“You could see it halfway across the aisle,” said Jeffrey E. Post, curator in charge of the mineral collection at the National Museum of Natural History, part of the Smithsonian Institution. “It looked like somebody had stuck a battery in it.”
He’s talking about the 15-carat pear-shaped tourmaline, known in the business as Windex blue, and it’s part of a collection called ‘Somewhere in the Rainbow.’
The gemological world is buzzing over the most exciting new collection of the century this far. Its owners are a mystery couple from Phoenix, Arizona and they began collecting 5 years ago, with five exceptional gems. Since then, they’ve been buying up the most incredible stones they can find: aquamarine, pink topaz, spinels in every color, sapphires in every color, rare bicolor topazes and a chrysoberyl stone that changes color from green in daylight to red or mauve under incandescent light.
Here’s a great article in the New York Times.
And this is about to happen.
The diamond and sapphire engagement ring Napoleon Bonaparte presented to his wife-to-be Joséphine in 1796 is set to be auctioned off this weekend. You can see a picture and read a bit more about the ring, the couple and the auction here.
2013 is definitely shaping up to be an exciting year for gems and jewelery. Like us on Facebook, where we’ll be unveiling a myriad of new designs!
Photo: A 9.1-carat Burmese blue sapphire and diamond ring designed and made by the New York City-based Oscar Heyman. Via NYT.
