history’s greatest bargains, for the original claim owners had somehow overlooked a massive deposit of phenomenally rich gold ore.

In 1898, Walsh’s daughter Evalyn married Edward “Ned” Beale McLean, heir to The Washington Post newspaper fortune, and became an internationally known socialite with lavish tastes, especially for fine gems. When Thomas Walsh died in 1910, he left his fortune of $3 million ($90 million in 2023 dollars) to his 24-year-old daughter Evalyn Walsh McLean.

Pierre Cartier

Having previously sold fine gems to Evalyn, Pierre Cartier knew that the heiress, now in receipt of her fortune, was a prime candidate to buy the Hope Diamond. Pierre’s first attempt to sell her the stone failed. But he tried again, this time with the diamond set in a striking modern mount surrounded by a three-tiered circlet of dozens of smaller white diamonds.

Also astutely guessing that Evalyn would be fascinated by the stone’s purported curse, Pierre recounted—and likely embellished— its more disturbing details. In 1911, amid great publicity, Evalyn bought the Hope Diamond for $300,000 ($9 million in 2023 dollars). Enamored of the stone, the heiress frequently wore it at balls and parties, at times hanging it around the neck of her Great Dane or hiding it in the furniture and challenging her guests to “find the Hope.”

But in the end, Evalyn also seems to have paid dearly for owning the Hope Diamond: Her husband died in a mental hospital, her firstborn son was fatally struck by an automobile at age nine, and her 24-year-old daughter died of an overdose of sleeping pills.

Harry Winston & The Smithsonian

In 1947, New York City diamond merchant Harry Winston purchased the Hope Diamond from Evalyn Walsh McLean’s estate.

For nearly a decade, Winston displayed the stone on his popular “Court of Jewels” tour across North America, showing it at charity balls and on television shows. He ordered a minor recutting of the stone’s pavilion facets to further increase its brilliance—the fourth and last time that the Hope would be cut.

In the mid-1950s, mineralogist George Switzer, an associate curator at the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian), proposed establishing a national gem collection with the Hope Diamond as the centerpiece. Switzer asked Harry Winston to donate the stone to the Smithsonian. In 1958, Winston, intrigued by the idea of a national gem collection and perhaps even more so by a monumental tax write-off, agreed.

Winston sent the Hope Diamond from New York City to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., by registered, insured first-class mail. And what happened next convinced many that the Hope’s curse was still alive. Shortly after hand-delivering the stone, United States Post Office letter carrier James Todd was seriously injured in two back-to-back automobile accidents—before losing his house to a fire.

New Look at an Old Stone

For centuries, no conclusive proof existed that the Hope Diamond had been cut from the French Blue, or that the latter had been cut from the Tavernier Diamond. But in 2007, a Paris museum curator discovered a lead cast of the French Blue from which researchers prepared a three-dimensional, digital image. Comparisons with images of the Hope Diamond proved that the Hope had indeed been cut from the French Blue.

Researchers then computer-imaged the Tavernier Diamond based on Jean-Baptiste Tavernier’s detailed drawings from the late 1660s. Image comparisons confirmed that both the Hope Diamond and the French Blue had once been the Tavernier Diamond

A museum cataloging label also indicated that the lead cast of the French Blue dated to 1812 when the stone’s owner was a “Mr. Hoppe of London,” strongly suggesting that Henry Philip Hope had acquired the diamond not long after its theft during the French Revolution, then recut it to disguise its identity to avoid a French repossession lawsuit. After apparently passing the diamond on to Daniel Eliason, Hope seems to have reacquired the stone 25 years later shortly before his death.

“Proof” of the Curse?

Researchers have also learned that the Hope Diamond, when exposed to shortwave ultraviolet light, glows like a burning red ember. While many blue diamonds exhibit this same fluorescence, none match the Hope’s fiery intensity. Gemologists attribute this unusual fluorescence to traces of boron that also produce the Hope’s distinctive blue color. This boron interacts with other trace impurities, enabling electrons within the stone’s crystal lattice to absorb energy from ultraviolet light, and then release it as visible red light.

While gemologists agree that this fluorescence adds to Hope’s uniqueness, intrigue, and mystery, others attribute its eerie red glow to a demonic presence.

Despite the dark legends that still surround the Hope, this celebrated blue diamond has certainly not cursed the Smithsonian, which has benefited enormously through worldwide attention along with substantially increased gifting and visitor attendance.

This story about the Hope Diamond curse previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe. Story by Steve Voynick.

The post The Hope Diamond Curse first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

Why Hand Polish?

Hand polishing is something even the most novice and/or youngest rockhound can easily do. It requires only a few materials, doesn’t cost much and results in beautifully polished stones. Some people find the rhythmic motion of hand polishing to be relaxing, offering almost a Zen-like experience. Using the Mohs Scale of Hardness, softer stones like turquoise and amber work best for hand polishing. These stones often don’t fare well in a tumbler anyway, which is one more reason to polish them by hand. 

How to Polish Rocks

Step 1

Start by cleaning the rock(s) by hand. Fill a small bucket with hot, soapy water to clean off dirt. If the stone has a lot of crevices or stubborn residue, an old toothbrush works wonders. Once the rock is thoroughly cleaned, rinse off the soap, then throw out the soapy water and refill the bucket with clean water to use throughout the process.

Step 2

Round the corners and do some rough shaping with 220-grit sandpaper. Begin by moistening the sandpaper and placing it grit-side up on a cutting board or other hard, flat surface. Wet the rock, hold it in your dominant hand and begin rubbing it along the sandpaper to remove the hard edges. Continuously wet the rock to remove fine particles and continue the sanding process until the edges become smooth and rounded or you achieve the desired shape.

To shape and polish harder substances, opt for something coarser. Some people begin with an 80-grit, but sandpaper this coarse shouldn’t be used on softer stones because it could add more scratches than remove. A quick reminder – the lower the number, the coarser the sandpaper.

Step 3

Refine the shape and remove heavy scratches with 500-grit sandpaper. Moving up to finer sandpaper helps remove significant scratches and helps further refine the shape. Keep the rock wet throughout the sanding process for better results.

Step 4

Remove lighter scratches and begin polishing with 1200-grit sandpaper. Using extra-fine sandpaper buffs out tiny scratches on the stone’s surface. The shine will start forming during this step. Make sure to keep the rock wet, rinsing it often to expose anything that’s been missed. 

Step 5

Dampen a square of thick cloth, preferably denim or similar material, and add a good dab of toothpaste. Work the stone through the toothpaste and over the fabric to create a beautiful luster. Depending on the stone, add more toothpaste several times until the desired shine is achieved.

“There are lots of polishing compounds out there,” said Allen McGhee, long-time rockhound and hand polisher. “But I’ve found that toothpaste works just as well, and it’s cheaper. Pretty much any toothpaste works, so don’t buy the high-priced ones.”

Step 6

Rinse off the toothpaste and coat the newly polished stone with mineral oil or a commercial rock polish to bring out the luster. Once the rock dries, it’s ready to show off.

Augmenting with a Dremel

A Dremel is a popular motorized rotary tool that’s handy for grinding and smoothing sharp edges and completing extensive shaping of hard stones, especially those with lots of crevices.

“You can shape and polish rocks and gems faster with a Dremel if you want,” said McGhee. “They make heads for them with all three levels of grit you need.”

