Bits & Pieces: Hughes Resigns; Schon publishes a new book on Modernism

Hughes Resigns from AGTA

Richard W. Hughes the peripatetic gemologist/author and sometime journalist has handed in his resignation as Gemological Administrator at the AGTA Gemological Testing Center . As of September Hughes will be heading back to Bangkok where he worked for 15 years before moving back to the U. S. For the past several years Hughes has been a lab gemologist with the AGTA-GTC. "I will be working with Loretta Castoro at Gemstv.com Hughes said in a recent interview. (image right: Richard W. Hughes, used with permission)

Hughes is a gemologist well known for his expertise in ruby and sapphire as well as for his outspoken views and freewheeling "take no prisoners" journalistic style also maintains a website: that is an excellent resource for anyone interested in ruby and sapphire.

Hughes burst on the U. S. gem scene in 1997 with the publication of his seminal Ruby and Sapphire. Hughes book is the best most comprehensive, readable and informative book ever written on the subject. It has gone through two editions and is currently out of print. Ruby and Sapphire remains in high demand and with internet prices currently topping $200.00 I asked Hughes when we might expect the revised edition. "When its finished", he said, "don't hold your breath."

Book Review:
Form & Function, American Modernist Jewelry, 1940-1970 by Marbeth Schon
Schiffer Publishing, 2008
$69.95

This is Schon's second book on the topic of modernist jewelry. For those unfamiliar with the genre, the modernist jewelry or wearable art movement might be best understood within the context of a second American Arts & Crafts Movement---a tradition welded together with The Bauhaus and the Beat Generation. It had its birth in both San Francisco and New York in the early 1940s with the formation of The San Francisco Metal Arts Guild and Craftsmen's Equity which was founded in Greenwich Village in the mid-1940s

Most modernists eschewed gold and platinum in favor of less-precious silver and copper and sought to bring back the intimate relationship between the hand-worker and the craft-object. Alexander Calder is, perhaps, the movement's most famous participant. This book, together with Schon's first effort: Modernist Jewelry 1930-1950, The Wearable Arts Movement constitute the only truly comprehensive treatment of this, as yet, unmapped genre.

Schon's latest book puts a face to the names of the members of the movement. The book contains excellent short biographies as well as pictures of the movement's most important personalities; Margaret De Patta, Art Smith, Paul Lobel and Peter Maccarrini as well as dozens of minor practitioners. A section on hallmarks will be of great interest to dealers and collectors. Schon also discusses the philosophical foundations of the movement and her photos depict a broad range of examples of some of the best jewelry produced by its practitioners. Lively and well written, this book is a must have for collectors and dealers interested in jewelry of this period.


With the auction galleries finally waking up to American Modernism as a true home grown art and crafts movement and with artist-jewelers like Smith, Lobel and De Patta and Calder commanding steep prices, these two books are bound to be in great demand.

Both of Marbeth Schon's books are currently available at a discount from Amazon.com. See my carousel (below) for a direct link together with a list of my recommended books..

Take a boat ride across an exotic lagoon. Visit a black pearl farm and learn how black pearls are farmed and graded.

Follow me on gem buying adventures in the pearl farms of Tahiti. Visit the gem fields of Australia and Brazil. 120 carefully selected photographs showing examples of the highest quality gems to educate the eye, including the Rockefeller Sapphire and many more of the world's most famous gems. Consider my book: Secrets Of The Gem Trade, The Connoisseur's Guide To Precious Gemstones.

“Wise is a renowned author... He’s
done a marvelous job of this first book, monumental work, a tour de force...My recommendation: Buy this book”.

Charles Lewton-Brain, Orchid

whether you like to know what the best colour is in Tanzanite, or how to grade a Diamond, you will find it in this book. No other book I read before dealt with this topic is such detail as Richard Wise's masterpiece."

