Category Archives: Colombian emerald

Inside The Vault; The Diamond Fund, Part II

by Richard W. Wise

It is difficult to know where to start. You enter The Diamond Fund through a vault-like door. The room is simple, dark and unadorned. The showcases are brightly lit. Unlike the rest of the Armoury, the room is quiet, only two groups are allowed in at any one time. The first case contains a pile of diamonds. How else to describe it? Included are some beautifully formed bi-pyramidal crystals—several a large as quail’s eggs! I have as yet found no written reference which describes these stones and gives their history, but modern names such as the 342.50 carat “34th Communist Party Congress (actually found in Yakutia) and the 40.54 carat “Soyuz Apollo” suggest that they were sourced in the Siberian fields during the Soviet Era.

In Europe’s Royal Jewel Game; it was all about size:

After visiting the The Armoury, The Diamond Fund, The Hermitage and The Victoria and Albert (not bad for one trip, hey!) I am struck by how much quality standards in gemstones have changed over the centuries. Obviously the stone in these collections were some of the finest in the world, but they are what we today would strongly fault for the quality of their cut as well as for the often substantial number of eye-visible inclusions. It is important to note, however, that the testosterone fueled game as it was played by the royal houses of Europe was more about size than it was about quality. Having the biggest sapphire trumped having a lot of smaller higher quality gems. The point was, “mine is bigger than yours” and if the color was a little off or the cut was wonky, so what!

The Shah Diamond, so named because it was owned and signed by no less than three royal owners

The Shah Diamond, so named because it was owned and signed by no less than three of its first four royal owners

The Shah Diamond–Truly Expensive Graffiti:

The holdings include two historically important stones. The first is the 88.70 carat Shah Diamond, a Golconda stone from the famous Indian deposits. This diamond, hardly more than polished rough, has a history going back to 1544. We know who owned the stone because each of the owners signed it. The first inscription, perhaps the most expensive graffiti on earth, reads: “Burzam-Nizam Shah the second, Year 1000” (1591). Next it was owned by Akbar, the first emperor of the Mogul dynasty of India, and then by his grandson, the gem loving Shah Jehan who added his own inscription in 1644. The final signature reads: “The ruler kajar Fath Ali Shah Sultan” and was carved in 1824. The stone, which appeared to me to be of high color, is described as “light yellowish brown” due to minute cracks in the crystal which contain iron oxide. These cracks are quite invisible to the naked eye. The stone is a natural octahedral crystal with polished faces.

The second diamond is the Orloff. I was particularly keen to have an opportunity to see this great gem in person. This stone was first described by the 17th Century adventurer Jean Baptiste Tavernier which many readers will recall is the protagonist in my newly published historical novel, The French Blue. An expert observer, Tavernier was also a skillful artist; his rendering of this stone was first published in his Six Voyages (1678) and reproduced in the novel. The stone is in the shape of a giant gum drop, faceted up the sides and across the top. Tavernier describes it as being of the finest water. Golconda diamonds are usually type IIa stones, contain no measurable Nitrogen, and do not fluoresce to ultra violet light. Russian experts have noted “a barely noticeable bluish green tinge”, an ill understood phenomenon that is sometimes seen and described in Golconda diamonds such as The Regent, despite their lack of fluorescence. Diamonds of this type are highly crystalline and are often described as “whiter than white” and bring substantial premiums at auction.

The Orlof, probably the same diamond called The Great Moghul and described by Jean Baptiste Tavernier in The French Blue.

The Orloff, probably the same diamond called The Great Moghul, and described by Jean Baptiste Tavernier in The French Blue.

Another beautiful stone, a tourmaline originally thought to be a ruby and weighing 260.86 carats is set with a green enameled foliate cap. The stone was set in the rough and it resembles the shape and color of a strawberry. It has numerous visible inclusions that add to the fruit like look. It was originally owned by Rudolph II of Bohemia and described by De Boot and called at that time, “Caesar’s Ruby.” It was presented to Catherine the Great in 1777. De Boot valued it at 60,000 ducats.

Update–Siberian Amethyst:

Arrived London on the 21st. Spent a good part of yesterday viewing the famous Victoria & Albert Museum’s jewelry collection. Included is a platinum necklace with a suite of several very large (200 carat plus) amethysts given by Czar Alexander I to Frances Anne, wife of the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry. The suite is of Siberian amethyst. Given the provenance, you would expect these stones to be the finest of their kind. While, fine enough, measuring perhaps 8.4 on a 1-10 scale, they do not stand up to the finest Zambian and Brazilian material and seem to lack the requisite red flash.