When using a Dremel, protective eyewear is a must. Even small chips can damage an eye. Gloves should be used to protect hands. Sharp edges on the rock and the rotating tip of the Dremel can break the skin. Wearing a mask prevents inhaling the tiny particles coming off the rock as it is ground. 

Using a Dremel comes down to personal preference. Some prefer a more natural shape, so they do very little shaping but want to give their rocks a nice bit of shine. Alternately, a Dremel comes in handy for a perfectly smooth and/or rounded stone or for harder rocks that will take a long time to smooth by hand. 

Tumbling Vs. Hand Polishing

Many people inadvertently think rock tumblers offer the fastest way to polish rocks. In reality, rock tumbling is a lengthy process that generally takes anywhere from several days to several weeks. The larger and harder the rocks, the more time tumbling takes. Hand polishing offers a quick turnaround for softer rocks. 

On the other hand, rock tumbling is less labor-intensive since the machine does all the hard work.

Merits of Polishing Rocks by Hand

Although hand polishing can be time-consuming based on the hardness of the rock, it gives more control over the finished product. This control can be especially important if the final result will impact the quality, value and/or overall appearance of a rare or expensive rock or gem. Hand polishing can also give a desirable sense of accomplishment. 

This story about how to polish rocks previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe. Story by Moira K. McGhee.

The post How to Polish Rocks by Hand first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

Many of us have some level of barely started or otherwise unfinished projects stashed away in our studio or shop waiting for the idea or motivation to work on them. Usually, I make my cabs somewhat larger for displaying at shows. I don’t often make my cabs for jewelry use, but this month’s jewelry theme gave me an excuse to resurrect a long-buried, but not forgotten project. 

After struggling to remember what I did with a particular pair of preforms five years ago, I found them together surprisingly quickly. The intended design was to have one piece nested into the larger one. The larger one is a slab of Brazilian agate with contrasting color bands. The smaller piece is a small cab of Laguna agate.

Making the Cabochon

I started with shaping the Brazilian agate slab into a semi-circle with an inverted curve in the bottom to accommodate the smaller cab. I also sketched a design at the top so I could carve a tab that I could drill through for stringing the piece on as a necklace. I shaped the Laguna agate into a pointed teardrop shape sized to fit into the bottom of the larger cab.

I shaped the curve in the larger piece with a silicon carbide Mizzy wheel. The Brazilian agate piece was ready for carving the ridges across the face. I started carving the ridges in the face of the Brazilian agate with a small diamond wheel. I followed this by enlarging and shaping the grooves with a shaped Mizzy wheel. The next step involved sanding the groves with a shaped 220-grit silicon carbide sanding block. The final sanding was done with various shapes of wood bits and a slurry of 220-grit tumbling media. The polishing was done with shaped wood bits and a slurry of cerium oxide.

I drilled the inside curve on the bottom of the Brazilian agate and the top of the Laguna agate cab with a 1mm diamond core drill so I could install a silver wire loop in each of the holes.  I used Epoxy 330 to glue the wire loops into the stones. I assembled the stone pieces by connecting the silver loops. I’m pleased with how the project turned out. 

Steps by Photo

This story about cabochons for jewelry making previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe. Story by Bob Rush.

The post Cabochons for Jewelry Making first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

“Under the rocks and stones, there is water underground.” ~ Talking Heads

The answer lies in (among other places) the lyrics of the 1970’s art rock band, Talking Heads: Water.

Rock Tumbling Blow Up

Rock tumbling began millions of years ago, as waves and streams tumbled Earth’s first sediments. Over time, the more ingenious of our ancestors discerned how such natural processes shaped and smoothed some rocks more than others. Moving water became the first “rock tumbler.”  

For thousands of years we have respected the power of water but only recently has science explained how something so benign and malleable can wear away stone.

In April 2022, a first-of-its-kind study, led by University of Minnesota-Twin Cities researchers, announced it had taken a closer look at how water erodes hard surfaces and concluded that tiny droplets behave like miniature bombs. 

“There are similar sayings in Eastern and Western cultures that ‘dripping water hollows out stone,’” said Xiang Cheng, senior author of the research paper and associate professor at the University of Minnesota Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. 

“Such sayings intend to teach a moral lesson: ‘Even if you are weak if you do something continuously, you will make an impact.’ But when you have something so soft as droplets hitting something so hard as rocks, you cannot help wondering, ‘Why does the drop impact cause damage?’ That question motivated our research.”

Their discovery, published in Nature Communications, outlined how a new technique called high-speed stress microscopy measured the force, stress, and pressure underneath liquid drops as they hit a surface. They found that the force exerted by a droplet spreads out with the impacting drop instead of concentrating in the center of the droplet, briefly exceeding the speed of sound as it spreads and creating a miniature “shock wave” across an impacted surface.

“Each droplet,” the team noted, “behaves like a small bomb, releasing its impact energy explosively and giving it the force necessary to erode surfaces over time.” 

And to think, all those micro-bombs were organically exploding as Egyptian slaves slushed rough-hewn rocks, for months at a time, in troughs filled with sand and water. Or, as Indian lapidaries rolled goat skin polishing bags filled with water and grit along the ground, or shook jars of water, abrasives, and pre-cut beads up and down on pre-tumbler “teeter-totter” boards. 

Rock Tumbling Glow Up

That said, not every type of stone is up to the task of enduring microscopic bombings in pursuit of that perfect shine.

“We were the first in the area to carry raw stones because it was growing more popular. People want to tumble their stones,” says Christine Seebold, evidential medium and owner of the Mind Body Spirit Center, with locations in Albany, Clifton Park, and Saratoga Springs, New York. 

“We try to give everyone a variety of stones to try, plus we do a rock tumbling kit for kids, which includes two dozen of the best basic choices.”

What makes the best basic choice? A great place to start is at that tried and true standard established in 1812 by German mineralogist, Friedrich Mohs. He chose 10 different minerals of varying degrees of hardness and assigned them a score of one (softest) to 10 (hardest). 

The ideal Mohs scale of hardness for rock tumbling success is between five to seven. One of the tumbling’s easiest tips to remember is ‘seven days for a hardness of seven,’ and standard rock tumbling instructions are generally based on material with a Mohs hardness of about seven (including agate, chalcedony, jasper, quartz, and petrified wood).

In Why Mohs Hardness Is Important, Hobart M. King of Rocktumbler.com wrote, that if you are tumbling a rough with a hardness of six, it will not take as long to shape and smooth as a rough with a hardness of seven. “Our opinion is that you can reduce the number of tumbling days by about one-and-a-half days for every degree of hardness under seven.”

Agate, Chalcedony, and Jasper, Oh Mohs!

Quartz is the benchmark mineral for a seven on the Mohs Hardness Scale and standing toe to toe with it is another top choice for tumbling, chalcedony. 

Don’t let its occasional delicate transparency and a wide variety of hues (thanks to impurities in an otherwise colorless state) fool you. Chalcedony can roll with the best of them and is the generic name for any kind of microcrystalline quartz, although its white and blue forms are most often referred to as chalcedony. (Fun fact: it’s also the “flint” used in ancient tools and weaponry.) 

Agate and jasper are varieties of chalcedony. All are colorful, durable, inexpensive, and deliver a satisfying luster after tumbling. An easy way to remember one from the other is that agate is any type of chalcedony that is translucent; jasper is chalcedony that is opaque, thanks to a greater degree of impurities mixed with its silica/quartz. Agate and jasper can form in the same volcanic environment so it’s not uncommon for a single rock to contain both translucent (agate) and opaque (jasper) portions.

