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Emeralds of the World - The Legendary Green Beryl
The Mineralogical Record, Mar/Apr 2003
In our July/August 2002 issue, Wendell Wilson favorably reviewed Madagascar, a Mineral and Gemstone Paradise—the first of a projected series of English-language editions of the popular, eye-pleasing ExtraLapis publications, of which there have been 20 German-language numbers so far. Emeralds of the World is the second magazine-format book in the English series; the third, on the tourmaline group, is now in print as well. Thanks to the editorial efforts of Günther Neumeier and Gloria Staebler of Lapis International, assisted in the U.S. by Gloria Fast, it appears that the project of Englishing these German works on some of the sexiest of mineralogical subjects is progressing smoothly. English readers should be grateful for what have so far been smooth, nearly faultless translations of articles written originally in German—for Emeralds the translators are Alfredo Petrov and Günther Neumeier.
Predictable though it might be to say so, this book is full of very beautiful color photographs: not only of many of the world’s finest emerald specimens, but also of faceted emerald gems, jewelry and emerald objets d’art; historical/archeological treasures (my favorite: a 1st-century B.C. bracelet made of emeralds from the ancient Cleopatra’s Mines in Egypt); panoramas and geologically informative close-up shots of collecting sites at famous localities; miners at work; photomicrographs of inclusions and structural features of natural and synthetic emeralds; and more. There are also plenty of maps, crystal drawings, geologic sketches, photographs of beryl crystals of other colors besides chromium-green, and other sorts of visuals. In short, the ExtraLapis tradition of providing feasts for readers’ eyes is strongly maintained here.
A surf through the chapter topics discovers the following wavecrests: the history of emerald lore; great cut emeralds on display in the world’s museums; the mineralogy of beryl; the varying geologies of emerald deposits; a survey of world occurrences; separate chapters on emerald localities in Colombia, Brazil, Africa, Asia and the U.S.; the gemology of emerald; varying operative definitions of “emerald”; treatment of emerald specimens; mineral specimen enhancement (by Marc Wilson: an especially valuable chapter for mineral collectors generally); synthetic emeralds; pricing of emerald gemstones; and the “emerald cut.” A general bibliography contains 94 titles. Oh yes, and the whole work is graciously dedicated to John Sinkankas, who was part of its editorial team right up to the time of his death last year.
Each chapter is by a different author or team of authors, and (with the exception of the survey of world occurrences) they are all quite short, i.e. only about 3 pages long on the average. As there is considerable overlap in the topics, the book as a whole reads in a satisfyingly unified, fine-grained way; the only bothersome thing is that there are small inconsistencies and contradictions between some locality data in the worldwide survey vs. the more detailed data in chapters on individual localities. But for more subjective subtopics, such as the old debate about how the term “emerald” should be applied, the effect is of an ongoing discussion: the chapter “What is Emerald?” lets us hear from proponents of the “market” definition (an emerald is what a gemstone merchant sells by that name) and scientifically based definitions (an emerald is a beryl colored some shade of green by trace chromium and/or vanadium ions). The feel of the book is that of an intelligent, caring, informal seminar on every conceivable emerald-related topic. The authors of the scientifically oriented articles assume that readers already have some basic knowledge of crystal chemistry, ion-absorption spectroscopy, geochemistry, geology and even price structures on the gemstone market. To the extent that the book is more “technical” than its predecessor on Madagascar, it is an improvement, as it is not yet “too” technical for its targeted readership of devoted-amateur smaragdophiles.
To say that the $25 price of this beautiful little book is “reasonable” is to belabor the obvious.
-Thomas P. Moore
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The Canadian Mineralogist
In this second issue of extraLapis English, leading researchers provide insights into diverse intriguing aspects of the world of emeralds. Thanks to the late John Sinkankas, who was prevailed upon to assist in editing this volume, and to whom this issue is dedicated, the stamp of perfection id patently evident. In consequence, a very high standard indeed has been established with this publication.
