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- Jul 25, 2008
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I was in Rio this weekend and I slipped off to the Amsterdam Sauer Museum. It is a small exhibition of gemstones, mainly Brazilian. Everything is laid out in a small room, with very nice spot lighting on the displays. It was an interesting visit. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures *hangs head in shame*
There are three main floor displays with larger collections of specific stones (one on emeralds, one with tourmalines and the last with aqua and imperial topaz) and several small displays along the wall (with around 10-20 each of amethyst, citrines, diamonds, coloured diamonds, alexandrite, chrysoberyl, cat's eye chrysoberyl, apatite, fluorite, sapphire, ruby, etc).
The emeralds were exquisite. It was interesting to compare lighter and darker emeralds, the different effects of faceting versus cabbing, the inclusions, etc. There were fewer rubies but they were also top notch. Among several stones, there was always one that stood out just a little and pulled your eye to it. The difference in depth of colour wasn't always large but the really fine stone always had a little extra ooomph that commanded your attention.
As was to be expected, the tourmaline display was good. It was focused mainly on verdelite (the nice, not overly dark stones) and rubelite, but there were a few fancy colours and bicolours as well. The paraiba display was rather bare (there are better stones on PS and even mine would not have been out of place). I loved the rubelites - glowing colours! There was also two amazing cat eye tourmalines. One was a large square cab of very dark indicolite. It had a perfect eye: straight, very sharp and with great movement. Along the eye, the beautiful blue would show up. The second was an oval rubelite, nicely translucent and with another great eye.
The alexandrites (both faceted and cat's eye) were gorgeous, with very nice colour, but there was only the spot light, so the colour change wasn't seen. What a waste... The cat's eye chrysoberyls were small but good. One exhibited the milk and honey effect very nicely, another had a high, sharp dome which gave it a cool effect. Unfortunately, the faceted chrysoberyls were all brownish duds. Once again, much, much better stones are seen on PS.
I could go on and on - you can fit a lot of stones in a small room.
The downside was that there was little information, other than stone type (no weight, cut, etc) and no discussion of treatment. One theoretically knowledgeable guy was there (he has worked for 20 years in this field) but, honestly, I found his lack of knowledge disturbing. He had no idea about spinels and said that they weren't precious (while standing in front of a fluorite display!). He disdained any stone that wasn't Brazilian (ouch!). He wasn't very familiar with garnets and had never heard of tsavorites. That was quite disappointing. Perhaps I should have pointed him towards PS and GO
However, he had good knowledge of the Brazilian stuff.
Overall, it was a delightful visit. My poor husband was rather stoned out at the end but I could have stayed longer.
There are three main floor displays with larger collections of specific stones (one on emeralds, one with tourmalines and the last with aqua and imperial topaz) and several small displays along the wall (with around 10-20 each of amethyst, citrines, diamonds, coloured diamonds, alexandrite, chrysoberyl, cat's eye chrysoberyl, apatite, fluorite, sapphire, ruby, etc).
The emeralds were exquisite. It was interesting to compare lighter and darker emeralds, the different effects of faceting versus cabbing, the inclusions, etc. There were fewer rubies but they were also top notch. Among several stones, there was always one that stood out just a little and pulled your eye to it. The difference in depth of colour wasn't always large but the really fine stone always had a little extra ooomph that commanded your attention.
As was to be expected, the tourmaline display was good. It was focused mainly on verdelite (the nice, not overly dark stones) and rubelite, but there were a few fancy colours and bicolours as well. The paraiba display was rather bare (there are better stones on PS and even mine would not have been out of place). I loved the rubelites - glowing colours! There was also two amazing cat eye tourmalines. One was a large square cab of very dark indicolite. It had a perfect eye: straight, very sharp and with great movement. Along the eye, the beautiful blue would show up. The second was an oval rubelite, nicely translucent and with another great eye.
The alexandrites (both faceted and cat's eye) were gorgeous, with very nice colour, but there was only the spot light, so the colour change wasn't seen. What a waste... The cat's eye chrysoberyls were small but good. One exhibited the milk and honey effect very nicely, another had a high, sharp dome which gave it a cool effect. Unfortunately, the faceted chrysoberyls were all brownish duds. Once again, much, much better stones are seen on PS.
I could go on and on - you can fit a lot of stones in a small room.
The downside was that there was little information, other than stone type (no weight, cut, etc) and no discussion of treatment. One theoretically knowledgeable guy was there (he has worked for 20 years in this field) but, honestly, I found his lack of knowledge disturbing. He had no idea about spinels and said that they weren't precious (while standing in front of a fluorite display!). He disdained any stone that wasn't Brazilian (ouch!). He wasn't very familiar with garnets and had never heard of tsavorites. That was quite disappointing. Perhaps I should have pointed him towards PS and GO
However, he had good knowledge of the Brazilian stuff.Overall, it was a delightful visit. My poor husband was rather stoned out at the end but I could have stayed longer.
Seriously, sometimes I have found some cool pieces at these places as there a few buyers.
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