Polished agate as ornamentation dates back to the Bronze Age (3300 BCE – 1300 B.C.) in Asia, and third-century B.C. Greece, it derived its name from naturalist Theophrastus, who named agate after the Sicilian shoreline of the Achates River where he found the stones. Popular agates include descriptive lace and moss agates, turritella (including petrified wood), and iridescent fire agate.

Varieties of jasper include imperial (green), the rarest — according to writer and rock seeker Jeremy Hall — so be sure of what you’re buying; brecciated (colorful red and yellow nodules); the dreamlike landscape; poppy, named for its distinctive tiny “blooms,” and ocean, found only at low tide in Madagascar.

Other types of chalcedony to consider for tumbling are aventurine, whose tiny inclusions look like shimmering flakes; carnelian and heliotrope (aka “bloodstone”); blue (Mt. Airy Blues or Mohave) or slightly lavender chalcedony, known as holly blue and found only in Oregon; and since the organic matter in petrified wood is often replaced by (opaque) chalcedony, it can technically be classified as jasper (and tumbles at roughly the same rate, four to five weeks, as agate or jasper).

Christine says other rocks her collectors love to tumble are quartz and tiger’s eye. Tiger’s eye, a crystalline type of quartz, can be polished to a high luster but experienced tumblers warn that tumbling pieces larger than an inch in size can result in “bruising” along the edges of the rocks, caused by quartz-on-quartz impacts inside a tumbling barrel.

Your best prospects are hard, dense, and smooth rocks like those mentioned above; avoid tumbling rocks with a gritty texture or that prove too soft after a “scratch test” (where a mineral, after being scratched by another mineral, will fall on the Mohs Hardness Scale).

Rockin’ Tik Tok

What’s hot in rocks is also being determined by younger, more social voices.

“We have kids come in the store educating their parents,” says Christine. “TikTok videos are teaching a lot of kids about stones and crystals. By the time they come in the store, they already know what they’re looking at and what they want. They say, ‘This way, Mom.’ They already know the stones they want.”

Driving popularity can also drive demand for certain rocks.

“Muldovite,” sighs Christine, citing a recent example of a rock so popular (thanks to TikTok) that it was hard to keep in stock or, from a metaphysical standpoint, align with the right energies.

“This is a really intense stone of transformation and spiritual awakening,” she says of the rare green tektite from the Czech Republic. “I had three people in one week come into my shop asking for it, and when I asked, ‘Are you sure? That’s a strong stone,’ they said, ‘Yes. We saw it on TikTok.’”

She’s not exaggerating. An April 30, 2021 article in Cosmopolitan by Rebekah Harding cited how muldovite, during the pandemic, racked up more than 280 million views on TikTok and its digital spiritual cousin, WitchTok. 

“There’s a neat reason this tektite became one of WitchTok’s biggest and most long-lived trends,” Harding wrote. “Moldavite removes blockages and obstacles on your path toward becoming your highest self. Often in the most chaotic way possible.”

So, muses Christine,  “If you can’t find a certain stone, it might be because it is selling out on TikTok as ‘Stone of the Week!’” 

TikTok trends are a long way from the days of goatskin bags and sand-filled troughs, and yet the attraction we feel for a pretty, shiny stone endures.   

This story about rock tumbling previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe. Story by L. A. Sokolowski.

The post Best Rock Tumbling Rocks first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

Almost everyone interested in gemstones, whether from the gemological, historical or metaphysical perspectives, has read, or at least heard of, George Frederick Kunz’s book The Curious Lore of Precious Stones. Published 110 years ago, this classic is still being reprinted today.

Over his long career, Kunz would introduce jewelers to semiprecious colored gems; write more than 400 gem-related articles, books and reports; assemble world-class mineral collections; cofound the nation’s oldest mineral club; and compile the first formal accounts of birthstones and the metaphysical aspects of gems. Impressive achievements for a largely self-educated man.

The Young Rockhound

As a teenager in Manhattan and nearby Hoboken, New Jersey, Kunz collected minerals wherever he could find them, often at bridge and railroad construction sites. After attending public schools, he took night classes at Manhattan’s Cooper Institute, although he did not graduate. Despite being limited in his formal education, he read everything available about minerals to complement his already proficient field-collecting skills.

Kunz was still a teenager when he sold his 4,000-specimen mineral collection to the University of Minnesota for $400 ($8,000 in 2023 dollars). He later wrote that the sale wasn’t “so much for the money but to mark myself in the eyes of the world as a real collector.”

Tiffany & Co.

In the 1870s, American and European jewelers focused mainly on the “big four” gems — diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds. Kunz, however, was more interested in semiprecious gemstones or, as he later wrote, the “sea-green depths of tourmaline, the watery-blue of aquamarine, the red blood-cups of garnet, the misty nebula of moonstone.”

At that time, the nation’s most prestigious jeweler was then New York City’s Tiffany & Co. Founded by Charles Lewis Tiffany in 1837, the company dealt exclusively in the “big four” gems. But that began to change in 1875 when 19-year-old Kunz showed Tiffany a fine specimen of green tourmaline, then persuaded the jeweler to buy it, cut it into gems and fashion an experimental line of jewelry. To Tiffany’s surprise, the collection quickly sold out.

Kunz’s meeting with Charles Tiffany was a turning point in America’s experience with gems. Gem fashions now changed rapidly once Tiffany introduced the public to semi-precious gemstone jewelry. In 1879, Tiffany hired Kunz as his gemstone expert, a position he would hold for the rest of his life. Kunz’s many responsibilities included finding sources of the semiprecious, colored gemstones that now captured his employer’s—and the public’s—attention.

George Frederick Kunz the Writer

Kunz began publishing gem-related articles in 1881. Two years later he wrote a report titled “American Gems and Precious Stones” for the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) Mineral Resources of the United States, an annual, book-length publication.

Kunz’s reports on domestic gemstone discoveries and production for the USGS established the credibility of gemstones as a mineral resource and encouraged gemstone prospecting. Through these annual reports, Kunz also built a national network of correspondents that included prospectors, miners, geologists, mineralogists and mineral collectors. The USGS also appointed Kunz a “special agent” and regularly published his gemstone reports in Mineral Resources of the United States for 50 years.

In 1886, Kunz cofounded the New York Mineralogical Club. Still in existence today as the nation’s oldest, continuously active mineral club, the NYMC has been the model for the subsequent founding of hundreds of similar clubs across the nation. Kunz’s first book, Gems and Precious Stones of North America, published in 1890, utilized his research for his Mineral Resources of the United States reports.

The World-Class Collector

Through his work at Tiffany & Co., Kunz became acquainted with prestigious customers, among them the wealthy financier John Pierpont Morgan, a prominent collector of art, antiques and gemstones. In 1888, Morgan commissioned Kunz to assemble a gemstone collection for international exhibition. The 382-specimen collection that Kunz put together won two gold medals at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris.

In 1891, jointly financed by Morgan and Tiffany, Kunz traveled to Russia’s Ural Mountains to locate mine sources of gemstones. While in the Urals, Kunz acquired a quantity of demantoid, the green variety of andradite and the rarest and most valuable of the garnet gemstones. He also purchased newly mined alexandrite, the color-change variety of chrysoberyl. Charles Tiffany’s later successful marketing of demantoid and alexandrite in his Art Noveau and Art Deco jewelry styles kept both stones from gemological obscurity.

