Category Archives: Education

Birthstone Spotlight: March Aquamarine

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AquamarineAquamarine is one of my favorite gems. Of course with me, talking about my favorite gemstones is like asking a parent about their favorite child—whichever one I’m thinking about or talking about at the moment is the favorite. Still, aquamarine is right up there in my true favorites.

Aquamarine—one of the many faces of beryl

One of the interesting things about aquamarine is its true rarity—due to the unique trace minerals that have combined with its underlying base mineral, Beryl, to produce its beautiful blue tone…

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Birthstone Spotlight: February Amethyst

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AmethystIn past blogs about birthstones we have been talking about gems that have their gemstone “label” in common with their mineral names. Gems like Garnet, Topaz, and Tourmaline are also the mineral name. In contrast, Amethyst is a color name for quartz, which is a mineral. Amethyst is the quartz in its purple color.

Quartz itself comes in at least several colors: citrine (yellow, orange and red), amethyst (varying shades of purple), ouro Verde (a chartreuse color), whisky quartz (brownish), smoky quartz (brownish gray), prasiolite (light bluish green), and Ametrine (naturally occurring mix of purple and yellowish gold. Some of the colors occur in nature and some are induced by man. Amethyst occurs naturally in nature.

If quartz itself were a birthstone we would be talking about all of the foregoing colors. But amethyst is plenty wonderful all by itself…

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History of the Sancy Diamond

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While many of us have heard of famous diamonds such as the Hope Diamond (45.52 carats), residing as a premiere attraction in the Smithsonian, and the Koh-I-Noor Diamond (105.60 carats), displayed in the Tower of London, few people are familiar with the Sancy Diamond.

Sancy Diamond 2The Sancy diamond has a long, mysterious and passionate history. The larger of the two diamonds that carry the Sancy name, it weighs 55.23 carats and is of a pale yellow color. The shield shape (pear) was said to be discovered before the year 1570. It is named after the French Ambassador to Switzerland Seigneur de Sancy. He was the owner during the last years of the 16th century. But the stone’s history runs deeper. The legend has it that Charles the Bold, also the Duke of Burgundy, owned the diamond. As fate would have it the gem was lost in battle about 1477.

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Tourmaline the Rainbow Gem

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tourmaline colorfulIt is interesting that both opal and tourmaline are associated with many colors. In the instance of opal there are many colors within one stone. In the instance of tourmaline there are many stones—each with its own color. Of course, to complicate matters, there are tourmaline gems with multiple colors—lots and lots of colors—all within one stone, just presented differently to the eye than opal.

No wonder the most often-used nickname for tourmaline is The Rainbow Gem. Tourmaline comes in so many colors and so many shades of each color that it is a favorite of collectors. Many serious gem collectors have separate tourmaline collections within their overall collection.

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Birthstone Spotlight: July Ruby

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Rubies ruby mogok thailand john laura ramseyAs a true ruby aficionado, I’ve been just waiting for July to roll around the calendar. As young gem dealers Laura and I spent months in Thailand early on in our careers. Among our missions there, learning about ruby was towards the top of the list. Over the years we’ve spent months (perhaps years) in Southeast Asia dealing in rubies and enjoying every exciting and even every frustrating minute of it.

Based on price per carat and price per stone, ruby is probably the king of all colored stones. On a price per stone basis there may be some good competition with emerald. This may well be due to the fact that emerald comes in bigger sizes than ruby.

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The Argyle Pink Jubilee Diamond

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Argyle pink diamondFancy colored diamonds have always captured, well, peoples’ fancy! So when Rio Tinto announced that a large pink diamond was discovered at their Argyle mine in the East Kimberly Region of Western Australia, I could hear the collective sighs of delight.

Fancy diamonds include the colors red, blue, purple, yellow, brown and of course pink, with varying color grades of each. Now more than ever fancy colored diamonds are receiving attention. Collectors vie for ownership, museums delight in displaying such diamonds and famous celebrities choose the pink diamond as the ultimate engagement ring…

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The Beauty and Lore of Aquamarine by Laura Ramsey

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Aquamarine three

As a personal favorite, Aquamarine is high on our gemstone list. John and I have acquired and designed, respectively, many incredible Aquamarines for collectors throughout the years. Its remarkable beauty has won over so many that it became the alternate birthstone for March.

John and I have always had a fascination and direct connection with Aquamarine.   Traveling to Brazil for 35 + years has brought us to the Aquamarine mines directly. Thousands of carats of fine Aquamarine have passed through our hands to find their way into major collections.

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