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can someone educate me, please?

Perhaps comparing that stones picture and description to the other emerald pictures and descriptions on that site will help.
 
Colombian origin carries a big premium. The colour is first class, the size is big and the stone has good clarity, add to that minimal enhancement and you have a top quality gemstone which doesn't come cheap. It's beautiful.
 
Hear that song playing in the background ????
Well, that's what my heart is doing right now, gazing at that
GORGEOUS emerald !
It's totally breathtaking !
 
It is big. and well proportioned. The excellent depth indicates that it may not have a window. That would be an exceptional feat for a beryl, and more important since the clarity is so high that there are not hanging gardens of inclusions that would hide a window like a venetian blind. Then too, the clarity is native to the stone, not the result of even moderate oil or resin. Now add to all that a fantastic deep bright blueish green color of great saturation and evenness. and the colombian pedigree. The stone delivers high on all the points that matter.
 
Vapid and Pandora said it all. quality is not inexpensive.
 
I agree that it's a great stone, colour, origin, size and minimal treatment all equal very good quality BUT I have to say that I think it's still a bit expensive and you could possibly get the same thing for less. Having said that, I haven't been looking at Emeralds for a while so could be completely out of touch.
 
How does that expression go? A picture is worth a thousand words. In this case I think a couple of pics are worth thousands of words.
 
OK, how about the color? Is it what is called "blue-green"? The only blue-green worth mentioning that I saw in my life glowed but was still not saturated enough. Less green and more blue. Is this color called blue-green?

No second meaning behind all these questions, I just want to educate myself in good emeralds. I have no clue about them and the ones I saw (even in museums) were large and green, but no better than beautiful tsavorites. So this is the only way to learn for me.
 
I also agree that the price is definitely on the high side. For instance, tanzanites on their website are ~ 1k per carat..
 
don't see to many cushion cut emeralds
 
Yes, this one is expensive, and while one can not compare pictures in two websites, to me it looks less saturated, but I may be wrong here...
 
I would call it blue-green.

Regarding the similarity to tsavorite, I wanted to see the difference so I went to Moussieff in London where they have some world-class emeralds and compared them side-by-side with my tsavorite (which is a blue-green and deemed by everyone in the trade who has seen it to be an example of the premium colour). I got to compare them under a number of different light sources.

They really are different beasts. The emeralds have a glow to them that a tsavorite will never have. Tsavorite has more areas of contrast - partly due to the lack of inclusions which means that the light doesn't scatter within the stone the way it can with an emerald. Tsavorites throw off flashes of green fire, emeralds do not - they are more of a steady colour. Tsavorite also takes a higher polish than emerald and so looks harder and shinier and reflects light from the facets more. Emeralds also hold their colour better in fluorescent lighting which tends to wipe out tsavorites to a greater or lesser degree.

I probably have a slight preference for tsavorite but I certainly appreciate fine emeralds and it really is personal taste rather than one being better than another.

The emerald in the picture above is as good as many that they had in their store which combined with the clarity and lack of treatment is what makes me think that it merits the price-tag.

(I went to a great lecture earlier this year by the CEO of the largest emerald mine in Zambia - formerly the CEO of Tanzanite One. The guy was so passionate about them and we saw some amazing examples - I hadn't realised how close the top Zambian stuff comes to the Colombian, yet without the Colombian price-tag. (Also got an open invitation to visit the mine... must book that ticket to Zambia one year... :Up_to_something: ))

Oh and LOVED the guy's comments on diamonds: "I love diamonds, they are wonderful as accents to show off the main event!". He also talked a lot about the historical place of gemstones in the market and how they used to be on a par with diamonds in terms of popularity and price until De Beers started their advertising campaigns.

I've been doing some research recently and was suprised to find that amethyst was counted as one of the big 5 along with ruby, sapphire, emerald and diamond until the late 18th Century when new deposits were found in South America. Before then, a fine amethyst could cost the same as a white diamond of equal weight!

And here endeth the useless and off-topic information from Pandora...
 
That emerald has everything going for for it:
1. Colombian origin
2. Size combined with all the below
3. Clarity - considered very clean
4. Treatment - minor
5. Colour - practically tops with such saturation!

Emeralds will usually have some blue in it, more often seen under incandescent lighting.
 
I think emeralds have gone up in value recently. Many gemstones have.

Anyone have enough money to buy these at Christies later this year?

AP110902044608.jpg
 
Pandora, aqua was also a much loved gem throughout time, including the middle ages. thanks for the quote re diamonds! i think you should go to that mine sooner rather than later.

a quality tsav is gorgeous but it isn't a quality emerald....and the reverse is true. love each for their differences.

i think Chrono has given a short and sweet summary of what everyone has been saying.

TL, i can't even begin to imagine how much that necklace will sell for!

i worked with a young woman many years ago that had to have an emerald for her e-ring. nothing else would do. it was a gorgeous emerald cut emerald. she wore it to work in the beginning....and then a few weeks later i asked her why she wasn't wearing it anymore: she didn't want to damage it!!! all that loveliness and EXPENSE [wasn't small and it was high quality] left to sit in a drawer. sigh.
 
TL|1315576509|3013512 said:
Anyone have enough money to buy these at Christies later this year?
Click to expand...

Oh, are you getting that for me this Christmas? Why, thank you! :halo:
 
Very interesting, thank you, fellows.

Pandora, recently I saw a pair of tsavorite earrings and at first I thought the stones were emeralds. They were blue-green, while usually tsavorites are yellowish-green (I have one that is a little bit blue-green, but the pair I saw was different). While emeralds, even not very saturated, are still bluish.

So why the difference in colors? Does it have to do with different trace elements in their chrystallic structure? Something else?