In 1900, Morgan commissioned Kunz to assemble another world-class collection of gems and minerals—the 4,000-specimen Second Tiffany-Morgan Collection. The following year, Morgan, again relying on Kunz’s collecting expertise, paid $100,000 (roughly $2 million in 2023 dollars) to acquire Philadelphia industrialist Clarence S. Bement’s spectacular 12,300-specimen collection. Morgan later donated these Kunz-assembled collections to New York City’s American Museum of Natural History.

The Tiffany Yellow Diamond Soon after 23-year-old George Frederick Kunz began work at Tiffany & Co., he received a daunting assignment—to design and supervise the cutting of a 287.42-carat, canary-yellow, South African diamond that Charles Tiffany had purchased for $18,000 ($500,000 in 2023 dollars). Kunz and other experts studied the stone for a year before deciding on a modified, square-antique-brilliant cut with 82 facets, 24 more than the traditional 58-facet cut. Kunz’s unconventional and rather daring approach successfully maximized the stone’s brilliance. The resulting 128.54-carat gem, now famed as the “Tiffany Yellow Diamond” and valued at $30 million, has since been worn by only four women, among them actress Audrey Hepburn in a 1961 promotion for the movie Breakfast at Tiffany’s; Lady Gaga at the 2019 Academy Awards ceremony; and Beyoncé in a 2021 Tiffany & Co. advertisement. As part of the enduring legacy of George Frederick Kunz, this spectacular diamond has appeared in various settings and is permanently displayed at Tiffany’s flagship store in New York City.

Birthstones & the Metaphysical

In 1891, Tiffany & Co. published Kunz’s Natal Stones: Sentiments and Superstitions Connected with Precious Stones, which traced the ancient Biblical and Hindu origins of birthstones, and documented what had for centuries been only loose tradition. Although just 36 pages long, Natal Stones heightened public interest in birthstones and sharply increased sales of Tiffany’s birthstone jewelry. In 1912, the National Association of Jewelers of America formalized Kunz’s birthstone list. Tiffany & Co. regularly reprinted updated editions of Natal Stones until 1931; modern reprints continue to be available today.

Largely at Tiffany’s expense, Kunz amassed a huge, personal gemological library; while most of these volumes addressed the mineralogical aspects of gemstones, a significant number of rare works dealt with the historical, healing, occult, spiritual, religious and metaphysical aspects of gems.

In 1913, many of these volumes served as Kunz’s research base for The Curious Lore of Precious Stones, the first comprehensive treatment of gem lore. Widely marketed in North America and Great Britain, this enormously popular book boosted sales of gems and jewelry, and greatly stimulated interest in the metaphysical aspects of gems. Although first editions currently sell for as much as $1,000, affordable reprints are still sold today.

Yogo Sapphires & Kunzite

Prospectors, miners, jewelers and collectors often mailed Kunz specimens to identify. “It would perhaps seem improbable that, sitting at a desk in New York, one [could] discover a gem mine in Montana, yet that is just what happened to me,” Kunz later recalled. “. . . upon examination I found certain crystals to which little attention had been paid, but which I discovered to be fine blue sapphires.” Thanks to Kunz’s identification, Montana’s Yogo Gulch became the Western Hemisphere’s greatest source of gem sapphire.

Kunz also received a package of pinkish-purple, transparent crystals from a Pala, California, miner who needed help with identification. After Kunz identified the crystals as a new color variety of spodumene, members of the New York Academy of Science named this variety “kunzite” in Kunz’s honor.

In 1910, after identifying a violet-pink stone from Madagascar as a new color variety of beryl, Kunz named it “morganite” for his longtime friend and benefactor John Pierpont. Morgan.

Respect and Recognition

Kunz despised jewelers who took advantage of an unsuspecting public by passing off altered or look-alike gems as the real thing and enjoyed posing as an average jewelry customer. He was once shown a necklace with gems that the jeweler described as “exceptionally fine.”

“Really, well, after all, that’s not a high price for it—I paused, the dealer beamed—if it were genuine. I leaned over the table, lifted and dropped the necklace disdainfully. What do you mean asking such a price for a flagrant forgery?”

As Kunz’s notoriety grew, honorary degrees compensated for his lack of formal education. He received a master’s degree from New York City’s Columbia University; a doctor-of-philosophy degree from Germany’s University of Marburg; and a Ph.D. from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. Kunz proudly used his academic designations in all his later articles and books.

In a 1928 interview with The Saturday Evening Post, Kunz explained what had sustained his interest in gems and minerals for more than 60 years: “Every boy has his passions—his collection of stamps or coins or marbles or what not, and the only difference between another boy’s and mine was that I never outgrew it.”

George Frederick Kunz’s Legacy

Kunz remained active with Tiffany & Co. until his death in 1932 at age 75. While making many contributions to the world of gems and minerals, Kunz had also succeeded financially. His estate was valued at $114,000—the equivalent of more than $2 million today.

Kunz’s bestowed his final gift posthumously in 1933 when his estate sold his personal gemological and mineralogical library of several thousand rare books, pamphlets and articles to the USGS for the token sum of one dollar. Today, the Kunz Collection is available to researchers at the USGS Library in Reston, Virginia.

Kunz’s obituary in Science magazine concluded with “. . . it is doubtful if [anyone] ever lived a richer or more interesting life.” And when it came to gemstones and gems, that was probably true. Interestingly, the word “gemologist” replaced the term “gem expert” almost immediately after Kunz’s death. That was fitting, for George Frederick Kunz, as America’s first gemologist, had advanced the world of gems culturally, commercially, scientifically, and metaphysically.

This story about George Frederick Kunz previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe. Story by Steve Voynick.

The post Who is George Frederick Kunz? first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

Faceting Different Versions

The Hoshi’s (Japanese for “star”) size and symmetry of facets on the crown and girdle provide the opportunity to add ornamental facets. I faceted two versions of Marco’s Hoshi for this article. The first one used the design provided and the second was embellished with frosted facets and concave girdle facets.

I jazz this design up a little differently each time I use it. I recommend faceting the design as seen in the faceting diagram first because the girdle is very different and the small crown facets need some time and finer grits to get lined up. Once you facet the diagram, then cut another, adding embellishments to it.

Gem Faceting – Two From One

I used the same piece of Ouro Verde quartz (AKA lemon quartz) rough for both gemstones to show the difference between the two styles in the same color. I did this by using a single longer gemstone that would normally be used for a long rectangle or briolette shape. I preformed the rough and then cut the gemstone in half, giving me two identical preforms. This is a good method for making matching earrings and using longer materials without waste.

I use the Hoshi design in my gemstone faceting lessons. The student facets a round brilliant design for their first gemstone. For the second gemstone, they select either Marco Voltolini’s Hoshi or Maya Drop design. Students get to decide how they want to embellish the gemstone by choosing different facet patterns and the shapes and placement of concave facets on the girdle. This allows the student to try frosting facets, use the ULTRA TEC Fantasy Machine and add their distinct personality.

Ouro Verde Quartz

I like to use Ouro Verde quartz for the majority of my small to medium test cuts. It is a beautiful and affordable gemstone rough that shows off the stone’s best attributes. I recommend my friends at Storied Gemstones when buying gemstone rough. When you call, please tell them I said hello!