A. Van Acker, FGA
Amazon June 2005

"Secrets Of The Gem Trade: The Connoisseurs Guide To Precious Gemstones by Richard W. Wise is an impressive new reference for dedicated dealers and collectors of gems, gemstones, and ... pearls. Introducing and descriptively exploring each and every gem covered in the easy-to-use reference, Secrets Of The Gem Trade contains an illustrated summary of each stone inclusive of its history and general information, hue and tone, saturation, which may be noticed as the finest, an understanding of the particular gems rarity, and the caution for synthetics and how to depict them, however depending upon the stone there may be description of clarity, color fading, multi-color effect, etc. Secrets Of The Gem Trade is very highly recommended to anyone interested in gemology as a superbly organized, authoritative, comprehensive, and easy-to-follow reference."

Midwest Book Review
April 2006

Only $35.95. Read a couple of chapters online: www.secretsofthegemtrade.com.

Buy it on Amazon: www.amazon.com

The Making of a Masterpiece III

by Richard W. Wise, G.G.

© 2008

Part of the genius of a true artist consists in his ability to transform the mundane into the beautiful. Gem sculptor Tom Munsteiner did just that with this 29.73 carat chunk of citrine quartz. I fell in love with the design and purchased the stone from Tom two years ago. Not having a plan, it sat in my stone box for a year and a half.

Michael Corneau, our lead goldsmith, is a self taught craftsman. He is fascinated with jewelry, but his academic background is in interior and architectural design. He admires the clean moderne lines of the Constructivist tradition as does Tom Munsteiner.

Sculpture cutting had its beginnings in the late 1930s. Metalsmith Margaret De Patta working under the influence of the Constructivist artist Lazlo Moholy-Nagy in collaboration with San Francisco gem cutter Francis J. Sperisen produced the first gem sculptures. Not much happened after these early efforts until the German lapidary artist Berndt Munsteiner, Tom’s father, began cutting asymmetrical gems from high quality tourmaline and garnet rough. Unlike the earlier work, (labeled Opticuts by De Patta), were designed to create an optical fun house effect, reshaping, distorting and creating a sense of movement. (Pictured below, gold brooch by Margaret De Patta set with a Sperisen double lens cut quartz. The stone was purposely cut as a lens to create a distorted and dynamic image which moves and changes shape as the wearer moves. Photo Courtesy: The Dukoff Collection)

Munsteiner paid more attention to the optical qualities inherent in the gem material itself. He created gem sculptures which were alive with brilliance and scintillation. Tom Munsteiner has followed in his father's footstep though his style tends toward a simplified technical vocabulary that stresses the holographic as opposed to the senior Munsteiner's reliance on visual pyrotechnics.

Mike loved the stone.

"Munsteiner’s work is proud, independent and arrogant", he said.

"Take a shot at a design", I said.

Well Mike kept the stone in his box for a couple of months and one day knocked on my office door with a sketch of a pin/pendant. I thought it was an excellent design that integrated the gemstone into a wearable work of art. Somewhere along the line an accent was need. We went back to the stone box and found a beautiful round red Oregon sunstone that melded perfectly with the citrine and gold.

It is interesting how a design conceived in 2008, inspired and influenced by a gem cut in the Constructivist tradition, can produce a concept for a finished piece that sits four square in the same tradition.

Development of a Concept:

Michael began by making a series of models. This is time consuming, but it is fairly standard practice and it us useful to work out technical details before turning to gold. (Picture: below right, 1st on left: a simple cardboard model of the main shape, the second third and fourth models are made of sterling silver. The last model on the right shows the gemstones set roughly in place.) The chief technical problem involved working out the line of the fold in the metal with the edge of the quartz gem sculpture and working out the position of the accent stone. Given the isometric shape of the gem sculpture, this was not easy. The design is subtle and Mike also wanted to get an initial sense of the sort of finish to be used; matte, sanded or perhaps sandblasted.


The Making:

The piece would be hand-fabricated. For those unfamiliar with the method, this is how a true "handmade" piece is actually made. The material is gold sheet, forged, cut and joined. This is quite different from the lost wax process that is used in almost all commercial jewelry. Using wax, It would be impossible to achieve the even lines, crisp edges and sharp angles required and, weight would be a problem in a cast piece.

The hand fabrication begins with rolling gold sheet into the desired thickness and constructing the setting for the stone. The major joining method is soldering. Goldsmiths methods and tools have not changed awfully much over the millenia. Paintings going back 4,000 years, found on the wall of an Egyptian pyramid depict craftsmen using hand tools that can still be found on the goldsmith's workbench.

