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 Emerald is
the fascinating stone to amaze and evoke admiration. They look so stunning to
touch and feel the brightness of greenery frozen in the gem. Emerald is the
only precious stone that is capable to radiate with such a juicy saturated
color. It is the stone of Gods and magicians, that of Emperors’ and healers’. Throughout
many centuries emerald is the most wanted stuff preferred by jewelers. Museums
have emerald marvelous jewels exhibited shaped as pharaohs and empresses,
luxury items of padishahs and sultans, so delicate and stylish to belong to the
elite. Today jewelry houses suggest attention-grabbing and exclusive jewels luxuriously
and dexterously incrusted with precious emeralds.
Emeralds
through centuries
The Greek word
«smaragdos» stands for precious green stone. Some kinds of emeralds mined in Pakistan are
aged as nine million years old. However, the first emeralds were developed in
the third millennium B.C. in the area of the Red Sea in Egypt. The
precious stone was much liked and during the reign of Sesostris III pharaoh mining
of emerald was put to practice. Further, those minefields were called The
Cleopatra Mines. The workers had to work «by touch» without a glimpse of light
in the depth of 200 meters under the ground since emeralds were afraid of the
daylight, as the legend says.
Over centuries
emeralds were used as the critical part of jewels and the stone was
considered
magic to bring good luck, good totals and quick recovery. The tribes
living in the territory of the South America found the emerald sacred.
As the stories of
the Spanish conquerors tell, the unique emerald weighing around three kg
was
kept in one of temples of the divine Umina. Nevertheless, the Indian
priests concealed
that noble stone from aliens.
Columbia is the country known for the high
quality emeralds of the rich green shades where emerald mining is performed for
many centuries. In Bogotá, in the Capital Bank, there is a luxury collection of
emeralds containing the most expensive stones weighing from 220 to 1796 carats
as well as unique Columbian stones aka Trapiche emeralds presented as the Star
of David of darker color put into the emerald shell.
Emeralds exert
a pull on every single person especially royal family members which is
quite reasonable:
the stone of juicy rich green color without any defects weighing over 5
carats is
appreciated higher than any diamond. So, the Iranian Empress Fera owned a
tiara
incrusted with only emeralds, and Djahangir, the Emperor, used to
possess a goblet
hewed from the emerald monolith. Today that goblet is kept in the
National Museum of Natural History next to The Patricia Emerald, the
Columbian emerald of 632 carats which is exceedingly rare. Due to its
form and
size, Patricia is one of the world's greatest emeralds. It is
dihexagonal, or
twelve-sided.
Most expensive and unique emeralds
The biggest
emerald was mined in Brazil
in 1974 weighing a little bit over 86 thousand carats. In 1982 the jeweler from
Hong-Kong, Richard Chen, managed to facet it and after that the stone is
estimated as for 718 thousand pounds sterling.
The jewelry
brand Cartier at Sotheby’s put to auction emerald jewels twice to distinguish.
First, in 1987, a ring of 1958 was sold to an unknown person with a
mono-crystal of emerald weighing 19.77 carats and the diamond for the amount
over 2.125 mln US Dollars. In 1989 a necklace made from white precious metal
incrusted with twelve emeralds of 108.74 carats and clear diamonds was sold for
3.080 mln US Dollars. The jewelers made the jewel in 1937.
The most
interesting in appearance is the Mogul Emerald dating from 1695, weighing
217.80 carats, and some 10 cm tall. The emerald is unique for the graving on
the upper panel as the pray with the floral pattern on the lower panel of
incredible accuracy and beauty. The auction house Christie’s sold the emerald in
2001 for 2.200 mln US Dollars.
The Emerald
Buddha is kept at the Thailand
temple made in emerald of 3600 carats found on Madagascar Island
in 1994. The King Rama I caused to make two seasonal costumes for the Emerald
Buddha, one for summer and one for rainy season. King Rama III made a costume
for the winter season. The costumes are changed by the King three times a year.
Designer
jewelry with emeralds
Emerald
falls into the category of precious stones to have a good rigidity and quite
labor-consuming faceting process. Jewelers use the special cutting called «emerald»
which allows fully reveal the stone to resist mechanical injuries. When there are
lots of inclusions in the emerald, «cabochon» faceting is applied when the
stone is shaped as the smooth salient half-sphere without edges.
The reputed
Chopard jewelry house made a variety of accessories with emerald. So, luxury necklace
from Haute Joaillerie Collection is particular for devotees of precious stones.
The gorget made from the white noble metal incrusted with the best emeralds
from Columbia
of 191 carats and pear-faceted white diamonds weighing 16 carats. The combination
of juicy «greenery» and shine of «morning dew» is estimated as 3 mln US Dollars.
The chocker necklaces resembling dog collars are also presented in this
collection. The «collar» made as the blend of green emeralds and shining
diamonds weighing 150 carats or the loop necklace incrusted with diamonds with
the heart-shaped pendant hewn from the whole emerald of 128.59 carats. All these
jewels are from the general Red Carpet Collection and thus, worth to be
demonstrated at red carpet show. They are made in limited edition of 25 items a
year priced as from 100 thousand Euros.
Alena
Gorchakova brand owned by the Russian designer Alena Gorchakova makes exclusive
jewels with emeralds made by patterns known to the Russians mainly. So, the Berezki
Collection offers tiny copies of the emerald leaves of the birch highlighted
with the white gold incrusted with black diamonds. The theme of floristic is
demonstrated by Boucheron and Dior jewelers. They show floral elements in their
collections made from white and yellow gold incrusted with emeralds, sapphires
and diamonds, garnets and tanzanites.
Celebrity jewels
Elizabeth
Taylor has started to collect precious jewels with her emerald brooch gifted to
her by Richard Burton, her fiancé, at the date of engagement. As the wedding gift
she enjoyed having an emerald necklace followed by the ring, bracelet and
earrings incrusted with emeralds.
Precious
emeralds by Van Cleef & Arpels' are mined in Columbia. The legendary celebrities as Maria
Callas, Marlene Dietrich and Grace Kelly Such admired the accessories of this
brand. Julia Roberts appeared several times at the red carpet wearing Van Cleef
& Arpels' jewelry with emeralds. Angelina Jolie was noticed wearing a pair
of incredible emerald earrings and a ring at the ceremony of Oscar Award which favorably
accentuated her beauty.
Emeralds are
delighted for their exclusive lively hue. Emerald jewels kowtow to any delicate
radiating with green hue never yield to diamonds since not any fancy diamond
can boast with such a luscious deep color and get in harmony with adjoining
stones.
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