If you have any questions about faceting this design or would like to make suggestions for future gemstone designs, please contact me at www.hashnustones.com and use the contact form.

This story about gem faceting the Hoshi gemstone design previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe. Story by Mark Oros.

The post Gem Faceting: Hoshi Design first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

Andrew’s design is more about the overall appearance, using facets that provide a pleasing and complex composition. The combination of both round and triangular symmetries invites the beholder to reflect on a unique and inviting set of patterns.

Andrew paid special attention to the low refractive index (how much light will bend when entering the gem) for quartz to minimize windowing (losing the reflective nature of the gem’s facets), allowing the gemstone to be seen at greater angles without losing its reflective properties.

For modern jewelry designs, the first place I look is at Andrew Brown’s five gemstone design books. In my opinion, Andrew’s innovative and well-performing designs are on the cutting edge. His designs are either new impressions on classics or a complete break from tradition.

The Super Star design is straightforward and should pose no big challenges to faceters of any level. The design is created for quartz and looks better in a larger gemstone. Larger quartz gemstones can be frustrating to polish so I recommend that you take your time and establish a superior pre-polish before polishing.

Andrew is a prolific gemstone designer and author, having completed five gemstone design books and currently working on his sixth. I had the honor and pleasure of working with Andrew on the faceting book Twelve Easy Gemstone Faceting Designs – A Guide for the Beginner Gemcutter. You can find our book collaboration at https://www. hashnustones.com/twelve-stones1.html. You can find Andrew’s books at https://facetingdesigns.com.

If you have any questions about faceting this design or would like to make suggestions for future gemstone designs, please contact me at https://www.hashnustones.com and use the contact form.

This story about gem faceting the Super Star gemstone design previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe. Story by Mark Oros.

The post Gem Faceting: Super Star Design first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

Walking along the beach, Allen McGhee isn’t just there for the beautiful ocean view. He’s on the hunt for sea glass and smaller beach stones that might make a nice piece of jewelry or a DIY sea glass art project. Brown and green sea glass are common, red and blue are more elusive, but all have the potential of being transformed into a recycled work of art. Tackling this beautiful craft may be easier than you think, especially with some helpful hints to get you started.

Preparing Cuttlefish Bone Molds

Cuttlefish are cephalopods like octopuses and squid. Cuttlefish bone makes an excellent material for creating molds for jewelry-making endeavors. Cuttlefish bone is inexpensive and readily available from jewelry suppliers and pet stores. However, it’s generally cheaper at pet stores, especially those that buy and sell it in bulk.

Cuttlefish bones have a hard side and a soft side. It’s important to inspect each piece carefully to make sure the soft side of the cuttlefish bone is relatively flat. You don’t want any large cracks or indentations that can’t be easily sanded out. These can detract from your design or cause the cuttlebone to break during the jewelry-making process.

Choose medium-sized pieces that are large enough to cut in half. McGhee likes to use a flush-cut saw to halve his pieces, although you can use a jeweler’s saw or a coping saw.

When cutting a cuttlebone in half, always place the soft side down and cut from the hard side. This helps prevent cracking or splitting. The cutting process will create a lot of dust, so be sure to wear the appropriate eye protection throughout the entire process.

You also want to make sure you’re wearing appropriate clothing since you will be working with an open flame. Clear your work surface so it is free of debris that can catch on fire, such as paper towels or cloth rags.

After the cuttlebone is halved, you must prepare it to be used as a mold. Sand the soft side of the cuttlefish bone to create a smooth contact surface that provides a perfect fit between the two halves. Some people rub the soft sides of the two halves together, but McGhee likes to use sandpaper. Lay the sandpaper on a flat surface and rub the soft side of the cuttlefish bone along the top of the sandpaper, not vice versa.

McGhee uses a circular motion. Rubbing back and forth can create a curved surface you don’t want. Both halves must be flat when finished. While the sandpaper helps create a smooth surface, it doesn’t detract from the natural growth lines found within the bone. These lines resemble wood grain and give each piece a unique texture.

How to Melt Silver to Make Jewelry – Simplified Steps STEP 1: Cut the cuttlefish bone in half STEP 2: Sand soft sides of the cuttlebone until smooth STEP 3: Blow off residual dust STEP 4: Carve a design into cuttlebone STEP 5: Bind the two halves together STEPS 6 & 7: Melt and pour the metal STEP 8: Remove the hardened metal jewelry piece

How to Melt Silver to Make Jewelry – Carving the Design 

McGhee carves all his designs freestyle by hand. This is probably the most creative part of the process and one he enjoys immensely as an artist. He creates each carving using a variety of wood carving tools and dental tools. Take care when carving your design because it takes very little pressure to etch the surface. You don’t want to go too deep and risk breaking the cuttlebone.

Carve your design into one of the halves of the cuttlefish bone and leave the other side unmarred. This is also when McGhee notches a place to insert a piece of sea glass or beach stone into the mold. Sometimes he incorporates more than one piece of glass or stone into the design based on what he envisions.

While he’s carving, he uses a manual air blower to remove dust from the surface of the cuttlefish bone so the lines of his design are crisp. Because he primarily creates pendants, he either includes some type of loop or opening in the design or drills a hole in the top of the finished piece for a chain. Once he’s satisfied with the design, he cuts some air reliefs. These are simply a few thin lines that radiate from the design.

“Air reliefs help make sure the melted metal gets all the way to the bottom of the mold,” said McGhee. “Without them, the metal may only fill the crevices of your design partway and it comes out incomplete. Since you can’t reuse the mold, you have to start over, but you can melt the metal again and reuse it.”

Next, sandwich the two halves together with the flat sides facing each other and bind them. McGhee likes to wire the two pieces together. He says you can also use a clamp but wire is easiest. No matter what you use, be sure the pieces are tight to ensure none of the scorching hot, melted metal leaks out the bottom.

Carve out a pouring cone at the top of the cuttlefish. The cone is a large indentation and should just meet the top edge of the design inside. This opening is where you’ll pour your melted metal.

Cuttlefish bone is a popular option for jewelry molds because it’s naturally resistant to the heat of melted metals, but the process does destroy the mold.

QUICK TIP: Don’t throw away your used cuttlebone. A cuttlebone mold isn’t reusable for jewelry-making, but it’s recyclable as plant food.

How to Melt Silver to Make Jewelry – Pouring  

McGhee prefers sterling because of its lower melting point. It’s easier to work with and more desirable than some metals. It’s also much cheaper than gold, making it a great metal when you’re learning. While he’s used bronze some, silver remains his go-to metal. You can buy silver castings, sheets and tubes from various sources, but you can save money and practice recycling by purchasing used silver. McGhee buys broken jewelry, sterling silver flatware and other odd pieces of silver from pawnshops or at garage sales. When he uses old forks, spoons, cups or other large pieces of silver, he must first chop them down to size. The pieces must be able to fit inside your crucible. Plus, smaller pieces of silver melt faster than larger ones.

All you need to melt metal is a propane torch, propane, a crucible to hold the metal while it’s melting and some borax to act as flux. McGhee uses the small 16-ounce camp stove replacement propane tanks because they’re easier to manage since they’re small and they’re relatively cheap at about $4 a piece.

When preparing to melt, estimate how much scrap silver you need to fill your mold.

