A curious convergence of evil combined with the luck o' the Irish (it's always the luck o' the Irish, no?) had St. Patrick's Day fall on a Saturday, thus rendering the roadways unsafe for driving after about 9:30 AM unless you happen to have an M1 Abrams in your garage.
So Wendy B. has kindly provided us with a fantastic eye-clean 12.47 oval step-cut light green tsavorite upon which to turn our collective attention.
Jewelry designer Michael Beaudry scored a major coup at the BaselWorld show in 2005, and he talks about it in his Winter 2005 newsletter. So this is sort of old news, but new news to us and quite on-topic considering recent postings.
On display in Basel, Switzerland was this three-stone red diamond ring.
The total carat weight of the three stones is 1.49ct; all stones are certified by GIA to be natural fancy purplish-red diamonds. The center stone weighs 0.73ct and the side stones total 0.76ct.
Wow. They are perfectly matched stones. Amazing.
It is said that the center stone had been circulating and making the rounds of brokers and collectors for quite a while, but that the matched pair of side stones are fairly new finds. What is very spectacular about this trio is that they match.
The reason this is so newsworthy is that it's hard enough to find a red diamond. Apparently old Harry Winston went his entire lifetime never having seen one. What's more incredible is that there are three red diamonds here, each a perfect color match and each an oval of perfectly matched proportions.
Beaudry's newsletter mentions that auction houses have only seen about 30 red diamonds in the past 150 years. It's not for sale, but the owner must be a pretty nice person; he/she/they seem to enjoy letting Beaudry take it from show to show to display it.
To get an idea of how much much this trinity might fetch at auction, the 0.95ct Hancock Red Diamond was sold for $880,000 in 1987, setting a record for the highest price per carat of diamonds ever. It had eye-visible inclusions, a big no-no for white diamonds. Its color (also natural fancy purplish-red) was so spectacular that its value was very, very steep. And as we've discussed, color is everything.
But that auction was almost 20 years ago... and that stone was found 30 years before that. That's almost 50 years ago. And not many have been found since.
So the price for the Beaudry ring? Any guesses? $5 million? I have no idea. Maybe more, because as we know, "diamond math" is not straight arithmetic.
Three $1 million matched stones don't equal $3 million total. They add up to much, much more - the total being far greater than the sum of its parts.
Which is sort of like Duran Duran or the Spice Girls. Or any boy band, right? Bad comparison, sorry.
(photo from Michael Beaudry)
In honor of Zoe at Verbal Croquis and Henri V at The Tribunal of Good Taste, today's edition of "So You Want Something...?" celebrates the color red.
And why wouldn't we? It has been said that wearing jewelry with red gemstones can encourage the strength and energy of the wearer. We associate the color red the human heart and its capacity for passion. And of course red is the color of blood, which for all of us is a sign of life.
Remember the beautiful reds in Gauguin's paintings of Tahitian beauties? Ancient Polynesians and Pacific Islanders associated the color red with godliness and the highest social classes.
If you love red gemstones, might I suggest a ruby, a garnet, a spinel, or a red beryl? Of the red gemstones, these are the truly fabulous and red, red ones. Most fabulous, and the rarest of all, however, is the red diamond.
The following is a fairly comprehensive list of red gemstones. If you want to see what they look like, head over to Google images and type in the stone's name and search. I starred my favorites.
Red Beryl (Bixbite, aka "Red Emerald")
Red Diamond
Red Garnet (Spessartite, Almandine, Pyrope & Rhodolite) *
Red Spinel *
Ruby
Star Ruby
Sapphire (yes, red sapphire!)
Red Tourmaline (Rubellite) *
Red Topaz (Crimson)
Red Zircon
Alexandrite
Red Jasper (chalcedony)
Bloodstone
Agate
Red Coral
I know I am forgetting many. Feel free to remind me! Which are your favorites?
I didn't even bother to put a star next to the red diamond, though I am sure I would love them. This is as close as I've ever been to one, since I didn't get to the Smithsonian in 2003 to see all of the famous diamonds together in one place.
Only about ten red diamonds are found every year, and they are generally very small. The small ones are selling for $1 million per carat, which is not to say that a 5-carat stone would cost $5 million. No, no. On the contrary, the price goes up exponentially.
The largest one ever found and faceted is the Moussaieff Red, a 5.11-carat triangular brilliant (trilliant or trillion) stone that came from a 13.90-carat rough stone. And it is priceless. If you want to read more about it, check out this page at the Famous Diamonds site.
(photo from the Color Diamond Encyclopedia)
Here are some suggestions for getting your green on this St. Patrick's Day.
Forget about the rancid green beer, the boiled corned beef, the cabbage and the mash.
And some blotto guy named Sully O'Sullivan and his blotto girlfriend Patty O'Furniture chundering said rancid green beer, boiled corned beef, cabbage and mash on the bumper of your car.
Put the car in gear and run over their stupid hats and noisemakers, and celebrate with something that won't give you a hangover or add to your waistline.
All of these stones have unique green hues. The best way to see what something looks like is to hop over to Google images and type in the name and hit the search button.
I'll put a star(s) by my favorites... let me know what your favorites are.
Green Diamond ********
Green Sapphire *
Green Beryl (Emerald) *
Green Tourmaline *
Mint Green Tourmaline ********
Chrome Tourmaline
Watermelon Tourmaline
Unheated Aquamarine *
Tsavorite Garnet *
Merelani Mint Grossular Garnet *
Green Grossular Garnet
Demantoid Garnet *
Color-Change Garnet
Green South Seas Pearls ********
Alexandrite
Green Amethyst
Teal Zircon
Green Zircon *
Green Topaz
Peridot *
Aventurine *
Chrome Diopside *
Green Chalcedony *
Chrysoprase *
Uvarovite Drusy
Opal
Ammolite
Malachite
Jade *
Ruby-in-Zoiscite
Gaspeite
Azurite-Malachite
Jadeite
Variscite
Moldavite
Moss Agate
Jasper
Bloodstone