The first 78 pages of Emeralds of the World provide an informative and elegant account of: etymology (Christa Behmenberg), museum pieces (Zak Swartz),mineralogy (Rupert Hochleitner), origin (Dietmar Schwarz, Gaston Giuliani, Guenter Grundmann and Maximilian Glas), notes on global occurrences, including Australia and Europe (Guenter Grundmann and Gaston Giuliani), Columbian, Brazilian and Asian emeralds (Dietmer Schwarz and Gaston Giuliani), African emeralds (Jan Kanis and Dietmer Schwarz), and American emeralds (Michael Wise). The last 20 pages deal with gemology (Dietmar Schwarz), defining emerald (see below), the age-old gemstone topic of emerald treatment (Lore Kiefert), the four R’s of mineral specimen enhancement (Marc L.Wilson), emerald synthesis (Karl Schmetzer), the complex issue of emerald pricing (Marisa Zachovay), and a brief note on the “cut” named for emerald (Patricia and Michael Gray).
According to Emeralds of the World (p. 22), it matters not if you disagree with the Gemological institute of America’s definition of emerald as “...a variety of the mineral beryl (Be3Al2Si6O18), which has the following characteristics: light to very dark green strongly bluish green to slight yellowish green. Stones with a color too light, desaturated, or yellowish to be called emerald would be considered green beryl”. It seems that other experts, among them New York specimen dealer Laurence H. Conklin, Dietmar Schwarz of Switzerland, and Karl Schmetzer, Germany, likewise consider that definition impractical, and correspondingly provide alternative perspectives. It seems that the ultimate responsibility for deciding whether a particular beryl is an emerald rests with the individual. Empirically, it seems the there is no way to satisfactorily measure the definitive color saturation.
Impossible as it has been for this reviewer to select highlights of this volume, the collector approach (based on their appearances) to the classification of emerald deposits, with geological profiles sketched and described by Guenter Grundmann (p. 22-65), provides an invaluable centerpiece. As a result, Emeralds of the World provides a spectacular abbreviated glossary of many of the world’s significant emerald-producing deposits. These include, of course, selected localities in Columbia (with 60% of the worlds market, still the top producer), Brazil, Africa (Egypt, Nigeria, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Madagascar), Asia (Pakistan, Afghanistan, and India) and, last but not least, emeralds of North Carolina, U.S.A.
With 20% of the world’s production, Africa ranks as the world’s second richest emerald-producing continent, this despite unstable political and economic situations in countries like Madagascar, Zambia and Zimbabwe. I was interested to learn that’s emeralds from Sandawana mine, Zimbabwe at 2.6 billion years of age, are among the oldest known. In Zimbabwe, the type of mineralization falls into the category of “pegmatite and Greisen with Schist”; more specifically, the emeralds occur in pegmatites and phlogopite schist. Younger by far are the emerald localities of Columbia, where apparently 135 Ma ago an inland sea engulfed what are the present-day emerald districts of Columbia. These types of deposits fall into the category of “Black Shales with Veins and Breccias.” The presence here of emerald in bugs together with carbonates, pyrite and albite obviously stands in strong contrast to Zimbabwe emerald. To suggest that Columbian emerald has a special character would be a classic understatement. Further to the numerous gemological features that distinguish Columbian emerald, it seems that in at least one district, emerald occurs in a black shale horizon as pseudomorphs of calcite gastropod shells. Seeing is believing! At least as remarkable is the fact that since the Spanish conquest, there evidently have been only a few insignificant new deposits discovered. Stated otherwise, the nearly 200 emerald localities in Columbia were practically all known well before the 16th century conquest.
In relation to almost any other mineral species, emerald, whether Columbian or not, is the most expensive stone, a result perhaps of simple supply and demand. This “king” of the beryl family forms under totally different conditions than other varieties of beryl. Nor, by comparison with other types of beryl, are emeralds particularly noteworthy for size. However, in price they are right up there with the finest colorless diamond, for a superior-quality emerald may exceed US $15,000 per carat (200 mg of stone). Marisa Zachovay reports that the highest price ever paid for an emerald was at Christie’s in Hong Kong on May 2, 2000, when US $1,149,850 was paid for a 10.11 carat Columbian stone set in a ring. Bigger in this case is obviously better, and green is glorious. Pliny had it right over 2000 years ago when he promoted emerald-green as the most beautiful color of all Across the pond, Cleopatra doubtless echoed his sentiments, for Egypt’s western desert, some of the earliest emerald mining is believed to have taken place. Indeed, since prehistoric times, emerald seems to have been one of the most highly valued gemstones.
Emeralds of the World is thoroughly delightful read. Unbelievably easy on the eyes, it scores on all counts: indexing, layout, presentation, text, illustrations and referencing. This is a valuable collector’s issue. All things considered, extraLapis 2 is a beautifully packaged and richly balanced work of art.
-David Mossman
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