The laser welder, a tool developed about fifteen years ago, is, perhaps the most important modern edition to the goldsmith's toolbox. This is an expensive machine, but it does permit the craftsman to do pinpoint cold-joining as opposed to soldering which is hot-joining. Laser technology is particularly useful when working close to heat sensitive materials like gemstones. (Pictured right: sections of the piece. In the center is the setting for the sculpture, the main shape is to the left. Note the hole. The sunstone will be invisibly "Gypsy set" from underneath so no setting will be visible.)

Voila; Finished:

Michael decided on a sandblast finish. A good choice. It is restrained and subtle and highlights the details of the work and allows the gemstones to show their full potential.

We decided to maximize the versatility of the piece by making it wearable as either a brooch or a pendant. When used as a brooch, the double pin back is very secure. It allows the wearer to place (pin) the brooch at any angle and on thick as well as thinner fabrics, without tearing the fabric. It will also stabilize the piece when it is worn as a pendant. The pendant bail is placed between the double stems. Specifications: Item #9064LPMS 7.5-2.5cm. (2.75"x1"). 18k gold, Citrene 29.73 carats, sunstone 1.10 carats. Price: $8,995.00. For more information: 800.773.0249 (in the U.S.) or email: richard@rwwise.com

Interested in learning more about the connoisseurship of fine gemstones? Read the book that appraisers, dealers and jewelers rely upon. Secrets of The Gem Trade will provide you with the tools you need to understand and appreciate fine gemstones. Learn the true grading criteria for diamonds, pearls, garnets, ruby, sapphire and opal. All of today's most "precious gemstones".

Read a free chapter online at the Secrets website: or just order it for $35.95 on from Amazon.com

whether you like to know what the best colour is in Tanzanite, or how to grade a Diamond, you will find it in this book. No other book I read before dealt with this topic is such detail as Richard Wise's masterpiece."

A. Van Acker, FGA
Amazon June 2005

The Arcane World of High Priced Gems

by Richard W. Wise

© 2008

“I am showing you this in absolute confidence, you understand Mr. Wise and I am asking you please not to mention this stone to anyone”.

So begins a conversation not unlike many similar conversations I have had over the past few years with dealers who specialize in ultra-rare and very high priced gemstones. The place, Las Vegas 08, the gem an extraordinary, ultra-rare fancy color diamond, the price, somewhere north of 10 million dollars.

Ultra-high-end gemstones exist, are bought and sold in their own world or rather in two contradictory worlds. Remember the Star Trek episode. The Enterprise discovers a new universe that is the flip side of our own, its just the same only everything is backwards. Sound familiar? (pictured above 6.04 carat Fancy vivid blue, internally flawless. Sold: Sotheby's Hong Kong, U.S. $7,981,835.00 world record: 1.3 Million per carat)

Baubles, Bangles and Glitz:

First there is the glitzy universe or world of the auction houses which has become increasingly the venue where the ultra-fine and ultra-rare and therefore ultra-chic are sold and lately a world record price shattered at every auction.

“Ego is out there, these people want to be seen and the item and purchase price are very public.” says Gloria Lieberman, head of the jewelry department at Skinner’s Boston where the dealer/retail buyer mix is currently 60/40. The dealers still bring in more dollars, but the auction houses see the handwriting on the wall. They are directing more and more of their marketing toward consumers. The auction market is becoming increasingly a retail venue.

Burning the Stone; Mum’s the Word:

Then there is the universe of the old-line, high end dealers where discretion is the watch word. Picture richly paneled walls, men in conservative well cut suits floating down silent hallways. The reality may be the rabbit-warren at 580 5th Avenue but, hey, lets maintain the illusion.

“At all costs they avoid burning the stone”, says a prominent dealer, “If the price, even the fact of the stone’s existence becomes too public, some buyers will shy away”. This is known in the trade as burning.

