Category:

In joining the gem and jewelry industry, I became part of one of the oldest and richest human fascinations. For as long as people have known about gemstones, they have treasured them. They are objects of great beauty, sources of deep symbolism, stores of significant value, subjects of fierce competition, and catalysts of trade and discovery. Gems have a value that spans the aesthetic, cultural, financial, and historical: they are significant to the human narrative in almost as many different ways as they can boast sparkling facets. They are the ultimate meeting of science and stories.

The gemstone that shines in the auction room and ignites a bidding war is merely the tip of the iceberg: the glittering culmination of an extraordinary journey through time. That stone is a product of nature's extremes and expanses, born from the collisions and eruptions that shaped the planet as we know it today, as mountains formed and continents closed over long-forgotten oceans. Its natural form was forged at the meeting point of numerous chance happenings: violent geological events that brought together minerals that would never normally meet, provided the necessary heat and pressure for the crystals to form, and raised them from deep below the earth's surface—tens or even hundreds of miles down—to within reach of human hands and tools. And its stunning beauty was honed by human hands, relying on centuries of accumulated knowledge of how to cut and polish the rough crystal into a glimmering masterpiece that will set hearts racing.

If holding a truly magnificent gemstone in your hand feels like a miracle, then that is barely an overstatement: a stone that may sell for tens of millions of dollars has endured a journey that may stretch back tens of millions of years. The extent of fate and fortune required to place it on your finger or around your neck is almost impossible to grasp.

By contrast, the hard-earned beauty of a polished gemstone is deceptively straightforward: the glorious gift of light and color. The way in which gems interact with light is simply incomparable. The crystalline structure of a diamond can do things to light that should bend your mind as much as the wavelengths. A light wave enters the gem through the many facets the cutter has painstakingly polished onto its surface. It dances around within the stone, and in some cases disperses into its rainbow of component colors. If the stone has been cut properly, every single facet will reflect all of that wonder back into the eye of the observer.

The effect can be almost spiritual. Talking, one day, with a friend(who was Buddhist) about why we loved gems so much, I tried to express the way it made me feel to escape into the soul of a stone—examining it for every detail, hunting down information I could use to determine more about where it had originated and what had happened to it—but especially how I found the rest of the world drift away as I did so, a moment of hyperfocus and peace. She replied, so simply and profoundly, "It's a bit like meditation, isn't it?"

In many gemstones, the power of color is equally important. Caused by complex chemistry and chance physical anomalies in the crystal, these hues are not just natural phenomena in their own right, but psychologically important, conveying timeless meaning and symbolism. The associations of blue stones with heavenly might, reds with fire, blood, and passion, and greens with the colors of nature and rebirth stretch back millennia and remain resonant today. They help to explain why gemstones have been esteemed not just as aesthetic items but as objects that denote power and status, convey religious meaning, and have often been thought to serve a medical purpose.

This is part of what makes the study of gemmology and gem history so fascinating. The flashing fire of the brilliant-cut diamond, the dark pools of the blood-red garnet, and the soothing green of the Colombian emerald do not just reflect and disperse light, engaging and enticing the eye. They also mark a trail of cultural and social significance whose footsteps can be followed from the modern world far back into antiquity.

This book will follow that trail and my own travels down it during nearly twenty-five years in the industry, crossing the world in search of gemstones and their stories—from the mines where they are extracted to the markets in which they are traded, the workshops where they are fashioned, the auction houses where they are tussled over, and the museums and country estates where they come to rest. It will explore the meaning, mystery, and history of ten of the most famous and historic gemstones. Some are closely related whereas others are entirely separate from one another, but all are resonant of how gems have adorned human history.