One of the globe’s largest cut emeralds, a 2,680-carat vessel, is housed in the Imperial Treasury in Vienna, Austria, while, states Ball, “the Crown Jewels of Persia (Iran) probably contain the single most exquisite collection of fine emerald jewelry in the world.” Emeralds were desired for other virtues. So, too, are royal palaces, where large gemstones and crown jewels are displayed to demonstrate the rulers’ imperial power and wealth. He recognized the essential fundamentals of modern gem valuation.” The prominent shrines of the Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, Buddhist and Brahminic faiths are treasure houses of beautiful gems, with the emerald in considerable demand for ecclesiastical use because the stone is said to symbolize faith, wrote Ball. ranked the gems as follows: emerald, diamond, ruby and sapphire.
Ball, who wrote, “The earliest satisfactory gem prices are those of the Arabian mineralogist, Teifaschi, who in 1150 A.D.
In 1935, Economic Geology published a scholarly study of gem prices by Sydney H. The Queen of the Nile famously adorned herself with the precious gems, though some of the jewels could have been peridot or other green gemstones.Įmeralds have long been counted among the most valuable gemstones in the world, included in the “Big Four” in precious gems along with diamonds, rubies and sapphires. According to the books Emeralds and Other Beryls by John Sinkankas and Emeralds by Fred Ward, the rough stones from Egyptian mines were poor in quality and small in size.īefore Elizabeth Taylor (whose emerald suite of jewelry fetched $16 million at a Christie’s auction last fall), there was Cleopatra. The Greeks worked the emerald mines in upper Egypt during the reign of Alexander the Great, who conquered the land of the pharaohs in 331 B.C., seizing control from the Persians. A few sources state that mummies were buried with emeralds, which symbolized eternal life or rebirth. Some cultures used the word for emerald to refer to other green-colored stones as well. The earliest documentation of emeralds dates back to ancient Egypt, where the gemstones were mined as early as 2000 B.C., surmises the Encylopædia Britannica, though it and other sources acknowledge the difficulty in estimating dates due to numerous terms for emeralds. And before every excursion, there’s a stop at the store for refreshments: green Gatorade. And should the miners visit any other site than “Mama Crabtree,” they dare not mention its name in her presence, lest she grow green-not with emeralds, but with envy-and hide her crystals from view. First, when one finds a hole, stay in it, and don’t let others dig there. Gem collectors undertake a number of measures to ensure that Lady Luck comes along. The two “weekend warriors” came searching for gems of all kinds, but especially emeralds, which are rarer and, when of exceptional quality, more valuable than diamonds. “Very superstitious,” remarked Tony Elwood of Charlotte, who spent a late winter Sunday at the Crabtree Emerald Mine in Little Switzerland, N.C., along with his pal Mike Ruff. Rockhounds, they say, are a superstitious lot.
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