This dealer cites the example of the 76.45 carat Archduke Diamond named for the Austrian Arch Duke Joseph August. Molina a high-end Phoenix Jeweler, made a very public show of owning the stone even allowing singer Celine Dion to wear the Archduke on a TV special. In the dealer's world, this is very bad form. One dealer who was interested in the stone for a client declined to show it once he found out about all the hype surrounding the gem. “Our clients wouldn’t be interested.” The stone had been burned.

Auction prices are “an indication not a guideline of a gem’s value” says Marc Lazar a dealer with a mind boggling inventory of ultra-fine white and fancy color diamonds who has, in the past,bought and sold diamonds at auction. “You have to know the details. Who was the buyer”? asks Lazar. Was it a dealer or a retail buyer with a lot of money who didn’t mind paying a high price. Conversely, warns Lazar, a stone may sell for a low price at auction.

Why would a dealer pay a high price on purpose? As part of a strategy to ratchet up the value of other similar gems he already holds in inventory.

One source has suggested that this is exactly what happened with the record ruby sale in 2006. An 8.67 carat “pigeon’s blood" ruby that sold for $425,000 per carat shattering the world’s record per carat price established just the year before when a 8.01 carat of similar color went for $275,00 per carat to a private Asian buyer. (image above left). Lawrence Graff, perhaps the world's most prominent dealer, bought the second stone. According to my source, he didn’t mind paying the highest price ever paid for a natural ruby because he had several more rubies of similar size in his inventory and a rising market raises all boats (more). The stone has since been reset and modestly renamed The Graff Ruby.

Obviously this sort of wheeling and dealing is not a method you should try at home. As Marc Lazar points out: You must know the market, know the gem, be at the auction and know to whom it sells. Only then are you in a position to decide if the new world's record price is a true indication of the gem's market value.

Tanzanian Spessartite: A New Kid on the Block:

Bored with million dollar gems? In my last postI suggested that the fine Nigerian spessartite was becoming scarce and that prices were rising. A new production of spessartite from Tanzania came on line just last year. As to the color, you be the judge. To my eye the yellow secondary hue is stronger thus diluting the orange making the general run of material from this new source inferior to the best from Nigeria but the two pictured here are certainly worth a second look. The yellow secondary hue being brighter---yellow is the brightest hue---you get a punchy saturation. Much of this new production has eye-visible inclusions, but you will never get run over in a cross-walk wearing one of these beauties. Compare these to the two images in last week's post. and you will see what I am talking about. The good news is, a fine spessartite garnet can be obtained for hundreds per carat not thousand or millions and frankly a fine spessartite will blow the doors off of most fancy color orange diamonds at a fraction of the price.. (5.75 square cushion, 9.4 mm square. 2.26 hexagon, 7.12 x 8.04 mm courtesy GemNut:)

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Interested in learning more about the connoisseurship of fine gemstones? Read the book that appraisers, dealers and jewelers rely upon. Secrets of The Gem Trade will provide you with the tools you need to understand and appreciate fine gemstones. Learn the true grading criteria for diamonds, pearls, garnets, ruby, sapphire and opal. All of today's most "precious gemstones". Read a free chapter online at the Secrets website: or just order it for $35.95 from Amazon.com:

whether you like to know what the best colour is in Tanzanite, or how to grade a Diamond, you will find it in this book. No other book I read before dealt with this topic is such detail as Richard Wise's masterpiece."

A. Van Acker, FGA
Amazon June 2005

Big Type IIa Diamonds Glow at Sotheby's and Christie's

By Richard W. Wise, G.G.

©2008

At a Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels auction held in New York on April 17th, a 24.42 carat D color Internally Flawless diamond sold for 3.6 million or better than $148,443 per carat. One day earlier at Christies another rectangular step cut diamond weighing 27.91 carats (pictured above left) sold for 4.04 Million or $145,933 per carat. In this case the early bird bought at Christies and saved himself $2,510 per carat.

Europeans Paying Big Premiums for type IIa diamonds:

All of the major diamonds in these two sales were the rare type IIa diamonds. Gems of this type are often called “Golconda” diamonds after the famous Indian mines that supplied a majority of the world’s diamonds until they were mined out in the early 18^th Century. Collectors, particularly Europeans are willing to pay high premiums for these rare gems and for good reason.

