Description :

EMERALDS

Emeralds are the premier gems in the beryl family. For more than 4,000 years, emeralds have been among the most valuable of all jewels. In one of the rare cases where lore and fact coincide, emerald history really does begin in Egypt, where there actually was a "Cleopatra's Mine." Mining in the desert south of Cairo near the Aswan Dam began before 2000 B.C. and continued until about 1200 A.D. Although emeralds were extracted for 2000 years before Cleopatra was born, her use and love of gems led to her name being attached to the mine, an association that remains. Egypt supplied the known world with emeralds throughout the Biblical period and through the Middle Ages. But most of the stones, as you see in numerous examples in Fred Ward's book on emeralds, would barely be classified as gems today. The world had to wait until Spain conquered the New World and found Indians wearing great emeralds to see how fine the green gemstones could be.

Fabulous emerald crystals came from what is now Colombia. It took Spain five decades to overpower the Muzo Indians who occupied the mining area. Monarchs and the gem-loving royalty in India, Turkey, and Persia sought the New World treasures once the gems arrived in Europe. The new emerald owners produced spectacular artifacts between 1600 and 1900, such as the "Atocha Cross" (right). Fabricated in Colombia and lost underwater in the Florida Keys for more than two centuries, the Spanish Colonial specimen recently sold for $750,000.

Today Colombia, Brazil, and Zambia mine most commercial emeralds. Several other countries, such as Pakistan and Zimbabwe, produce smaller amounts. Although Brazil mines more emeralds annually than any other country, Colombia dominates the trade by setting the standards for size and color. It is Colombian emeralds against which all others are judged. Rarer and sometimes more expensive than a similar-sized diamond, Colombian emeralds have a unique look, a green lightly touched with blue. Muzo, the original mine, remains the most important emerald mine in the world.

This contemporary ring is an example of the quality Colombian emeralds Mr. Ward obtains for clients. Notice the bezel-set emerald. Emeralds are often accused of being "soft," which is not true. Because of the molecular makeup and the typical presence of multiple inclusions, some emeralds can be brittle. For rings meant to be worn daily, we usually recommend bezel setting (surrounding the gem with metal instead of setting it up on prongs). This precaution protects the stone from anything except a direct top blow

Description :

DIAMONDS

Diamonds, best known of the world's gemstones, have fascinated potentates and collectors since their discovery near Golconda, India around 800 B.C. Austria's Archduke Maximilian began a tradition in 1477 now considered integral to diamonds' financial success. To symbolize his love for Mary of Burgundy, the duke was first to incorporate a diamond into a wedding ring. That use makes diamonds the most expected and purchased of all major gemstones. Seldom do accolades meet reality, but diamonds deserve all the superlatives showered on them. These gorgeous jewels, the crystal form of carbon, rate a 10 on the Mohs hardness scale of 1 to 10 as the hardest material in nature. Diamonds will scratch anything else, including other diamonds. And with an outstandingly high refractive index of 2.41, diamonds dazzle with rainbow hues. To a gemologist, a material has to have three qualities to be classified as a gem: beauty, durability, and rarity. Clearly diamonds qualify.

Formed between 70 and 140 miles beneath the earth's surface, diamonds arrive on the earth's surface, where they can be found by humans, by a unique delivery system. They must be forced through the earth's crust within a volcano. The diamonds we are finding today were actually formed 900 million to 3 1/2 billion years ago! Diamonds forming beneath our feet today will remain unseen for billions of years.

India was the diamond source for most of humanity's history with gems. The most famous diamond, the Hope (above), is a great 45.52-carat blue from India now on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. It now belongs to the American people. Diamonds occur in all colors, with red the rarest and most expensive.

