Weighing 30.82 carats, the Blue Heart  diamond was cut in 1910 and made the rounds of the major jewelry houses for the next half century. Cartier got it first, setting it in a corsage sold to an Argentinian collector. Van Cleef & Arpels then turned it into a pendant in 1953, but Harry Winston landed it six years later and it became the ring you see now.

Ripka went with a fleur de lis sterling setting in her blue topaz spin on this iconic ring. I showed the double version last month. This simpler 12-carat blue topaz with diamond accents retails for $530.

Marjorie Merriweather Post acquired the original from Harry Winston before donating it to the Smithsonian, along with other treasures that inspired made-for-TV spinoffs. The cereal heiress, founder of General Foods and former wife of E.F. Hutton was once the wealthiest woman in America.

Hers is a household name around the nation’s capital. Merriweather Post Pavilion is a popular spot for outdoor concerts and her lavish mansion and its Fabergé collection in northwest Washington is now known as the Hillwood Museum. She’s best know for collecting French and Russian art but also had quite a jewelry stash, including this treasure.

Napoleon commissioned this diadem in 1810 as a wedding gift for Empress Marie Louis. Merriweather Post apparently wore it to parties before handing it over to the museum in 1971. The diadem was originally set with emeralds but Van Cleef & Arpels removed them after acquiring the piece in 1953, selling them off as individual jewels. So much for historic preservation. The emeralds were replaced with turquoise.

It was the current turquoise version of the diadem that inspired this QVC jewelry set with turquoise and white topaz. This ring sells for $78; the earrings are $66.

Related posts:

Wittelsbach-Graff diamond debuts

November birthstone: Topaz

December birthstone: Turquoise

                          

Ellen Barkin wearing JAR-designed earrings of Imperial topaz, rubies and diamonds (Christie's Images)

If you think of gemstones as a brand, the topaz image has been seriously tarnished over the years. It’s hard to remember sometimes that topaz is, among other things, a precious gem with a rich history.

One recent reminder were those now famous JAR-designed Imperial topaz earrings that Ellen Barkin sold at Christie’s in 2006. They resurfaced there in October, selling, once again, for nearly $700,000.

Most of us grew up seeing cheap citrine or glass labeled “topaz” as the November birthstone. Citrine is similar in color to the golden version of topaz but softer, less brilliant, and quite a bit cheaper. Citrine retails for about $20-70/carat, while golden topaz sells for about $190-700/carat.

Then there’s the ubiquitous and ever popular blue topaz. Somehow, finding out that its blue color was caused by radiation took some of the thrill out of it. Until recently, virtually all blue topaz sold in jewelry stores was irradiated, and some deeper blues were actually found to be radioactive by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Sterling silver ring with 15-carat blue topaz with blue and white diamonds designed by Judith Ripka (courtesy QVC)

In the U.S., it’s now required that all blue topaz be tested for radiation levels. Some topaz is also made blue by diffusion – that is, treated with chemicals, then slowly heated. (For more on gem treatments, read the 2010 edition of Antoinette Matlin’s buying guide for colored stones.)

Natural blue topaz does, in fact, exist and can be quite lovely. But treated blue topaz can also be pretty and is far more affordable than other blue gems, at $5-20/carat. If you like it, buy it. Heating, and even mild forms of diffusion, are common treatments with colored stones and accepted in the jewelry trade. But if you’re paying a premium for a natural stone, you might want to get that in writing.

Platinum earrings with pink topaz, morganites and diamonds (AGTA Spectrum Awards)

Judith Ripka’s blue topaz ring (above) is part of the collection QVC introduced in September, inspired by the gem collection at the Smithsonian Institution – in Ripka’s case, the museum’s Blue Heart Diamond.

Less familiar is the beautiful pink version of topaz, which can retail for more than $2,000/carat – pricier even than fine Imperial topaz. A stunning example: these Deco-style danglers (right), by Los Angeles designer Erica Courtney, which won first place in the bridal category at the 2010 AGTA Spectrum Awards.

White topaz is also making a splash lately, as an affordable substitute for diamonds. It shows up in QVC’s Smithsonian-inspired collection as well as Scott Mikolay’s Crown Collection, worn below by actress Brittany Snow.

Related posts:

Back on the block: JAR topaz earrings

Beware: That ruby may be a glass composite

Wittelsbach-Graff diamond debuts

Copal, amber and…copal amber?