All "Colombians" I saw were washed-out. I wonder how soon were initial "Colombians" mined out and sold out. It took them two months to deplete Brazilian alexandrites, from what I have heard. Probably the same for good "Colombians". So yes, if I were invited to the Zambian mines I'd make this trip yesterday but then I never saw really good emeralds and would probably buy something third-quality there...
 
crasru|1315584466|3013619 said:
Very interesting, thank you, fellows.

Pandora, recently I saw a pair of tsavorite earrings and at first I thought the stones were emeralds. They were blue-green, while usually tsavorites are yellowish-green (I have one that is a little bit blue-green, but the pair I saw was different). While emeralds, even not very saturated, are still bluish.

So why the difference in colors? Does it have to do with different trace elements in their chrystallic structure? Something else?

All "Colombians" I saw were washed-out. I wonder how soon were initial "Colombians" mined out and sold out. It took them two months to deplete Brazilian alexandrites, from what I have heard. Probably the same for good "Colombians". So yes, if I were invited to the Zambian mines I'd make this trip yesterday but then I never saw really good emeralds and would probably buy something third-quality there...
Click to expand...

The finest emeralds from Columbia have a microscopic inclusion that gives them this appearance of a "drop of oil." I forget the name, but no other origin has this particular inclusion. I think they are specific to the finest Colombian emeralds. The book on emeralds by Ronald Ringsrund talks more about his. I highly recommend that book for anyone interested in emeralds.

As for the color, I don't think any tsavorite is as saturated as the finest emerald. JMO. While I do like tsavorites, they are completely different, more sparkly, and just not glowy. I tried on a $250,000 five carat emerald around 15 years ago. It was the same color and clarity as the broach part of that necklace above, but a million times more beautiful in person. Fine emeralds need to be seen to be believed. No photo can do them justice.
 
Chrono|1315584037|3013617 said:
TL|1315576509|3013512 said:
Anyone have enough money to buy these at Christies later this year?
Click to expand...

Oh, are you getting that for me this Christmas? Why, thank you! :halo:
Click to expand...

Only if you get me the Le Perguina pearl necklace first!
 
The chromophores for emeralds and tsavorites are similar - tsav is predominantly vanadium with some chromium, emeralds from Zambia and Brazil are also predominantly coloured by vanadium and some iron. Emeralds from Colombia are predominantly coloured by chromium. There are loads of other things in the mix as well, but these are the main ones.

There was debate for a long time about whether an emerald had to be chromium-bearing to be classed as an emerald at all and whether those that weren't should just be called green beryl. Today the majority view is that if it is coloured by chromium and/or vanadium and looks like an emerald it is an emerald but CIBJO still holds out on the chromium.

One of the reasons that Colombian stones are so prized is that they have very low iron content - iron tends to cancel out the effects from the chromium which means that stones high in iron won't have the fluorescent quality or glow given by the chromium - a quality prized in Colombian emeralds.

As with all gemstones, only a very small percentage of a find is quality material. It doesn't mean that they aren't still producing it, just that it isn't easy to get hold of. Take top quality blue moonstones from Sri Lanka - I am always hearing that they are mined out... not so, the miners themselves told me there is enough material down there for another 100 years BUT, only 1-2% of annual production ticks the fine blue box so the stones are still very scarce compared with the average moonstone which can be bought by the kilo!

The invitation was to see the way the mine worked etc, not to buy especially as they have very strict supply chains - it's a massive place along the lines of some of the big diamond mines not a little hole in the ground. I can say that just looking at the photos of the rough they were sorting there is a fair amount of extremely fine material that would give Colombians a run for their money.

TL - the diagnostic inclusion for Colombian emerald is a 3-phase inclusion consisting of a jagged edged cavity containing a crystal, a liquid and a gas bubble (fun when you can get the bubble to move). I can't see that it would have any effect on the overall appearance though...
 
Wonderful information and great posts, Pandora!!!
 
Pandora|1315590124|3013696 said:
TL - the diagnostic inclusion for Colombian emerald is a 3-phase inclusion consisting of a jagged edged cavity containing a crystal, a liquid and a gas bubble (fun when you can get the bubble to move). I can't see that it would have any effect on the overall appearance though...
Click to expand...

Here is a sample chapter from Ronald Ringsud's book that explains this effect, called "Gota de Aceite."

http://www.emeraldpassion.com/sample.htm

I don't care as much for Zambians as much as old mine fine Muzo material. The stone I looked at, which was $250,000, was in an antique piece of jewelry. It was an old stone, and again, nothing to me, beats the old Muzo material.
 
TL|1315594079|3013776 said:
Pandora|1315590124|3013696 said:
TL - the diagnostic inclusion for Colombian emerald is a 3-phase inclusion consisting of a jagged edged cavity containing a crystal, a liquid and a gas bubble (fun when you can get the bubble to move). I can't see that it would have any effect on the overall appearance though...
Click to expand...

Here is a sample chapter from Ronald Ringsud's book that explains this effect, called "Gota de Aceite."

http://www.emeraldpassion.com/sample.htm

I don't care as much for Zambians as much as old mine fine Muzo material. The stone I looked at, which was $250,000, was in an antique piece of jewelry. It was an old stone, and again, nothing to me, beats the old Muzo material.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting that TL. I'd only come across 'gota de aceite' very briefly before and that chapter is brilliant (and great photos). I've never been lucky enough to see it in a real stone...
 
"Gota dea ceite" - this is so coincidental!!! I was looking that name up today (took me a few goes before getting the name right...), before seeing this post, as that happens to be the name of a colombian supplier where I got several emeralds from. I was wondering what if any stock they had, as the emeralds I got from them were just wonderful.

So that's the name connection - I was wondering why they got such a strange name and who would ever remember it..
 
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