It’s better to overestimate because you can always remelt any unused metal. Place the metal into a ceramic crucible and begin heating it with your torch to melt it. Add a small amount of borax as it heats and starts to melt to prevent it from oxidizing. Carefully swirl the crucible as the metal begins to melt until it’s completely liquified.

Once you have liquid metal, pour it into the pouring cone you created. Be prepared to pour the molten metal into your mold immediately. If it cools, it will harden again. To get a nice pour, you don’t want the metal to cool down even a little as it goes into the mold.

Once the liquid metal reaches the top of the opening, stop pouring. The metal usually hardens quickly but stays very hot to the touch for a while. The safest option is to let it cool inside the mold before opening it up.

McGhee likes to open the mold as soon as the metal has hardened and throw finished pieces into a container of water to cool down quickly. However, if you choose this route, be careful as the metal will be hot enough to cause a serious burn. Wear heat-resistant gloves to protect your hands.

WARNING! Cuttlebone puts off a strong odor once the hot metal is poured inside and singes the surface of the cuttlebone.

This story about how to melt silver to make jewelry previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe! Story and photos by Moira K. McGhee.

The post How to Melt Silver to Make Jewelry first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

…of amber, crystal and beaded jet

…for thy mind is opal

…his heart like an agate

…and rubies red as blood

These lines from the plays and poems of William Shakespeare are just a few of many that reflect his awareness and extensive poetic use of gemstones.

Shakespeare’s Jewelry By Words

In his 37 plays and 154 sonnets, Shakespeare uses the terms “crown,” “ring,” and “bracelet” (which one assumes are set with gemstones) some 400 times, and “precious stone” and “jewel” around 300 times. He also mentions specific gemstones and gem materials more than 100 times.

If the frequency of usage is any indication of Shakespeare’s personal gemstone preferences, he was most enamored of pearls, which he mentions 43 times, followed by diamonds at 22 times.

Shakespeare also refers to garnet, ruby, agate, amber, jet, carbuncle, emerald, turquoise, opal, rock crystal, sapphire, and chrysolite, most of which were popular gemstones and gem materials during England’s Elizabethan Era when Shakespeare did most of his writing. Examining the sources, value, and importance of these gemstones is a window into life during Elizabethan times.

About William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, a village 90 miles northwest of London. While in his 20s, he became an actor, writer, and part-owner of an acting company; he went on to produce most of his work between 1589 and 1613. Although not widely acclaimed at the time of his death in 1616, he is today recognized as arguably the greatest writer in the English language.

The Elizabethan Era, which coincides with the 1558-1603 reign of Queen Elizabeth I, is considered England’s “golden age.” It marked a renaissance in art, music, theatre, and literature and was a time when many English citizens were intrigued by gemstones. The concept that gemstones set into royal crowns and scepters signified wealth, power, and authority was well-established in England by 1000 CE.

Queen Elizabeth I’s father, King Henry VIII, who reigned from 1509 to 1547, had a particular fondness for gemstones; his seven-pound, golden crown was studded with 344 gems and pearls. His daughter was equally fond of gemstones and gem-studded jewelry.

Science vs. Medieval Beliefs

The Elizabethan Era was part of the long transition period between medieval beliefs and the age of science, and its perception of gemstones was rather complex. Then as now, gemstones were statements of fashion and wealth. But in Shakespeare’s time, with mass education far in the future and illiteracy the norm, gemstones were also closely linked with medicine, folklore, and religion. And with science only in its rudimentary stages, belief in gem-related miracles and superstitions was common.

It is unknown whether Shakespeare personally possessed any of the gemstones about which he wrote. But he certainly saw many fine gems in pageants and processions during the years he lived and worked in London. His acting company also performed at royal functions where elite attendees were well-adorned with costly gems and jewelry.

Shakespeare’s Jewelry – Pearls

Shakespeare writes most often of pearls, which were hugely popular in Elizabethan England and the favorite of Elizabeth I. Shakespeare frequently associates pearls with dewdrops and tears, as in Richard II when he writes: “The liquid drops of tears that you have shed/ Shall come again transformed to orient pearl.” The term “orient pearl” referred to an especially fine pearl from the Red Sea, Persian Gulf, or the coast of India. Shakespeare seems aware of these sources, for in Troylus and Cressida, he writes: “Her bed is in India, and there she lies, a pearl.” Today, the term “orient” refers to the luster and color of a quality pearl.

Troylus and Cressida also provides an example of Shakespeare’s metaphoric use of pearls: “She is a pearl whose price has launched o’er a thousand ships.”

Elizabethan royalty wore pearls as jewelry and also as decorations on cloaks and robes. In Henry V, Shakespeare describes one such garment as “an intertissued robe of gold and pearl.” In royal portraits of Elizabeth I, her gowns are often studded with hundreds of pearls.

While the best pearls then came from the “Orient,” many of those available in Elizabethan England were freshwater pearls of somewhat lesser quality from the rivers of Scotland.

Literary Gems – Diamonds

In Shakespeare’s time, diamonds came only from the Pannar and Krishna rivers in what is now India’s Andhra Pradesh state. Although Indian diamonds reached Europe during the time of the Roman Empire, the trade did not resume again until about 1600 with the founding of the British East India Shipping Company. By then, Indian diamond mining was a major industry that employed 30,000 workers and the Indian treasury held 135,000 carats of uncut diamonds, none weighing less than 2.5 carats.

At that time, diamonds were valued less for their beauty than for their rarity, extraordinary hardness, and mystique of distant origin. Precise, symmetrical faceting as we know it today did not yet exist. Large diamonds were crudely shaped, partially faceted, or cleaved into octahedrons; smaller diamonds were set in the rough into rings and crowns.

Diamonds in England

Although few great diamonds reached England, those that did attracted the attention of many, including Shakespeare. One such diamond was the centerpiece of what came to be known as the “Three Brothers” gem ensemble. Fashioned in Paris around 1400, it featured a large, pyramidal-cut diamond, surrounded by three rectangular, red gemstones and four large pearls. The Three Brothers became part of the British Crown Jewels in 1551 and is seen in several portraits of Elizabeth I.

In the early 1600s, the value of this pyramidal diamond was stated at 7,000 English pounds, roughly the equivalent of $1.3 million in today’s U.S. dollars. Unfortunately, the  Three Brothers disappeared about 1645; its fate remains unknown. In his plays, Shakespeare employs diamonds as royal gifts or as metaphors for great beauty and value. Their monetary value is inferred in The Merchant of Venice when the moneylender Shylock laments the loss of his diamond: “Why there, there, there, there, a diamond gone!/Cost me two thousand ducats in Frankfort!” That sum is roughly the equivalent of $140,000 today.

Turquoise – “Turkies”

Shylock also laments losing a turquoise of great sentimental and monetary value: “It was my turquoise/I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor.” This is Shakespeare’s only mention of turquoise.

Although the gemstone had been mined for thousands of years in Persia (present-day Iran) and in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, it was costly and rarely seen in Elizabethan England. Shakespeare, who seems to value this gemstone nearly as much as a diamond, refers to it in his original texts as “turkies”—the English root of our modern word “turquoise” and an allusion to the gemstone routes that passed through the country of Turkey.

Shakespeare also mentions the medieval custom of sacrificing gemstones to thank or beg favors from higher powers. After almost drowning, the queen in Henry VI says, “I took a costly jewel from my neck/A heart it was bound in with diamonds/And threw it towards the land/The sea received it.”