                          

Every variety of opal will be up for sale, from fiery orange Mexican to Australian boulder, black and matrix opal, milky-white Russian cacholong opal, even opalized wood. The catalog is a survey of the incredible variety of opal in the world – and the wild creativity it inspires.

There’s even a hat designed around opals, the Deep Blue Sea Hat, a mad concoction of feathers, hand-blocked wool felt, and 26 opals weighing 1,447 carats.

Dive down and have a look.

Inspired by the undersea life of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Australian milliner Ann Maree Willett used opals mined at Lightning Ridge and carved by Daniela L’Abbate and Christine Roussel and set by Gerd Gerold Schulz, using 320 grams of sterling silver and 18-carat gold. ”Never before have so many precious opals, of such size, been assembled into a single item of couture,” said Claudia Florian G.J.G., who is curating the auction. The hat is expected to fetch $150,000-200,000.

Other highlights include…

…this lovely brooch created by Angela Conty of 16.75ct black opal from Lightning Ridge, yellow sapphires, South Seas Keshi pearl, peridot briolettes and freshwater pearls set in 18kt gold (est. $3,500-4,500). Conty carved the opal herself. If you’d like to learn to do this, she teaches workshops.

Shell brooch of carved Russian cacholong opal (a rare, milky variety found only in Russia, near the Caspian Sea) designed by Nicholas Varney with diamonds (colorless, champagne and cognac), fire opals, orange sapphires, and spinels in 18kt gold. Est. $35-45,000.

James Currens won a first place at the 2009 AGTA Spectrum Awards for this boulder opal pendant (34.80 carats) in hand-fabricated, diamond-set platinum mount suspended from a chain of diamonds. Est. $90-110,000.

Necklace of 40 Mexican fire opals and 11.3 carats of diamonds mounted in 18kt gold. Est. $20,000-30,000.

Ring of 27.63-carat black opal in 18kt gold with 22 diamonds. Est. $70-80,000.

The Nature of Opals

Sale Date: November 10, 2010, San Francisco

Los Angeles Preview: October 1-3, 2010 (highlights only)

New York Preview: October 16-18, 2010 (highlights only)

San Francisco Preview: November 6-9, 2010 (Full preview)

All Photos: Courtesy of Bonhams & Butterfields

For more information on the sale, visit their website.

                          

Star of Bombay, 182 carats, bequeathed by Mary Pickford to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History

Rubies and sapphires are actually the same mineral, corundum. Both have long enjoyed favor in high places, appearing in royal jewels since ancient times.

Hindus offered sapphires to the god Krishna so they could be reborn as emperors.

Europeans associated sapphires’ heavenly blue with eternity and believed it would prevent poverty, make a stupid man wise and an irritable one good-natured.

The star sapphire, said to be a spark from the Star of Bethlehem, was particularly coveted, its three crossed rays representing faith, hope and destiny. This one, weighing 182 carats, has to be one of  finest in the world and must be seen to be believed – which you can do at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum.

Here’s another example of that most-coveted shade of sapphire, deep royal blue, this 180.86-carat Ceylon sapphire is surrounded by diamonds – and up for grabs next month if you happen to have a quarter mill to spare. Designed by Mouwad, it’s expected to fetch $250-350,000 at Christi’e Dubai in October.[UPDATE 10/20/10: Make that a mill. The bracelet sold for $932,500.]

A matching pendant/brooch (part of a parure but sold separately) is expected to go fo $180-250,000. [UPDATE 10/27/10: sold for $296,500]

That deep blue is what we associate with the finest, precious sapphire but the gem actually comes in every color of the rainbow – as you can see from this sampling from that world-class collection at the Smithsonian.

Ring of fancy colored sapphires in 18kt gold by Klaus Spies (spiesjewelrydesign.com)

Kashmir and Burma once produced the finest blue sapphires, but the majority these days come from Australia and, most recently, Madagascar.

Slightly paler but still valuable are those from Sri Lanka, the earliest source—along with India—of this historic gem. Small sapphires are being mined in Montana as well.

Etruscans were the first to use sapphires, in the seventh century B.C., and by the Roman era, they were known as the “king” of all gemstones. Easy to see why.

                          

Faceted peridot from San Carlos (photo Tino Hammid)

Charles Vargas is one of the few Apaches born and raised on San Carlos Reservation who left to get a college education and work in the outside world. That experience helped him recognize the treasure he and his tribe had been sitting on for more than a century: peridot.

When I visited the reservation in 1997 with Elana Verbin, then-editor of Colored Stone magazine, Vargas showed us around and told us stories about the peridot he grew up with. His mother remembered playing games as a child with the little green stones scattered around the reservation. No one paid them much attention, although local trading posts would buy them for a few cents on the dollar.

