Magazine / Precious stones / Emerald
Magazine / Precious stones / Emerald
The jewelries with the Emerald Green transmit harmony and love for the nature, an instinctive and primordial joy of living in the world.
The emeralds possess a unique color, unduplicatable, fresh and vital which never appears monotonous; besides it doesn't tire: "The Green is pleasant for the eye without tiring it", wrote Plinio.
The "emerald" name can be considered deriving from the Greek "smaragdos", which means "green gem". The emeralds are in fact holder of the most brilliant and profound green one could imagine, and from here derive their precious charm.
The Incas and the Aztecs of South America considered them saintly stones. Testimonies of jewelries with the green stones come from the Red Sea and from Egyptian Pharaohs, around 2000 B.C.
The Hinduism sacred writings of several centuries ago talk about the value and about the healer power of the green gems. "The Emeralds promise fortune", or "The Emerald improves your wellbeing".
The Emerald Green is the color of the life, of the spring which always return. Already the Romans associated the green to the beauty and to the love, to Venus. Today several cultures and religions assign to the green a special value.
Great was the commerce of the green stones between Romans and Egiptians; to these fascinating stones were assigned divinatory powers from both the cultures. Aart from for their beauty, the emeralds were researched to augur fertility and magic powers, among which some connected with sight improvement.
Today emerald roots are utilized in crystaltherapy: even some contemporary theories assign therefore to it medicinal properties.
With regard to the optical properties we know that Nerone was used to assist at the games looking throw emerald lenses: maybe because the green rests the sight, but we can not exclude that the particular cut of those lenses corrected the myopia (for a probably casual effect). Nerone was often imitated, his eyeglasses are passed to history and they are one of the basis of modern eyeglasses.
Each emerald tells the geological history of the land from which it comes.
Beryllium and aluminium silicates as other precious stones, the emeralds acquire their characteristic color from chrome, vanadium and iron tracks leaved in a tectonics process at very high pressure happened 65 millions of years ago.
We find several green tonalities, from the unattainable emerald green to the yellow greens, clear greens and dark greens; they can be either transparent or opaque. At UV rays one can note red fluorescence.
The cut of the emeralds is very important for their appearance and it must be executed with maestery. In jewelry exists the characteristic faceted "emerald cut", but we can have also every other shape from the round to the rectangular.
The reached hardness is 7,5 - 8.
Inclusions and fissures in an emerald are accepted from the market, not at all they can be natural adornments and increase its value; in this case they are called "garden" by experts, as in affection sign.
They can contain solid, liquid or gaseous phases, and they tell us a lot about the formation history of the stone.
Several emeralds treatments are commercially diffused, with oils (cedar oil) or resins to improve the color tonality or to mask defects.
The emerald is a capricious stone which ask for great working and setting expertness. Unexpert treatments can sensibly damage the appearance. For example, cut and other workings can bring spurious substances over superficial microcavities; wrong successive cleanings can remove those added substances, causing opacity.
The value of an emerald increase with the dimensions and purity, because these go at the same pace with rarity. At high levels an emerald has price higher than that of a diamond with same dimensions and weight.
One of the greatest emeralds in the world is the "Mogul". It comes from 1965, of 217 carat and 10 cm tall; there are engraved prayers and floral ornamentations. Knocked down for 2,2 millions dollars.
Museal collections have emeralds that arrive near 1800 carat.
It is frequent to meet with imitations or syntheticals, or even with stones repaired for example with stickings, paints or plastic coverings.
It results so important to pay attention in the purchases; even "treated" emeralds can be fine, but is right to pay each gem for what it is worth.
Colombia is the country where are the most pure and valuable emeralds for the jewelry; with the most intense and precise green, without bluish tints.
Other important producer zones are Zambia, Zimbabwe, Brazil.
For the important purchases is advisable to address confidence or certificated sellers. In the doubt cases to observe an emerald at the UV light can unmask the adhesive.
More sophisticated gemmology methods can examine the authenticity of the emeralds: from visual examinations to the use of polariscope, refractometer, spectroscope and microscope; to the EMPA and SIMS analysis which provide the absolute certainty of the chemical composition of a mineral.
Keep the emerald inside ambits separate from other stones of similar or greater hardness, to avoid damagings. Do not wear it during the work and do not apply to it sudden temperature changes. Avoid the cleaning with ultrasounds.
Choose small emeralds to have vivacious color notes; large, superior to carat, to can fully taste the tint profundity.