Shakespeare’s Jewelry – Amber

Lesser gemstones are sacrificed in Shakespeare’s narrative poem A Lover’s Complaint: “A thousand favors from a [basket] she drew/Of amber, crystal, and beaded jet/Which one by one she into the river threw.”

Amber, rock crystal, and jet all enjoyed great popularity in Elizabethan England. Amber, a polymerized fossil tree resin, came from the southern beaches of the Baltic Sea, where it had been collected since antiquity. Large quantities of amber reached England in trade during the Elizabethan Era.

Shakespeare’s Jewelry – Rock Crystal

Rock crystal, or “crystal” in Shakespeare’s usage, the colorless, transparent form of macrocrystalline quartz, was far more valuable in Shakespeare’s time than it is today, and was set in crowns and jewelry side-by-side with precious gems. Although lacking a diamond’s sparkle, it was much more workable and affordable. A steady supply of rock crystal was obtained from England’s Northumberland and Cumberland areas.

Shakespeare’s “crystal eyes” and “crystal tears” are metaphors for brilliance, transparency, cleanliness, or clarity, as in Richard II: “The more fair and crystal is the sky/The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly.” In Romeo and Juliet, he infers that a lady’s love should be measured on “crystal scales,” meaning with great clarity of thought. Our modern expression “crystal clear” derives directly from Shakespeare’s metaphoric use of the word “crystal.”

Shakespeare’s Jewelry – Jet

And England also had the world’s premier source of jet at Whitby on its eastern coast. A form of lignite coal that occurs in small pods rather than seams, jet is fine-grained, lightweight, durable, easily workable, and takes an excellent polish. In The Merchant of Venice, jet is used to create a sharp contrast: “There is more difference between thy flesh and hers/Than between jet and ivory.” And in Henry VI, Shakespeare describes a gown’s color as “Black, forsooth, coal-black as jet.” Our descriptive term “jet-black” also stems from Shakespeare’s comparative use of the word “jet.”

Shakespeare’s Jewelry – Red Gemstones

Shakespeare’s red gemstones are “rubies” and carbuncles. “Carbuncle” then referred loosely to moderately hard, red gemstones, but especially to garnet. Red gemstones harder than garnet were specifically called “rubies.”

While a limited number of true rubies—the red gem variety of corundum (aluminum oxide)—reached Elizabethan England, most hard, red gemstones were actually spinel (magnesium aluminum oxide). The British and Dutch East India companies only began bringing quantities of true ruby from Southeast Asia to Europe around 1600. True ruby was not even mineralogically differentiated from spinel until 1783.

Spinel

Shakespeare uses “ruby” only as an adjective for a bright or rich shade of red. In Measure for Measure, he compares rubies to blood when Isabella says “the impression of keen whips I’ll wear as rubies.” Spinel was then known as “balas ruby,” from the Arabic Balakhsh for its source near the present-day Afghanistan- Tajikistan border. Balas rubies were well-known in Elizabethan England, thanks to the fabled Black Prince’s Ruby.

According to legend, this two-inch, 170-carat, irregular cabochon was taken by Don Pedro, the King of Castile, from the Muslim prince of Granada in 1367. Don Pedro later passed it on to Edward of Woodstock, known as the “Black Prince.” The gem appears in Henry VIII’s 1521 crown jewel inventory as the “large ruby” set in the Tudor Crown. Although later mineralogically identified as spinel, the Black Prince’s Ruby has nevertheless retained its traditional name.

Pyrope Garnet

Shakespeare would also have been familiar with the “rubies” in the previously mentioned  Three Brothers gem ensemble, in which the “brothers” are actually three large, rectangular-cut spinels. Shakespeare’s “carbuncle” is pyrope garnet. With its deep-red color and relative affordability, carbuncle had been a favorite gemstone in England since Anglo-Saxon times. During the Elizabethan Era, it served as a standalone gem in rings and a cloisonné inlay in gold jewelry.

At that time, pyrope came from the Ceské Stredohorí Mountains north of Prague in the Bohemia region of the present-day Czech Republic. This pyrope had weathered free from peridotite host rock and concentrated in vast alluvial deposits. This was the world’s first great Pyrope source and its type locality; some deposits are still being mined there today.

Carbuncle

In Elizabethan superstition, carbuncle generated its own internal light. Shakespeare apparently shared this view, for he uses carbuncles as the glowing eyes of ominous figures as in Hamlet, when he describes the “hellish” Pyrrhus as having “eyes like carbuncles.” Carbuncle remained synonymous with red garnet for centuries. The word “pyrope,” which first appeared in the English language in 1804, fittingly stems from the Greek pyršpos, meaning “fiery-eyed.”

Although Shakespeare usually mentions gemstones to project beauty, wealth, power, and mystery, an exception is found in the Comedy of Errors when he ironically describes a blemished nose as “all o’er embellished with rubies, carbuncles and sapphires.”

In this line, Shakespeare makes a clear distinction between ruby and carbuncle. It is also the only mention of sapphire in his plays. Sapphire then came from the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Shakespeare’s only other mention of sapphire is in A Lover’s Complaint where it is described as “heaven-hued,” reflecting the belief at the time that all sapphires were blue.

Agate Popularity

Another popular Elizabethan gemstone was agate. Most agate during this time was engraved with human likenesses and mounted in rings that were especially popular among merchants and aldermen. Agate then came from Europe’s leading gem-cutting center at Idar-Oberstein, Germany. In Love’s Labour’s Lost, Shakespeare compares engraved agate to a lover’s heart: “His heart, like an agate, with your print impress’d.”

Emerald Green

Shakespeare rarely mentions emeralds and only then as an adjective for a vivid shade of green. Until the early 1500s and the Spanish colonization of the New World, emeralds came only from Egypt’s historic mines. And these were pale and clouded, not something that Shakespeare would have chosen as a metaphor for green. But he likely had been familiar with the vividly colored, transparent emeralds just then reaching Europe from Spain’s Viceroyalty of Peru (modern Colombia).

In A Lover’s Complaint, Shakespeare alludes to the ancient belief that emeralds cured eye ailments: “The deep-green emerald in whose fresh regard/Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend.”

Shakespeare’s Jewelry – Amazing Opals

One of Shakespeare’s best-known lines in Twelfth Night is: “ . . . and the tailor make thy doublet of changeable taffeta/For thy mind is opal.” The Clown is comparing the Duke’s vacillating mind to opal’s constantly changing, opalescent colors.

Until the discovery of Mexican and Australian opal in the 1800s, the world’s only significant opal source was Cervenica in the Prešov region of present-day Slovakia. In Elizabethan times, Cervenica opal was very costly and considered especially lucky because its multicolored opalescence was thought to have captured the virtues of every other colored gemstone.

Chrysolite Equals Beauty & Value

In Othello, chrysolite is a metaphor for beauty and value: “If heaven would make me such another world/Of one entire and perfect chrysolite/ I’ld not have sold her for it.” Shakespeare’s “chrysolite” was actually peridot (forsterite, magnesium silicate) which had been mined since Roman times on Egypt’s Zabargad (St. John’s Island) and was still occasionally mined during the Elizabethan Era.

Shakespeare’s frequent use of gemstones in his plays and poems provides striking imagery and insight into the Elizabethan perception of gemstones. Two excellent sources on Shakespeare and his literary use of gemstones are Shakespeare’s Gemstones by David W. Berry (privately printed, 2004); and Shakespeare and Precious Stones by George Frederick Kunz (J. B.nLippincott, 1913, Project Gutenberg E-book reprint, 2005). Both are accessible online in their entirety.