After returning to San Carlos, Vargas began mining peridot and, in 1993, launched Apache Gems. San Carlos has since become one of the world’s primary sources of gem-quality peridot.

When the U.S. government designated a large chunk of central Arizona as an Apache reservation in 1871, they had no idea how mineral-rich it was. Silver and copper were discovered there a few years later and the government began re-appropriating large sections – including the area in nearby Globe where the coveted Sleeping Beauty turquoise is mined.

Some of that land was returned to the reservation in 1972. San Carlos Reservation now covers 1.82 million acres, about half its original size.

A miner with San Carlos peridot (photo Cathleen McCarthy)

Mining on San Carlos is still done primarily by freelancers with pick and hammer. When I took these photos to accompany Elana’s story, the mining operation had just transferred to a new location on Peridot Mesa. A couple local miners were working the side of the canyon with a pick. A few yards away, a mother and her 5-year-old son were picking at the chips with a gardening fork, filling a mason jar and sawed-off Coke can with greenish pebbles that would be tumbled for beads. After a couple hours, she brought the jar to Vargas. He handed her $30 and she left with a smile to buy some groceries.

Charles Vargas buys peridot from a local family in 1997 (photo Cathleen McCarthy)

Vargas told us he encouraged this and tried to get people to come to him directly so outsiders wouldn’t try to scam them, as traders had been doing for generations. Folks on the reservation weren’t looking to get rich, he explained, just to get by. “Gold and gems are not seen as valuable goods but as a loaf of bread or a box of diapers,” he told us.

At the time, tribal elders were worried about losing control of the mine and Vargas was working hard to keep profits on the reservation. A decade ago, when the last census was taken, San Carlos was one of the poorest reservations in the U.S., with almost 59 percent of its residents living below the poverty line. Vargas worried the tribe’s dependence on government subsidies would lead the U.S. to claim some of its mining operation.

Peridot mine on San Carlos Reservation (photo Cathleen McCarthy)

Thirteen years later, Vargas is still running Apache Gems and only members of the San Carlos tribe are allowed to mine Peridot Mesa. You can find Apache Gems jewelry at galleries and museums, including the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Autry National Center in Los Angeles, and the reservation’s own cultural center.

Charles Vargas at his mine on San Carlos Reservation, 1997 (photo Cathleen McCarthy)

Thanks to Vargas, many folks on the San Carlos Reservation are now trained lapidaries with a solid understanding of geology. Yet individual wealth is still not highly valued. “You could tell someone that there’s sapphire over there in that ground and the stones go for $10,000 a carat and they’d say ‘that’s neat,’” he told us.

Sapphire had been found on the property not long before and Vargas was hopeful that more was on the way.  But while many other gems have appeared, including opal and, more recently, fire agate, peridot remains the tribe’s bread and butter.

Peridot Mesa produces mainly small stones with good yellow-green color – the kind that sell for about $97 to $175 per carat these days, according to the latest edition of Antoinette Matlins’ Colored Gemstone. Gem-quality peridot weighing five or more carats is rare and can cost $165 to $275 per carat. I also hear the San Carlos mines are more carefully guarded these days.

So far, so good.

                          

Peridot set in gold with diamond accents by Atelier Zobel (Ladyfingers.com)

First recorded peridot was found as early as 1300 B.C. on Saint John’s, an Egyptian Island in the Red Sea.

It’s said that this green gem was impossible to spot by day but glowed in the dark, so was mined only after nightfall.

Set in gold, peridot was said to achieve its full sun-driven power against the evils of the night.

Next best option, according to Marbodus, Bishop of Rennes: Pierce the peridot, string it on the hair of an ass and tie it to your left arm. Not quite as attractive but cheaper and solid protection against the evil eye.

Peridot pendant of sterling and 18kt gold by Klaus Spies ($790, spiesjewelrydesign.com)

Finest examples of peridot in the world – in deeper greens rarely seen today – originated in ancient Egypt and ended up in the treasures of European cathedrals, after looting during the Crusades. Many were officially labeled “emeralds.”

Most peridot today comes from the San Carlos Indian Reservation in Arizona, but in fairly small stones. Fine-quality peridot in stones five carats or larger is increasingly rare, which has driven up the prices for larger stones.

Peridot, a form of olivine, is just under 7 on the Mohs scale which makes it prone to scratching if not set properly. It’s also one of the few gemstones that aren’t routinely treated; that lime-green color is all natural.

