Emeralds

EMERALDS

EMERALD is a variety of the mineral beryl , colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium.  Beryl is in the hexagonal crystal system and has a hardness of 7.5-8 on the ten point Mohes hardness scale. Most emeralds are highly included, so their toughness (resistance to breakage) is classified as poor.

Emeralds, unlike many gemstones can be found in large sizes.

TREATMENTS

After cutting most emeralds are oiled to improve the clarity. Cedar oil having a similar refractive index as emerald is often used and is generally accepted. Other liquids, including synthetic oil and polymers with refractive indexes close to that of emerald such as Opticon are also used.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission requires the disclosure

COLUMBIAN EMERALDS

Inca, the indigenous people of what is now Colombia, had been mining emeralds, gold and silver from ancient times.  The Incas considered emeralds, gold and silver of divine origin, and used them only for sacred ornaments.  The Incas referred to gold as, “tears of the sun” and silver as, “sweat of the moon.

Many of the emeralds that the Incas had accumulated over time were large and of very fine quality.

In 1534 Pizarro captured Atahualpa, the last king of the Incas and then executed him, ending the Inca Empire.

So Spain began to export emeralds, gold and silver from South America back to Spain. Many of these emeralds were sold in Europe as well as the Middle East and Mogul India.

Green is the color of Islam. At the time when many of these new world emeralds were arriving in the old world, the Moguls were in power from the Near East to India.

The Duchess of Windsor’s emerald engagement ring:

Edward Vll, in 1936 was shopping at Cartier’s in Paris for an emerald for an engagement ring for Mrs. Wallis Simpson.

Cartier’s heard that certain people in Baghdad were anxious to sell their jewels it would take some time as there were not allowed to do so, and it would have to be done secretly. Cartier sent out one of their most trusted emissaries. After he had been in Baghdad for a sometime, he telegraphed home for a very large sum of money: they were taken back but thought that he must be on the point of procuring and enormous number of precious stones. They sent him the money and waited for his return. When he arrived they were surprised to see that he had with him only a little bag, and to their dismay out of it he brought this immense emerald.

This was one of the greatest emeralds in the world and belonged to the Grand Mogul.

Their dismay increased for, the pointed out to him, there was no one in the world-now that the old Russia had been destroyed-who would give a large enough price for it to make a profit. He then suggested that it should be cut in half and re-polished. This was accordingly done, making the two most splendid emeralds in the world. One was bought by the King, the other bought by an American millionaire.

The Duchess of Windsor’s engagement ring by Cartier weighs 19.77 carats and it was sold by Sotheby’s on April 2, 1987 for $2,126,677.00.

In the jewelry trade, the old Colombian emeralds that come from the Middle Ease and India are refered to as ‘old mine’ emeralds.

As important as Antwerp, Belgium is for diamonds, Hong Kong is as important for the international emerald trade.

The Chinese people love green gemstones, first of course, ‘the stone from heaven’, jadeite, which is also an important part of the Chinese culture. So the Chinese love emeralds, and the fact that Hong Kong is a free port, make it the most important trading centers in the world for emeralds.

Emeralds are mined in Brazil and other parts of South America, as well as Africa, India, Pakistan and even the USA.

Emerals is a variety of the mineral beryl and is found in many locals around the world. The emeralds found in Colombia are among the finest in the world.