This story about Shakespeare’s jewelry and gemstones previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe! Story by Steve Voynick.

The post Shakespeare’s Jewelry and Gemstones first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.

Pearls have been valued by human beings for thousands of years, with mentions of this precious gemstone appearing in the Bible and ancient Roman text. Pearls also had religious significance in ancient China, and are believed to have been associated with the moon and protection against dragons. Today, the pearl is associated with both innocence and inner strength and is the birthstone for the month of June.

Pearls are easier to come by these days than even a few hundred years ago, yet that hasn’t diminished their importance. They are still highly valued and sought after among lovers of fine gemstones.

Perliculture

Pearls were once found only inside mussels living in the wild, in lakes, rivers, and oceans. Until the late 1800s, pearls could only be harvested by divers, who had to gather thousands of mussels to find even one pearl among them. As a result, pearls were extremely rare and prohibitively expensive. But the advent of perliculture—the cultivation of pearls— was first perfected in Japan, making the pearl accessible to millions of people all around the world.

Today, the vast majority of pearls in the marketplace are cultured, meaning they were harvested on pearl farms. Most of these farms are located in the Far East, with China serving as home to the greatest number of pearl farms in the world.

The mussels that produce pearls can be found in both fresh and saltwater, depending on the species. Pearl farms using saltwater are located in coves or bays, while freshwater mussels for pearls are kept in ponds or former rice paddies.

“Saltwater pearls grow in oysters living in saltwater environments, including oceans and bays, while freshwater pearls grow in freshwater mollusks in rivers, ponds, and lakes, primarily in China but also in Japan,” says Jennifer Heebner, executive director, Cultured Pearl Association of America (CPAA). “Natural freshwater pearls were also found for many years along the shores of the Mississippi River in America, but overfishing diminished the health of these natural pearl beds. Few natural Mississippi River pearls are found today, and culturing efforts for these pearls never really took root in a commercial capacity.”

For a pearl to develop, foreign matter must enter the mussel’s mantle or gonad, where it becomes encased with calcium carbonate. Cultivated pearls begin with the deliberate insertion of an object into the mussel (called nucleation). The material, size and shape of the foreign object used for nucleation depends on the type of pearl the farmer wishes to produce. Saltwater ayoko oysters are inserted with a piece of shell from another mussel, while beads are often placed inside freshwater mussels to create the roundest pearls.

The process of nucleation is delicate and requires skill on the part of the technician,who must open the shell and place the “nuclei” in the right spot to encourage the production of a pearl. Saltwater pearls are typically produced with only one or two nuclei, while freshwater mollusks are implanted to produce as many as six pearls per mussel.

“The epithelial cells from the donor mollusk help spur the creation of a pearl sac, which encases the bead and coats it in ‘nacre’,” says Heebner. “Nacre consists of aragonite, a hexagonal-shape form of calcium carbonate, deposited in concentric layers which are held together by conchiolin, an organic substance.”

Mussels are then given anywhere from 18 months to two years to produce a pearl. Some mussels are sacrificed when the pearl is removed, while others receive more nuclei to produce another batch of pearls.

After harvesting, pearls are processed and treated to bring out their natural color and luster. Some pearls are dyed in colors not seen in natural pearls.

Types of Pearls

Pearls come in many shapes, sizes, and colors, and because they are organic, no two are exactly alike. Widely available and commercially farmed cultured pearls come in different varieties, including Chinese and Japanese freshwater; Japanese, Vietnamese, and Chinese akoya pearls; white, golden, and silver South Sea pearls grown in Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines; and black or peacock-color pearls from French Polynesia and the Sea of Cortez in Mexico.

Freshwater from Asia: The widest shapes, sizes, and colors in cultured pearls are from freshwater mollusks in Vietnam, Japan, and China. The shape of the pearl is random and naturally grows in a variety of pastel colors. While these pearls are generally the most affordable, the finest ones in the category have a brilliant, metallic luster. Because these pearls are created by grafting a small piece of mantle tissue into an incision in the mantle of the host mollusk, they are made up of solid nacre. This means one mussel can produce dozens of pearls.

Akoyo: These pearls are probably the most well-known and were originally cultivated in Japan. They are what most people envision when they think about a strand of cultured pearls. Although they are produced by the saltwater Akoya oyster, these pearls are created by using pearl nuclei made from freshwater mussel shells. Akoya pearls are round, white in color, and lustrous, and are known for their unique glow. They are considered the gold standard in cultured pearl jewelry.

South Sea: The largest silver-white pearl on the market, this pearl is produced by the giant silver-lipped mollusk (Pinctada maxima), native to parts of the Indian Ocean and farmed in Australia. They exhibit a satiny luster and are well-known for their beauty. South Sea pearl growers harvest wild mollusks and implant them with nuclei to create pearls. Because the silver-lipped mollusk has the whitest known mother-of-pearl inside its shell, it produces bright white pearls. Golden and silver-colored South Sea pearls are farmed off the coasts of Indonesia and the Philippines.

Black: “Black” pearls actually come in a variety of different colors and overtones, with the finest described as black because of their dark green and blue colors. These pearls come from a species of oyster native to French Polynesia and other parts of the South Pacific, including Fiji, and the Sea of Cortez in Mexico. Black pearls begin with the collection of spat—baby oysters—from the wild in “spat collectors.” Once they have matured to adulthood, the oysters are brought to the surface and nucleated with shell material from a donor oyster. They are then placed in open water for 18 to 24 months to produce their unique and valuable pearls.

Pearl Jewelry

Jewelry adorned with pearls has been worn by humans for centuries. Some of the most valuable jewelry exhibited in museums today include adornments of natural pearls.

Today pearls are used in everything from earrings, necklaces, bracelets, pendants, and rings. Choosing the best pearl jewelry for the money requires some knowledge of gauging the quality of a pearl. This includes understanding the type of pearl and its physical attributes.

“The most valuable cultured pearls are round, large, and have few surface pits or blemishes and natural colors,” says Heebner. “Golden South Sea pearls are the rarest to find in nature so that cultured variety commands a premium. Large white round South Sea pearls are highly coveted, so those, too, cost more than other types of pearls. Still, many cultured pearls aren’t large or perfectly round and are more abundant that are still incredibly unique and beautiful.”

When buying fine cultured pearl jewelry, Heebner recommends purchasing the best quality you can afford.

“Shoppers should really buy what they are attracted to, be those natural-color freshwater pearls, baroque-shape golden color South Sea pearls, natural-color blue to-silver or white akoya pearls, or Tahitian circlé or ringed pearls with a rainbow of exotics hues in the folds,” she says.

Heebner adds that pearls are available in a wide range of shapes, colors and sizes and that contemporary pearl jewelry designs today are light years away from the plain white strands our grandmothers used to wear.

“Pearls are an often-misunderstood product, even in jewelry stores, which don’t always carry the most interesting designs,” she says. “But these exist, and the CPAA exists to shed a light on innovative growers and designers, and to educate everyone on the beauty of cultured pearls and their incredible story of sustainability.”

This story about pearls previously appeared in Rock & Gem magazine. Click here to subscribe. Story by Audrey Pavia.

The post What are Pearls? An Unusual Gemstone first appeared on Rock & Gem Magazine.