The Treasures of Moscow's Diamond Fund, Part I

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The vaulted chamber of Hall 1, The Armoury, Moscow

by Richard W. Wise

Greetings all; my wife Rebekah and I left late last week for a vacation tour of Moscow, St. Petersburg and Tallinn, Estonia. We are also spending a few days in London.

Our first stop was Moscow. As part of our tour, we visited the The Armoury. Founded in 1806 by imperial decree, the former munitions storehouse encloses the most important exhibits of Russia’s National Museum of History and Culture including the State collection of gems and jewels. The building stands at the southwest section of the Kremlin in central Moscow. Located within the Armoury is The Diamond Fund, aptly named, it is a small museum within a museum and is the repository for the finest of the jewels that are part of the Russian national collection.

Visiting The Diamond Fund is not easy. Though many visitors tour The Armoury, few make the advance reservations or are willing to pay the $130.00 per person required for a one hour unguided tour.

Beginning the Tour: Inside The Armoury:

We began our tour in The Armoury proper and the first thing that struck me as we gazed into the cases in Room 1, which houses items of gold from the 12^th through 17^th Centuries is the prevalence of emerald as a decoration in some of the oldest pieces. Many of the items on exhibit are religious objects including, several manuscript Bibles with highly decorated, carved, chased, repousée and niello silver covers. Th ese hand written scriptures were encrusted with gems the most prevalent of which are agates, emeralds and natural pearls. One object, a 14^th Century reliquary, includes numerous large cabochon emeralds, most hardly more than water worn pebbles, which displayed rather good color. The 14^th Century Crown of Monomachus, sort of a Russian fur cap with a gold crown is decorated by several large rectangular faceted emeralds as well as sapphire, spinel?, rock crystal and pearls.

Monomachus Cap. Late 14th Century. A golf carved filagreed cap set with cabochon emerald, sapphire, spinel and pearls

The Colombian emerald mines were conquered in the 1560s, so emeralds dating from this period are certainly not from that source. It is tempting to suggest that these are Uralian emeralds, however, several of these objects are thought to be of Byzantine manufacture and given that some emeralds from the Roman period have been traced to Pakistan, it is not possible to tell the exact source without testing.

Sapphire and Tourmaline:

All of the metalwork is housed in a large dimly lit vaulted chamber within the Armoury. The light is challenging. I saw a number of blue sapphires with color and inclusions that suggest Ceylon origin and though I can’t be sure, I can’t think of another possibility.

Made in 1731 by G. W. Dunkel, this crown in surmounted by a magnificent uncut red tourmaline of exceptionally pure red hue.

Another surprise, tourmaline! There are several lovely tourmalines, particularly reds, used as primary decorations on a number of the pieces in both The Armoury and The Diamond Fund. One example, a crown made in 1730 by goldsmith G. W. Dunkel in St. Petersburg for Empress Anne is surmounted by a gigantic uncut alluvial peable of red tourmaline. More about tourmaline in the next post.

The Goldsmith’s Art:

The goldsmiths work is exceptional. Repousée, a process by which a three three dimensional bas relief is formed by placing sheet gold or silver upside down in a bowl of warm pitch is breathtaking. Once cool, the pitch both holds and cushions the metal and a series of shaped hardened metal tools are used to push the metal outward. Once the figure is formed, the metal is turned right side up and small details are pushed and chiseled or “chased” in using smaller, finer edged tools. By these processes, small figures of Christ and the saints were beautifully rendered with minute detail.

Russian goldsmiths were masters of enameling and niello. Silver and yellow gold are a fairly restricted palette, one can be used to gild the other, but that is about it. Niello is a alloy of silver, lead and copper of varying mixtures and a low melting point that becomes gray to black and flows easily into chased or carved filigreed recesses in either gold or silver and can create contrasts that bring out the finer details in the host metal.