Diamonds have the most organized gem trade, due to tight control by De Beers, the British and South African company that markets about 80 percent of the world's uncut diamonds. As explained in our new diamond book, diamonds are mined in a number of countries, with Australia, Botswana, and Russia producing most. South Africa remains important, as are Namibia and Angola. Diamond cutting is concentrated due to De Beers' distribution system. India cuts more diamonds than any other country, mostly smaller sizes. Other major cutting centers are in Israel, Belgium, and the U.S. Increasing in importance are China, Thailand, and Russia.As a result of the "Diamonds Are Forever" campaign, romantics and investors buy almost all the gem-quality diamonds found annually. Most of the more than 100 million carats of diamonds mined each year are industrial-quality, required in prodigious amounts by modern societies to cut, grind, and polish almost every product we use: metals, optics, glass, molds, stone, ceramics, drill bits, dental drills, and millions more.

Diamond jewelry remains the dominant gem product in the USA and Europe. As explained in our book, for most of the history of diamond use, the gems were reserved for royalty and the very wealthy. But the phenomenal South African discoveries in the late 1800s produced so many diamonds suddenly that suppliers needed a new marketing plan. De Beers consolidated control and developed a broad buyer base. This century's marketing revolution made diamonds (and other fine gems) available to everyone. For the first time in history, anyone with a job could afford a gem. And from the beginning of this change, the gems most people wanted were diamonds. Mr. Ward specializes in gem searches for discriminating clients. With extensive contacts around the world, Mr. Ward locates unusual, exotic, and beautiful gemstones to fulfill your dreams.

Description :

PEARLS

Pearls may be the world's oldest gems. Unlike crystal gemstones, which had to be worked before being beautiful and usable, pearls arrived from the water in a finished form, ready to enjoy. Natives needed very little skill to drill a hole through the relatively soft pearl to produce a pendant or necklace.

In the beginning, pearls were all naturals, accidents of nature occurring when an oyster or mussel reacted to a foreign object that it was unable to expel. To protect itself, the mollusk coated the irritant with nacre (mother of pearl) to make it smooth. Beginning with Mikimoto in the 1890s, various people found ways to induce pearl production by inserting round shell beads into oysters. Once the mollusks coated the beads with nacre, the new products became "cultured pearls." Fred Ward's newly revised book on pearls clearly describes the history of pearls as well as the different types: natural, cultured, saltwater, freshwater, South Seas, and black pearls. The islands surrounding Tahiti are most famous for black pearls, although they are grown in other places. The Tahitian beauty, left, is wearing a splendidly matched necklace of 16mm black pearls (and little else). Pearls occur in a number of colors; pink, white, silver, yellow, gold, cream, blue, and black. Different countries prefer different colors, and there is a market attempt to deliver colors that sell. Historically cultured pearls up to 10mm were produced in Japan and those from 10 to 20mm, called South Sea Pearls, came from farms throughout the Pacific.

Today cultured pearls dominate the world pearl market. Now natural pearls are sought only by collectors and a few buyers in Middle East countries who do not view cultured pearls as "real." For the first several thousand years of pearl use though, all pearls were naturals. Saltwater naturals, which used to come mainly from the Persian Gulf, were also sought by divers around India, Panama, and Mexico. Freshwater naturals were best known from the rivers of Scotland, continental Europe, and the Tennessee and Mississippi River valleys in the USA.

The treasure chest dripping with natural saltwater pearls (right) is worth a royal fortune. Housed in the fabulous Crown Jewels of Iran collection in Tehran, the Persian Gulf pearls were used during the reign of various Shahs as inventory to be used as needed when making crowns and other regal jewelry. The Iranian government has once again opened the collection of several hundred thousand gems, crowns, turban ornaments, thrones, and tiara to the public.

South Sea Pearls are the grandest of all cultured pearls. Utilizing the huge oysters that flourish in the warm clean waters of the Pacific, a new generation of pearl farmers has recently revolutionized what had been merely an extension of the Japanese pearl trade. The Japanese originally expanded into the South Seas after World War II as a means of growing larger, more profitable pearls. Once they began farming in Burma and Australia, they kept their techniques secret, employing only Japanese technology and exporting the pearl crops back to Kobe for marketing.

