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 Why do we
adore precious stones? They are mostly loved for the beauty, durability
and uniqueness. The more attractive is the story of the stone, the higher it is
estimated. The similar thing
is with the custom jewelry, whether it is stolen and found ring of the ruler or
the legendary present made by the Russian Empress.
Diamonds
appear to be the reputed stones and there are lots of stories with diamonds
depicted in mass media and history. Thus, the movie Titanic so popular some
time back revealed the story of the diamond Hope which was believed to be a
bloody diamond causing death to the owner. Later it was found in the collection
of precious stones at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural history, the
bloody story came to its end.
The biggest diamond in the world is Cullinan mined in Transvaal,
the British colony and crushed into several gems later by the order of Edward VII.
Two big, seven medium and ninety six smaller diamonds were acquired from the
crush at 3106 carats. The
stones were of incredible purity. The first biggest stone at 530,2 carats is
faceted as a pear and is known as the Great Star of Africa. The second biggest
gem got from the Cullinan stone is Cullinan II or the Lesser Star of Africa, at
317.4 carats. Both stones are found to adorn the Crown of the United Kingdom.
One of the rarest stones is the Black Orlov, cushion cut, 67
carat diamond. The story of
the gem was shrouded in mystery. One of the legends is that once the black
diamond was called The Eye of Brahma to be inserted into the statue in the
vicinity of Pondicherry, India, stolen by a monk. The other
sources state that the diamond was later owned by the Princess Nadejda Orlova
while the third say the diamond was presented by Catherine II to her favourite,
Orlov.
Too exciting
history is with the Kohinoor or Koh-e Noor diamond which has never been sold by
legends. The stone is at 105 carats to be the largest known diamond in the
world. According to an Indian legend, a newborn baby was found at the bank of Yamuna River
with a brilliant diamond at 600 carats in the forehead. Later the diamond was
set into the hole for Shiva’s third eye to carry enlightenment. The chronicles tell
the stone was first mentioned in 1304 with the first wars to start.
Kohinoor
was owned by many people as a war battle trophy or the stolen jewelry and it
was finally seized by the East India Company and became part of the British
Crown Jewels when Queen Victoria
was proclaimed Empress of India in 1877 decreasing the weight to 108,93 carats.
However
interesting is the history of the stones, rare diamonds can boast with such
adventures when we sometimes want something extravagant and unusual. Today we
see lots of color diamonds, elegant alexandrite or the Indian bloody rubies. There
is an option to glitter in graceful jewelry when you boast with rare precious
stones in your jewelry.
Euclase is
attracted collectors and jewelers with the tender blue shade and glassy luster,
though it is too hard to work with this gem. The whole cleavage and fragility
make the processing difficult which contributes to the high value of the gem.
Chrysoberyl and alexandrite attract with rare nature and the mines of these
gems are too rare. Here the natural alexandrite is one of the unique
stones to change the color depending on the light, whether natural or
artificial.
Till up to date these minerals were not under high demand
due to the abundance and the simple technique of artificial stones production,
though they are in again.
Chrysolite called an evening emerald gem in the ancient
times has a tender olive tint, a motley tourmaline, rich amethyst and noble opal
- all refer to the class of precious stones. Unique crystals are mined among
these gems though far rarer than among the diamonds. However, black diamonds were believed to serve
as the engineering stone to be ignored as jewelry. Today rare people refuse
from the contrasting beauty of brilliance and black velvet of the diamond, thus
it is too hard to guess which rare precious stone will be favored by jewelers
in the following season.
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