Fabergé Eggs:

The Armoury also holds Russia’s fifteen remaining Fabergé Imperial Easter Eggs. A majority of these eggs, gifts to the Czarina by the ill fated Czar Nicholas II, were spirited out of Russia after the revolution by the American industrialist Armand Hammer and now reside in the

United States. Each of the eggs is a masterpiece of the goldsmith’s art. (Pictured Anastasia’s Egg). Faberge was known particularly for his use of enamels. This technique involves the fusing of powdered colored glass to the metal’s surface in a kiln at high temperatures. Each color, each changing nuance requires an additional firing. To give the impression of depth, Fabrege sometimes used as many of six firing for a single color. The workshop is reputed to have used 500 different colors.

Pearls:

Pearls were used in large numbers to decorate many of the objects, particularly the icon frames. We saw sizes up to 7-9mm in round as well as many semi-round and baroque shapes. For the most part the pearls exhibited a dull luster, which is probably the result of age and poor storage.

Next: Inside the vault, The Treasures of The Diamond Fund; stay tuned!

Book Review: Emeralds, A Passionate Guide by Ronald Ringsrud

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by Richard W. Wise

The subtitle of Ronald Ringsrud’s new book, A Passionate Guide, The Emeralds, The People, their Secrets has been well selected. The book is not just about emerald, most specifically Colombian emerald, it is about a country, its people and one man’s love affair with it all.

I first met Ron Ringsrud about a year and a half ago. I had never been to Colombia and as is my custom whenever I go into a new market, I was looking for a guide to the country and its emeralds. Ron Ringsrud was an inspired choice.

He is fluent in Spanish and has been involved in the trade and traveling to Colombia for over twenty years. He is a true aficionado and knows whereof he speaks.

The book begins with an excellent summary of the history of emerald mining in Colombia coupled with a history of the Mogul Empire and more specifically the Indian princes whose love affair with the Colombian emerald began, almost as soon as the Spanish conquered the mines in the 16th Century. Continue reading →

Rough Roulette; Colombian Emerald Part II

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By Richard W. Wise, G.G.

“Round and round she goes and where she stops, nobody knows.”

I have heard it said that each time you put an emerald on the wheel the chances of breaking the stone are about 50/50. I recall one hot and dusty afternoon in the late 1980s I was sitting with some friends at a cafe in Teofilo Otoni, a town which was, at that time, the gemstone capital of Brazil. A ragged looking garempiero rode by on a motorbike, turned around and rode back to the cafe. He knew my friend, a Brazilian cutter, so he pulled a dirty scap of cloth from his shirt pocket and let us have a look. The cloth contained an emerald crystal from the mines ant Santa Terezinha de Goiás. The miner had rode all through the night to bring his find to Teofilo. During the 80s Goiás produced emerald that rivaled some of the better gems Colombia had to offer. (pictured left: Entrance to the shaft at La Pita Emerald Mine. Guacharos wait for the tailings. Photo Richard W. Wise)

The perfectly formed hexagonal crystal showed a verdant medium-dark green color that looked exceptionally fine. I don’t recall the actual weight (somewhere in the 25 carat range) but the crystal was about the size of my index finger. This crystal lacked the jewel-like transparency of the Colombian crystals pictured in Part I and was difficult to evaluate. I could see the pepper like inclusions typical of of Goiás emerald but little else.

The asking price of the Brazilian crystal was a quarter of a million dollars. Long story short, I didn’t make an offer. I thought the crystal lacked the transparency necessary to evaluate it and I wasn’t prepared for a quarter of a million dollar spin of the wheel. I later heard that the crystal had been sold for something close to the asking price and that when it was put on the wheel it had literally exploded leaving the buyer with nothing to show for his purchase.

High Rollers:

Hurry, hurry, hurry and welcome to the high stakes world of the rough buyer where every parcel is a gambol. In this world, where a single bet may exceed a million dollars, the dealer across the table from me is a high roller. The parcel so casually scattered across the desk in front of me is a big time rise. Perhaps 1400 carats, it is from the new mine, La Pita, a complex of adjacent shafts in the Colombian state of Boyaca. One mine actually bears the name La Pita, the others are Consorcio, Cunas, Totumos and Polveros. In a country where the old mines have been producing since before the Conquistadors conquered their local owners in the mid Sixteenth Century, serious commercial mining only began at La Pita in 1997. (Pictured left: the author works his way through a half mile tunnel to the surface. Foreground, miner pushes cart full of mine tailings, these will be given to guacheros waiting at mine entrance for further sorting: Photo: Ron Ringsrud)

We are about to watch the fashioning of two of these crystals into gemstones. In this high stakes world a dealer needs an edge. Having a lapidary with the skill of Adolpho Argotty is just such an edge. According to Argotty, in his workshop, loss on the cutting wheel is perhaps 4% and that is perhaps why Argotty is rated the best. He is presently traiing the second generaltion, his niece, Fernanda, who sits at a wheel at his side (see image above right).