                          

Bulgari ring with 8.62-carat Burmese ruby (Christie's Images)

“When a ruby exceeds five carats, and is perfect, it is sold for whatever is asked for it,” Jean-Baptiste Tavernier wrote in 1676. That’s as true today as it was then.

London jeweler Lawrence Graff, for example, paid $3,637,480 at a 2006 Christie’s auction for this cushion-cut 8.62-carat Burmese ruby ring signed Bulgari, setting a per-carat record. Needless to say, the stone was renamed the “Graff Ruby” within hours.

Natural, untreated rubies are among the rarest and priciest gems in the world – which has led to some hard-to-spot fakes, particularly glass ruby composites. Rubies and sapphires are actually the same mineral, corundum, and both have enjoyed favor in high places since ancient times.

Möbius ring with rubies in 18kt gold (spiesjewelrydesign.com)

Hindus believed rubies stood for heat and sensuality and represented the mighty sun god, Surya. A ruby inserted into the flesh was believed to bring invulnerability in ancient Burma.

1.50-carat ruby set in recycled gold by Chris Nelson

In the 16^th century, Italian gem expert Camillus Leonardus wrote that rubies would preserve their owners’ health, banish evil thoughts, control amorous desires and reconcile arguments.

The darkening of a ruby was considered a bad omen. Catherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII, is said to have predicted her downfall when a cherished ruby appeared to lose its inner fire.

                          

Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, c. 1665

Nothing is more universal and timeless than pearls. Wander through any major art museum and you’ll find them on everyone from maharajahs to lowly servants. There’s Rembrandt’s “Weighing of Pearls,” Vermeer’s “Girl with a Pearl Earring”—which inspired a Hollywood movie—and nary a portrait of Queen Elizabeth where she isn’t dripping with them.

Leonardo da Vinci even had his own recipe for making a small pearl into a large fake, according to Promethean Ambitions: Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature: Dissolve the pearl in lemon juice, dry the paste into a powder, mix it with egg white, let it harden, then grind and polish.

It’s partly pearls’ timeless beauty and partly their rich history that makes them so desirable—and so much fun to mess with. Oysters are still making them, albeit usually in a more controlled environment. They still contain all the beauty and luster that once caused people to risk their lives diving for them and rulers to pass laws restricting them to the noble classes. But now they’re available in prices and quantities even commoners can afford.

Nest brooch of 18kt gold, Tahitian and South Sea pearls, and diamonds by Sam Shaw ($2900, shawjewelry.com)

All of which allows designers to work not only with the beauty of a pearl but its age-old associations as well. Pearls offer a way to honor tradition and turn it on its head at the same time—a very contemporary motivation. Still, ask even the most innovative designers why they work with pearls and they say what jewelry makers have probably said for two thousand years: “I love pearls.”

What magic is in a pearl that causes jewelry designers to lapse into rhapsodic praise? Asked why they favor pearls, everyone I spoke to used the words “love,” “luscious” and “beauty” in the first five minutes. Sam Shaw added “sensual” and “fabulous.” More than one—both male and female—describe the pearl’s attraction as feminine in nature.

Necklack of sterling, pearl and concrete by Frances Smersh (smershdesign.com)

For studio jewelers, odd-shaped pearls provide bulk, luster and exquisite color at a fraction of the cost of a perfect round. Such pearls are often labeled rejects and priced accordingly. After all, what’s a production jeweler going to do with a pearl shaped like a lightbulb or a science project gone awry? At the very least, calibrated settings are out.

But one-of-a-kind designers can design a piece around the odd shape, making it the focal point. That’s not exactly a new idea. Renaissance jewelers were famous for building elaborate and bizarre pendants—mermen, dragons and ships—around giant blobby masses of baroque pearl.

Pendant of glass, silver, enamel, gold and baroque pearl by René Lalique, c. 1898 (Gulbenkian Museum)

Later, Art Nouveau jewelers found asymmetrical pearls suited their organic themes. German designers built ornate butterflies around lumpy masses of nacre, while Tiffany and the French designers transformed oblong pearls into graceful flower petals, seed pods and the bodies of dragonflies.

Today’s designers use pearls in a similar way, either building a piece around an unusual shape or taking advantage of their luster and spherical form. Pearls still serve as both accent and centerpiece. But unlike in centuries past, they’re more likely to embellish jewelry that reflects contemporary art, with more references to science and abstract form than Lalique & co.