Most of the world’s big name diamonds, those mined before 1725, the Koh-I-Noor, the Sancy and The Hope diamond came from the fabled diamond mines of India, all are type II diamonds.

Type IIa is a rare type of diamond that contains no measurable amounts of Nitrogen. Nitrogen is the impurity that imparts the yellow color in diamonds. As a result “white” diamonds of this type tend to be colorless (D-F) colors and have few inclusions. (see GemWise: http://gemwiseblogspotcom.blogspot.com/2007/06/golconda-diamond.html)

Type IIa diamonds have unique characteristics. Stones of this type are famous for their exceptional lack of color, a color that goes beyond D and is often called super-D color.

“…the old Golconda stones were by comparison ‘whiter than white.’ Place a Golconda diamond from an old piece of jewelry alongside a modern recently cut D-color diamond, and the purity of the Golconda stone with become evident.”

Benjamin Zucker; Gems & Jewels; A Connoisseur’s Guide

Type IIa diamonds have also been found in Brazil and at South Africa’s Premier Mine. It is estimated that only about 1% of the world’s diamonds are type IIa. The auction houses tend to lump together all type IIa stones, but be warned; not all type IIa diamonds are created equal. It is not enough that a stone fits the scientific definition. A true Golconda or perhaps I should say Golconda-type gem is not only “whiter than white”, diamonds of this type have other characteristics that contribute to their unique beauty, characteristics that sets them apart from the common herd.

Gems of The Finest Water:

Prior to the invention of modern terminology, exceptionally fine diamonds were referred to as “gems of the finest water”. The “term” water goes back to at least the Seventeenth Century. Water combines two concepts; color and transparency. For the purposes of rhyming I have renamed this later quality crystal and include it along with color, clarity and cut as one of the “Four Cs of Connoisseurship”. For a gem to be truly considered fine it must have both exceptional color and crystal so “super-d” too refers to more than just the total absence of color:

“This designation (super-d), one that sounds about as romantic as a name-brand motor oil refers to antique diamonds from India’s legendary Golconda mines---stones that are reputed to exhibit an extraordinary transparency.”

Richard W. Wise; Secrets of The Gem Trade, The Connoisseur’s Guide To Precious Gemstones

The True Blue White Diamonds

Type IIa diamonds have yet another characteristic, one that is not well understood or even well known among gem professionals; under certain conditions the stones will emit a blue glow in daylight.

The mechanism that produces this phenomenon is not well understood but it is not ultra violet fluorescence. About one third of all diamonds fluoresce blue under ultra-violet light. A few of these, diamonds with very high fluorescence, will actually appear milky or foggy, i.e. lose transparency in daylight. Golconda-type IIa diamonds, rarely possess fluorescence in any meaningful degree:

In a paper presented in 1975 at the 15^th International Gemmological Conference, gemologist and author Herbert Tillander made the following observations:

“This type (type II) includes all natural blue diamonds, the only current source of which is the Premier Mine and some really blue-white stones without fluorescence.”

“Type II diamonds in general do not fluoresce although they give a bluish afterglow.”

Herbert Tillander, The Hope Diamond and its Lineage, p. 7

The problem is that the blue glow is quixotic and unreliable; Like the famous green flash at sunset that is sought, usually after a couple of Margaritas, by vacationers to the Caribbean, this phenomenon refuses to dance to the gemologist’s tune.

“Here, in the afterglow of day, we keep our rendezvous beneath the blue
And, in the same and sweet old way I fall in love again as I did then.”

Twilight Time, The Three Suns

My love affair with this curious phenomenon began at about 2:30 one sunny late June afternoon in the Berkshires. A client and I were comparing two 10 carat type IIa diamonds. Both had GIA certificates, one, a modern radiant and the second an Old European that looked like the Regent’s younger sibling. The old cut glowed blue, the modern stone just sat there.