Argotty doesn’t just pre-form the stone he supervises the entire process:

“Would you ask an architect to just put up the bones of a structure and let others finish it?” he asks.

(images: above: Adolpho Argotty, holds forth: Picture Richard W. Wise) It takes just about a half an hour. Argotty works away the emerald held between his thumb and forefinger. He grinds a bit then holds the stone up and squints at it in the sunlight all the time carrying on an animated conversation in Spanish with my partner Ron Ringsrud. Ron loves Colombia. He deals exclusively in Colombian Emeralds, has been coming to Bogotá for twenty-five years and speaks fluent Spanish.

The workshop is surrounded by windows on three sides. The light is good. The two crystals have been blocked out, that is to say, they are now the size and shape of the finished gem. Argotty decided to cut the best crystal into a standard rectangular emerald cut. The stone started out at 7.17 carats it now weighs 4.77 carats and it is ready for the faceting wheel. Argotty is excited about this gem. He hands it to Maria Fernanda to polish the table, he wants a closer look.

She hands it back.

“This one”, he says, “will be worth at least $10,000 per carat.”

The second stone which began at 8.53 carats has been shaped into what Argotty is calling a rose cut. I am confused because the stone obviously has a pavilion and looks very much like an antique style emerald cut with overly large corners. Later we figure out the problem is in translation, Argotty means an old style cut which this stone obviously is. Even before polishing commences we see visible inclusions in the stone. It now weighs 6.44 carats.

Step #1 Sealing & Certification:

In Adolpho Argotty’s workshop, preformed stones are dipped into hot paraffin. The objective is to seal any surface breaking fissures to insure that no residue of the polishing compound makes its way inside the stone.

Colombian cutters become a bit testy when the subject of lab grading is raised. If you love emerald you must be prepared to accept some surface breaking fissures and yes, cedar oil is universally used as a treatment to hide these fissures. However, both dealers and cutters feel that they are getting a bad rap from some American and European Gem Labs. Most labs use a uniform four step grading process to grade the level of enhancement: none, minor, moderate and heavy. Gubelin adds insignificant between none and minor and AGL (American Gemological Laboratories) uses its own proprietary scale. Columbian Esmeraldaros believe that this system lacks consistency. The labs, they contend, are afraid to use the term none. According to Argotty, he has delivered emeralds that he personally cut and knows to be totally without enhancement, to major European labs which in turned issued reports claiming these emerald contained a filler. The reader should bear in mind that a certificate grade of none is in no sense a clarity grade,the stone can still look like a broken coke bottle. It just contains no filler, no clarity enhancement.

I examined hundreds of finer stones in the course of my week in the Bogata market and with but a single exception, every stone I saw had some surface breaking fissures. Taking Ron Ringsrud’s advise I rejected any stone with fissures on the crown or girdle or those with fissures on the pavilion that I felt might n anyway compromised the durability of the stone. This, by the way, would make a good definition of the term minor enhancement.

Next, Dopping, Faceting and Polishing. Stay Tuned.

Learn the truth about how Emeralds and other fine gems are graded and priced!

Follow me on gem buying adventures in the pearl farms of Tahiti. Visit the gem fields of Australia and Brazil. 1
20 carefully selected photographs showing examples of the highest quality gems to educate the eye, including the Rockefeller Sapphire and many more of the world’s most famous gems. Consider my book: Secrets Of The Gem Trade, The Connoisseur’s Guide To Precious Gemstones.

“Wise is a renowned author… He’s
done a marvelous job of this first book, monumental work, a tour de force…My recommendation: Buy this book”.

Charles Lewton-Brain, Orchid

whether you like to know what the best colour is in Tanzanite, or how to grade a Diamond, you will find it in this book. No other book I read before dealt with this topic is such detail as Richard Wise’s masterpiece.”