Directed by a small group of young Australian pearlers, South Sea pearl farming recently entered a new era. Gaining more control of their pearl farms and marketing, the Aussies evaluated oyster husbandry in order to make larger and more perfect pearls. They threw out much of what they learned from the Japanese and established new implantation, tending, and harvesting protocols to grow more, larger, and better pearls. Already the Australians are making the finest cultured pearls ever grown, absolutely round, up to 20mm in diameter, with great luster and surfaces.

Fred Ward, the author of our gem series, has recently returned from the annual Australian pearl harvest, bringing a hand-picked selection of unusual and beautiful South Sea pearls. Included are earring pairs, large pearls for pins and pendants, and a few pearls ideally suited for custom jewelry. Above is a one-of-a-kind piece, which we call our "Cloud Ring." The impressive South Sea pearl actually changes color from left-to-right, flowing from a pinkish white to a light gold.
Such pearls and designs are available to you when you contact Mr. Ward.

Description :

RUBIES AND SAPPHIRES

Rubies & Sapphires are paired in Fred Ward's new book because they belong together. Even though they appear to be vastly different, they are actually color variations of the same thing, the mineral species corundum, which is aluminum oxide. Rubies and sapphires are fraternal twins, chemically the same except for minute amounts of trace elements that produce different colors. Sapphires occur in every color of the rainbow but one, because if corundum crystals are red, they are known as rubies. Rubies are always red, but sapphires can be blue as well as pink, yellow, green, black, colorless, orange, teal, and lavender.

Much of the allure of sapphires is the number of available colors. One of the unfortunate legacies of a huge marketing effort in the 1960s, when Australia's almost-black sapphires became available, is the mistaken notion that sapphires should be dark. That advertising gimmick caused buyers to seek dreary, opaque inexpensive dull stones. In his book Fred Ward recommends buying only bright and beautiful sapphires, such as the ones in the array at right from Sri Lanka. Shop for blue sapphires that appear blue in room light at night. If they die under artificial light avoid them. All the stones here except the red rubies are sapphires. Notice the different shades of blue as well as the brilliant yellow sapphires. Because they are rarer, rubies cost more than sapphires, which remain the bargains of the four major gemstones. The highest sapphire prices begin with the finer blues and for a very special peachy-pink gem from Sri Lanka, known as "Padparadscha." Prices then decrease as you move from pink to orange, violet, yellow, and green sapphires.

Rubies & sapphires occur in a number of countries. Burma (Myanmar) is most famous as a source for both. Burmese rubies and sapphires fetch a premium in the market because of their perceived superior colors. Burma ruby prices soared during the 1980s and only recently abated because of a new discovery at Mong Hsu. Rubies are also found in Thailand, Cambodia, Kenya, Tanzania, Afghanistan, India, and in a small non-commercial deposit in North Carolina. Sapphires are mined commercially in Thailand, Australia, China, Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria, and, surprisingly, in Montana. In fact, as pointed out in our new book, Montana is one of the gem trade's best-kept secrets. Large quantities of very colorful sapphires are quietly produced in the U.S. Most are sold and cut overseas, only to reenter the market as Thai or Australian sapphires. Because sapphires are relatively plentiful, they are somewhat easier to match than other colored gemstones. Only Montana and the mining area around Umba in Tanzania produce enough richly varicolored sapphires to produce a rainbow tennis bracelet set entirely with sapphires. This example was made with a brilliant array of Montana sapphires. Similar bracelets are available from Fred Ward.

Rubies & Sapphires are ideal gems, harder than all others except diamonds. They possess a high refractive index, making them both durable and brilliant, sure to give a lifetime of satisfaction.
For maximum color impact, nothing excels over rubies. Often expensive, their price is justified because rubies are at least 50 times rarer than equivalent diamonds yet priced at only a small premium. If rubies, diamonds, and emeralds stretch your budget, consider sapphires. Sapphires offer colors unavailable with the other major gems. To facilitate owning quality, fairly-priced gems and jewelry, Mr. Ward conducts custom gem searches for clients. If you would like to have quality rubies, sapphires, or other fine gemstones, contact Fred Ward directly.