While traditional pearl jewelry still holds its allure, designer Frances Smersh points out that less conventional combinations can have a bigger impact. “Expanding what people do with pearls gives the pearl itself a little boost,” says Smersh, who tends to set them in concrete. “They’re not just your grandmother’s string of pearls. What we’re doing as designers is, in essence, continuing the history, embellishing and renewing interest in pearls.”

                          

Julianne Moore wearing Bulgari emerald earrings at the Golden Globes in January, the ones from the ad (below) now covering a wall of Bulgari's Fifth Avenue flagship store (below).

This has been the year of the red-carpet emerald – especially big teardrop-shaped rocks dangling from the ears. Awards shows haven’t seen so much green bling since Liz Taylor reigned supreme.

Few stones embody the idea of sensual luxury like the emerald. Emerald’s earliest champion was Cleopatra, whose mines produced many famous jewels.

Emerald is actually the rare green form of beryl, long believed to be the most powerful curative in the gem kingdom, for heart and spirit as well as body. In ancient Rome, emeralds were dedicated to Venus and believed to bestow faithfulness and undying love.

Spanish Inquisition necklace (Smithsonian Institution)

After the Spaniards invaded the Americas in the 16^th century, Colombian emeralds became known as the finest in the world. Egyptian emeralds pale beside Colombian ones, which were traded throughout Central and South America for three centuries before the conquistadors stumbled onto them. Spain took over the Indian-run mines and the luscious stones soon found their way to European and Indian nobility.

You’ll find an impressive example of this era of emerald history at the Smithsonian Institute: the Spanish Inquisition necklace sports some of the finest emeralds from the original Muzo and Chivor mines in Colombia, cut in India in the 17^th century. After making its way through the Spanish and French royalty, the necklace was bought by Harry Winston from the Maharaja’s son in 1947. Katherine Hepburn wore it to the Oscars that year. Elizabeth Taylor also has some of the world’s most spectacular emerald jewels, mostly given her by Richard Burton and designed by Bulgari.

Angelina Jolie in 115-carat emerald teardrop earrings by Lorraine Schwartz at the 2009 Oscars

Amazingly, even after centuries of active mining, Colombia remains the world’s most important source of emeralds. About 100 emerald mines remain in operation there and continue to produce sizable, vivid green gems. A surprising new source of emeralds was discovered in North Carolina a few years ago. Only a few pockets have been found so far but they’ve yielded stones as fine as most Brazilian emeralds—and just as expensive.

Formed in volatile geological conditions, emeralds are usually full of tiny stress fractures. Emerald is actually quite hard but its flaws make it brittle and easy to crack. In fact, flawless emeralds are so rare they are usually assumed to be fake; inclusions have come to be prized as evidence of the genuine article. It’s common practice to “oil” emeralds in order to enhance the color and disguise flaws.

Be careful with emeralds in cold climates and avoid storing them in-ground safes. Low temperatures can cause thermo-shock to opals and emeralds.

                          

Raw diamond set in hand-forged 18kt gold ring by Todd Reed ($5,500, toddreed.com)

Diamonds in ancient jewelry are almost unrecognizable today. Because they resisted jewelers’ blades, only uncut crystals were set in medieval jewelry and frequently appear dull and black.

Yet few stones could match the legendary powers of a diamond, from betrothal to battlefield.

Ancient civilizations believed the diamond provided invincible strength, fortitude, courage and victory, making it the talisman of choice for warriors.

A flawless diamond was considered the ultimate protector, said to ward off serpents and evil spirits, fire and flood, poison, illness and thieves. But a flawed diamond could backfire, setting off the god Indra and bringing on lameness, jaundice or leprosy.

“The diamond, like a knight of old, brilliant and resistant, is the emblem of fearlessness and invincibility,” George Frederick Kunz wrote in The Curious Lore of Precious Stones, first published in 1913.

Diamond ring by Todd Reed (toddreed.com)

“The virtues attributed to this stone are nearly all traceable either to its unconquerable hardness or to its transparency and purity,” Kunz wrote. Indeed, diamonds were believed to represent eternity, constancy and purity – and enhance love between husband and wife.

But Hindus believed diamond power varied according to color and clarity. Colorless diamonds brought power, friends, riches and luck, while brown diamonds prevented aging.

So jewelry set with both – like this ring by Todd Reed – would render you wealthy, powerful, happily married, and eternally young. And people wonder how diamonds became so popular.

Moebius diamond earrings by Klaus Spies (Spies Jewelry Design)