Emeralds. The natural warmth of green
Intense, unique, faceted, unpolished. Its beautiful green color, combined with durability and rarity, make it one of the most desirable and highly valued colored stones.
Emerald is a member of the beryl family which is colorless in its pure form. Thanks to the presence of impurities, this mineral can be blue, green, pink, red, yellow and orange. Trace amounts chromium or vanadium in the mineral cause it to develop a green color. Pliny the Elder, the great naturalist of Antiquity, wrote that “no colour is more delightful in appearance. For although we enjoy looking at plants and leaves, we regard Emeralds with all the more pleasure because compared with them there is nothing that is more intensely green”.
Emeralds has the longest history. Some evidence indicates that emerald deposits in Egypt may have been exploited as early as 3500 BC. However, most of the Egyptian emeralds were pale, drab and heavily flawed. It wasn’t until the 1500’s, when the Spanish invaded the Americas, that Europeans realized how beautiful an emerald could be because vast quantities of Colombian emeralds were brought to Europe by the conquistadors.
Get comfortable and enjoy this lush striking natural green!
-
- Emerald and diamond pendant. Princess Wera Lobanoff de Rostoff Collection
-
- Alexandre Reza
-
- The Chalk emerald set into a ring designed by Harry Winston
-
- Bhagat
-
- Cartier
-
- Ornella Ianuzzi
-
- BVLGARI. Elizabeth Taylor’s emerald and diamond necklace
-
- Cartier
-
- Lou Zeldis
-
- Cartier
-
- Crown of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, known as the Crown of the Andes
-
- Cicada
-
- Cartier. Duchess of Windsor engagement ring
-
- GEORGES FOUQUET
-
- Hemmerle
-
- Ring attributed to Suzanne Belperron
-
- Glenn Spiro
-
- Pasionae
-
- Qiu Fine Jewelry
-
- Queen Victoria’s Emerald and Diamond Tiara
-
- SABBA
-
- Solange Azagury-Partridge
-
- JAR
-
- The carved emerald depicting a Mughal flower motif (17th century). Setting by Cartier, 1920s
-
- The magnificent emerald that Anita Delgado was given by her husband, the Maharaja of Kapurthala, as a reward for learning Urdu.
-
- The Rockefeller emerald ring by Raymond Yard
-
- Silva&Cie
-
- Hemmerle
-
- BVLGARI
-
- Varon
-
- Unknown, c.1960. With a Chatham emerald crystal. These lab created crystals were popular stones in the 1960’s and 70’s.
-
- Theo Fennell
REFERENCES:
Newman, Renee. Gemstone buying guide; how to evalute, identify, select and care for colored gems. Los Angeles: International Jewelry Publications, 2016.
