shape
carat
color
clarity

Sources for emerald and/or imperial topaz?

rimshotsnap

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 6, 2015
Messages
67
Hi all,

Having completed a couple projects of my own recently, I'm looking to help out some of my friends with their projects and increase my own knowledge base. I am looking for a couple of stones: a very good quality square emerald (probably in the 1.5 ct range) and a large oval imperial topaz. I looked through the websites of the dealers typically recommended here and really didn't find very much (it seems these stones are much less readily available than sapphire). Any recommendations for dealers I should contact? Individual stones? Other steps I should take?

Thank you very much in advance!
 

Coralfish

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Mar 7, 2013
Messages
202
People recommend Embassy Emeralds on here, but I find them a little overpriced and somewhat cagey re. treatments. (I should qualify that by saying I don't think there is sufficient information on each item page for the casual emerald buyer who doesn't know to look into the minutiae of treatments, or who hasn't read the below link. I am holding them to a high standard, but when it comes to gems of this price per carat, I retain the right to). I don't think I would buy from them but everyone seems to love them on here

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/treatment-on-an-emerald-araldite.195788/page-2']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/treatment-on-an-emerald-araldite.195788/page-2[/URL]

Lee Wasson is the king of the emerald city, but he comes at rather a steep price

A PSer recently got a reasonably priced emerald from Lisa Elser, you could see if she has any more. Yvonne Raley on Etsy has contacts in the emerald world.

Edited to add:

an AGL report is a must for an emerald. Apart from anything else they are one of the only labs who will tell you the type of treatment - modern (resin, Opticon, Araldite-types, Excel is the newest and apparently most stable one) or 'traditional' (oils etc - see linked post). You will see that the CDTEC certificate contains insufficient information, in my opinion. Whether and to what extent treatments are tolerable is down to the buyer's taste and budget. Untreated emeralds are rare. Being a Type iii gemstone you can almost certainly expect some 'jardin' which can add to the beauty of the stone, also the gota de aceite effect seen more in emeralds from some localities. Leading on from that, location is another big factor in emerald pricing. Broadly speaking (very broadly) colours (degree of blue or yellow modifier) can give strong clues as to locality, as can clarity (speaking in the most general sense) - I've found Zambian emeralds by and large to be clean and rather flat-looking, with more yellow, than say a Colombian which will tend to have more blue and be (again a disclaimer, this is in the hugely general sense) more included. Amount of yellow or blue in the green will have an effect on price. But the most important thing to remember is your own taste - whatever you are drawn to (or your friend) is the best emerald. So see as many as possible and pay the right price for the locale and the treatment.

So, Ronald Ringsrud, author of Emeralds - A Passionate Guide is your go to man for all things emerald, and authored the report on gota de aceite you can access via the GIA website, or there is material sampled in his own book if you search the net.
 
S

SparkliesLuver

Guest
Ditto the above comments for emeralds. On the imperial topaz, I'd contact Doug of Bespoke Gems.
 

chrono

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Apr 22, 2004
Messages
38,364
Coralfish|1444186366|3935647 said:
People recommend Embassy Emeralds on here, but I find them a little overpriced and somewhat cagey re. treatments. (I should qualify that by saying I don't think there is sufficient information on each item page for the casual emerald buyer who doesn't know to look into the minutiae of treatments, or who hasn't read the below link. I am holding them to a high standard, but when it comes to gems of this price per carat, I retain the right to). I don't think I would buy from them but everyone seems to love them on here

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/treatment-on-an-emerald-araldite.195788/page-2']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/treatment-on-an-emerald-araldite.195788/page-2[/URL]

Lee Wasson is the king of the emerald city, but he comes at rather a steep price

A PSer recently got a reasonably priced emerald from Lisa Elser, you could see if she has any more. Yvonne Raley on Etsy has contacts in the emerald world.

Edited to add:

an AGL report is a must for an emerald. Apart from anything else they are one of the only labs who will tell you the type of treatment - modern (resin, Opticon, Araldite-types, Excel is the newest and apparently most stable one) or 'traditional' (oils etc - see linked post). You will see that the CDTEC certificate contains insufficient information, in my opinion. Whether and to what extent treatments are tolerable is down to the buyer's taste and budget. Untreated emeralds are rare. Being a Type iii gemstone you can almost certainly expect some 'jardin' which can add to the beauty of the stone, also the gota de aceite effect seen more in emeralds from some localities. Leading on from that, location is another big factor in emerald pricing. Broadly speaking (very broadly) colours (degree of blue or yellow modifier) can give strong clues as to locality, as can clarity (speaking in the most general sense) - I've found Zambian emeralds by and large to be clean and rather flat-looking, with more yellow, than say a Colombian which will tend to have more blue and be (again a disclaimer, this is in the hugely general sense) more included. Amount of yellow or blue in the green will have an effect on price. But the most important thing to remember is your own taste - whatever you are drawn to (or your friend) is the best emerald. So see as many as possible and pay the right price for the locale and the treatment.

So, Ronald Ringsrud, author of Emeralds - A Passionate Guide is your go to man for all things emerald, and authored the report on gota de aceite you can access via the GIA website, or there is material sampled in his own book if you search the net.

+1.
 
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