“…the never failing test for correctly ascertaining the water is afforded by taking the stone under a leafy tree and in the green shadow one can easily detect if it is blue.” Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, 1689

The old Golconda diamonds exhibited these three characteristics, ultra-colorlessness, a high degree of transparency and, if Tavernier is to be believed, a delicate blue glow. Tavernier as quoted above bought all his diamonds in India. Given his statement it would seem to follow that in the original meaning of the term, a blue white diamond was not, as most experts believe, a blue fluorescent stone but rather a non-fluorescent Golconda diamond. (pictured left: Jean Baptiste Tavernier discoverer of the Hope Diamond)

“The Regent possesses that unique limpidity characteristic of so many of the finest Indian diamonds together with a beautiful light blue tinge.”

Ian Balfour, Famous Diamonds

Balfour gives the following description of the 135.92 carat Queen of Holland diamond (pictured left)

“Yet there are experts who, after examining it think that the ‘Queen of Holland’ is a typical Golconda stone. It has been classified as an ‘intense blue’: although it is a white diamond it does possesses a definite blue tint, rather like the colour of cigarette smoke. The Gemological Institute of America has graded the ‘Queen of Holland’ as ‘internally flawless’ and ‘D’ colour…”

Ian Balfour, Famous Diamonds

Very little of any information about Golconda diamonds exists in the current or historical literature. This explains why so few experts are aware of Golconda-type IIa diamonds and their characteristic beauty marks. Specialists that I consulted, at both Christies and Sotheby’s, were totally unaware of the phenomenon of the blue glow. Perhaps this is because, in at least some cases, this ethereal phenomenon is, as I have said, quixotic. It only appears under certain as yet indefinable conditions. It can be seen in sunlight and most gem experts, particularly those in New York, don’t get out much and when they do in the polluted haze that hangs over The City, perhaps the phenomenon is not visible at all.

Mystery Solved; A talk with Tom Moses:

This morning I spoke with Tom Moses who is GIA’s point man on grading fancy color diamonds. Finally a living person other than myself who has seen this affect. Moses is indeed familiar with the blue phenomenon which he describes as the Tyndell Effect similar to the affect that makes the sky blue. This same cause was suggested by Fancy Color diamond specialist Stephen Hofer in a conversation I had with him last week.

According to Moses, Type IIa diamonds usually do not fluoresce or if they do, the fluorescence is so weak that it is not reported on GIA’s grading reports. The blue glow is not at all characteristic of a specific location; Moses has seen it is Type IIa diamonds from South Africa, Brazil and Russia. Only a small percentage of type IIa diamonds exhibit this blue glow.

Off To Las Vegas:

Now that I have solved one mystery I'm off to solve another, that is, why would anyone want to visit Sin City. Stay tuned...

Learn The True mysteries of gems.

Follow me on gem buying adventures in the pearl farms of Tahiti. Visit the gem fields of Australia and Brazil. 120 carefully selected photographs showing examples of the highest quality gems to educate the eye, including the Rockefeller Sapphire and many more of the world's most famous gems. Consider my book: Secrets Of The Gem Trade, The Connoisseur's Guide To Precious Gemstones.

“Wise is a renowned author... He’s
done a marvelous job of this first book, monumental work, a tour de force...My recommendation: Buy this book”.

Charles Lewton-Brain, Orchid

whether you like to know what the best colour is in Tanzanite, or how to grade a Diamond, you will find it in this book. No other book I read before dealt with this topic is such detail as Richard Wise's masterpiece."

A. Van Acker, FGA
Amazon June 2005

"Secrets Of The Gem Trade: The Connoisseurs Guide To Precious Gemstones by Richard W. Wise is an impressive new reference for dedicated dealers and collectors of gems, gemstones, and ... pearls. Introducing and descriptively exploring each and every gem covered in the easy-to-use reference, Secrets Of The Gem Trade contains an illustrated summary of each stone inclusive of its history and general information, hue and tone, saturation, which may be noticed as the finest, an understanding of the particular gems rarity, and the caution for synthetics and how to depict them, however depending upon the stone there may be description of clarity, color fading, multi-color effect, etc. Secrets Of The Gem Trade is very highly recommended to anyone interested in gemology as a superbly organized, authoritative, comprehensive, and easy-to-follow reference."

Midwest Book Review
April 2006

Only $35.95. Read a couple of chapters online: www.secretsofthegemtrade.com.

Buy it on Amazon: www.amazon.com