A. Van Acker, FGA
Amazon June 2005

“Secrets Of The Gem Trade: The Connoisseurs Guide To Precious Gemstones by Richard W. Wise is an impressive new reference for dedicated dealers and collectors of gems, gemstones, and … pearls. Introducing and descriptively exploring each and every gem covered in the easy-to-use reference, Secrets Of The Gem Trade contains an illustrated summary of each stone inclusive of its history and general information, hue and tone, saturation, which may be noticed as the finest, an understanding of the particular gems rarity, and the caution for synthetics and how to depict them, however depending upon the stone there may be description of clarity, color fading, multi-color effect, etc. Secrets Of The Gem Trade is very highly recommended to anyone interested in gemology as a superbly organized, authoritative, comprehensive, and easy-to-follow reference.”

Midwest Book Review
April 2006

Only $31.95. Read a couple of chapters online: www.secretsofthegemtrade.com.

Buy it on Amazon: www.amazon.com

Emeralds; The God's Shed Green Tears

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The Emerald of Colombia Part I

By Richard W. Wise, G.G.

Green Gold:

There they sat, scattered like match sticks across the white desk blotter, glowing a rich cool green in the late afternoon sun. My breath catches in my throat. I do my best to maintain my cool, to politely keep my eyes on those of my host, a suave youngish Colombian businessman in a white dress shirt, the jacket of an expensive pin-striped suit thrown over the back of his desk chair. “Youngish” is, of course, a relative term when you’re pushing 63. The dealer smiles and motions me to a seat and there they were right in front of me, a king’s ransom of emerald crystals. I try not to dwell on the four tough looking guys with the semi-automatic rifle in the room we passed though on the way into the office. They too wore nice suits.

This was a sight I never expected to see. I have traveled all over the world and seen a number of exceptional gemstones but never have I seen a rough parcel of such high quality of anything, anywhere, never mind gem emerald. I pick up one crystal, it is a bit distorted in form but it is clean and the size of my thumb. I hold it up to the light. Completely clean a medium dark slightly bluish green. I do notice an interesting pattern of zoning, several thin dark lines, almost black, that run perpendicular to the length of the crystal.

“That one cost me $35,000”, the dealer volunteers.

“How much does it weigh”, I ask.

He places the crystal on a scale. I do a quick calculation. The price comes to $1, 411.00 per carat.

The dealer, perhaps regretting his candor with the inquisitive American author, hastens to add that the average yield in cut stones is only about 25%.

Point taken!, that means the average cost of the parcel after cutting works out to $5,644.00 per carat. This is beginning to sound like a multi-million dollar crap shoot because, as we are about to witness, this parcel contains a range of qualities.

Columbia’s Top Cutter:

Senor Adolpho Argotty is considered Columbia’s top emerald cutter. Now 55 he began cutting when he was 15 years old. His father wanted to be a cutter but was not very good at it. Argotty laughs, “so he became a teacher.”

We have been invited to watch Senor Argotty cut two rough crystals from the big La Pita parcel; one weighs 7.17 carats the other 8.53 carats. Argotty works by hand, literally! After examining the two crystals for a few minutes he takes one and casually puts it to the wheel. I see no scales, no calipers, no jam-peg, no measuring devices of any kind, not even a ruler.

The first step is called pre-forming; it is the most important step and requires the highest degree of skill. The wheel is charged with diamond grit mixed with water. The pre-former decides what to keep and what to cut out and that determines the shape and weight of the finished gem. The facets will be added later.

Next: Argotty puts it to the wheel! Stay tuned.

Learn the truth about how Emeralds and other fine gems are graded and priced!

Follow me on gem buying adventures in the pearl farms of Tahiti. Visit the gem fields of Australia and Brazil. 120 carefully selected photographs showing examples of the highest quality gems to educate the eye, including the Rockefeller Sapphire and many more of the world’s most famous gems. Consider my book: Secrets Of The Gem Trade, The Connoisseur’s Guide To Precious Gemstones.

“Wise is a renowned author… He’s
done a marvelous job of this first book, monumental work, a tour de force…My recommendation: Buy this book”.

Charles Lewton-Brain, Orchid

A. Van Acker, FGA
Amazon June 2005

Midwest Book Review
April 2006

Only $37.95. Read a couple of chapters online: www.secretsofthegemtrade.com.

Buy it on Amazon: www.amazon.com