Is it the same with over 20 million emeralds
Is it the same with over 20 million emeralds
Recently, the jewelry industry has been overshadowed by this emerald:
This octagonal stepped cut emerald weighs 280.84 carats, is slightly oily, and is produced in Colombia. It measures approximately 40 x 35 millimeters and is half the size of a palm.
Although this emerald has obvious cracks, it still retains its charm and was sold for a high price of 22.5 million RMB. It is reported that this anonymous buyer is from China.
Some netizens expressed confusion as to why gemstones with such large cracks can still be sold so expensive? Isn't it true that the cleaner the gemstone, the better?
Although purity is an important factor in measuring the quality of gemstones, it is not an absolute factor. Natural gemstones are formed in complex geological environments. During the growth process, the mixing of foreign impurities, the concentration of ore-forming solutions, and changes in temperature and pressure will leave certain marks on the gemstones.
These marks are the medals left by gemstones after overcoming difficulties and obstacles. They are their precious qualities and play an important role in the identification of gemstones. They can even be considered as ID cards or fingerprints of gemstones.
For some gemstones, due to their complex growth environment and bumpy growth process, their purity is relatively low compared to other gemstones. But they are simply too beautiful, making people willingly accept imperfections that do not hide their flaws. Here, please automatically imagine the scene in "Empress Zhen Huan" where the Empress uses "stupid yet truly beautiful" to evaluate the beauty of Qi Guiren.
Now, let's take a look together. Who are the gemstones in the gemstone circle - those with lower purity but truly beautiful?
01
Emerald
Most natural emeralds have flaws and cracks, and sometimes black mineral inclusions and other impurities can be seen, making it difficult to find flawless ones. Excellent wrapping not only does not weaken the value of an emerald, but also adds color to it. The complex and numerous inclusions, cracks, or fissures of emerald are poetically referred to as "garden gemstones". The emerald, known as the garden, has many small green plant like inclusions, which proves that gemstones are natural.
Faced with the cracks in emerald, jewelers usually use oil injection to protect it. In the early days, people mainly used various oils to impregnate emeralds (such as various vegetable oils, cedar oil, etc.), and tried to use oils with similar refractive indices as emeralds. The oils impregnated can be divided into colored and colorless.
This dual-purpose brooch and pendant is adorned with an 80.45 carat stepped cut emerald from Colombia, slightly oily. Despite the visible cracks and contents on the emerald, it was still sold at a high price of 3.16 million Swiss francs at the Sotheby's auction in 2021.
02 Ruby
The growth environment of rubies is very harsh. Many rubies die before they grow up due to crustal movements. Those rubies that grow up tenaciously and come to the world naturally carry the imprints bestowed by nature in their bodies after undergoing multiple hardships. Therefore, ruby also has the legend of "ten reds and nine cracks" in the martial arts world.
In adition to cracks, rubies are also very rich in their contents. Some obvious inclusions can reduce the transparency and brightness of ruby, but some just right inclusions can scatter light onto the originally dark facets of ruby, not only increasing the softness of the color, but also spreading the color more evenly around the crown of ruby.
At the 2016 Christie's auction, a ring set with 15.99 carats of "Jubilee Ruby" was sold for $14.165 million (approximately 92 million RMB). It can be clearly seen that this ruby has abundant healing cracks.
Sapphires, which belong to the same corundum family as rubies, also have relatively rich contents.
03 rupee tourmaline
Tourmaline is an extremely complex borosilicate that presents a colorful and dreamy rainbow like appearance due to the presence of various mineral coloring elements.
More colors mean stronger inclusiveness, and of course, the contents are also indispensable. The popular red tourmaline contains many cracks inside, which are often filled with gas-liquid inclusions and can exhibit mirror reflection. In addition, it also has rich hair like inclusions.
The star of the red tourmaline, the Rubile tourmaline, has the most prominent feature of low purity, but it is still loved by consumers due to its stunning beauty that is very close to ruby.
04 Paraiba tourmaline
Nowadays, when it comes to the top stream in tourmalines, it must be the Paraiba tourmaline.
Since its discovery in the late 1980s, the Paraiba tourmaline has attracted the attention of businesses and consumers worldwide due to its unique and vibrant colors. But due to the limited production of Paraiba tourmaline, people are not willing to give up its beauty in pursuit of purity, thus giving it almost bottomless tolerance for its purity standards. This has also been fully verified from the auction:
On the ring shown in the picture, there is a 4.22 carat Brazilian Palaiba tourmaline embedded. Although the clarity of this Palaiba tourmaline still looks low after low-temperature heating treatment, it was sold at a high price of $110000 (approximately 735000 RMB) at Christie's auction in 2021, with a carat price of 175000 RMB.
Sure enough, beauty is the primary productive force~
05 Fenda Stone
Due to factors in the growth environment, garnet usually contains contents such as wavy, round, irregular crystals, and liquid. Among them, the red garnet has a relatively high purity and no visible contents to the naked eye, while orange garnets such as manganese aluminum garnet usually have visible contents to the naked eye.
The coloring elements of manganese aluminum garnet are manganese and iron, and common colors include brownish red, rose red, yellow, yellow brown, etc. Among them, the gemstone grade manganese aluminum garnet, which does not contain brown tones and is bright orange yellow, is the most popular and is called Fenda stone (not all manganese aluminum garnets can be called Fenda stone).
Fenda stone commonly contains small crystals, scattered needle like and small bubbles, and there are not many with very high purity. The price of a completely clean and flawless stone will be relatively high. But fortunately, the bright color of Fendar stone often leaves people with no time to consider its cleanliness.
06 Moonlight Stone
The moonstone, which has a charming moonlight effect, has a surface like a full moon shining on thin and high clouds, emitting ethereal and beautiful light. It seems to be endowed with a moonlight like brilliance, like a dream.
To have such enchanting moonlight, the interior of a gemstone must have enough and precisely angled contents to diffract and reflect light. However, during the growth process of gemstones, it is difficult to capture just the right amount of content, as they often contain some unwanted content, resulting in low purity for most moonstones.
Of course, there are also particularly popular moonlight stones, which not only have beautiful moonlight and high clarity, but their prices have also correspondingly increased.
Apart from the above, in fact, most natural gemstones cannot achieve high purity. Some magnificent gemstone optical effects even require sufficient inclusions to possess, such as the starlight effect and the cat's eye effect.
The higher the clarity of a gemstone, the higher its price will also be, but some gemstones may not even be able to buy high clarity even with money, such as Paraiba tourmaline. When selecting gemstones, if the budget is limited, priority should be given to the overall aesthetics of the gemstones. The requirements for clarity can be appropriately relaxed, and there is no need to overly pursue perfection.
Of course, if the cleanliness has deteriorated to a point where it seriously affects the beauty of the gemstone and makes it uncomfortable to look at (such as a large area of dark packaging visible on the countertop, cracks spreading throughout the entire gemstone, etc.), then there is no need to make a choice.