Bracelet (left) of amethysts and emeralds, c. 1937, by René Boivin, and two by Suzanne Belperron of amethysts, tourmalines and kunzite (center) and tourmalines, emeralds and peridot (Christie's Images)

[Update 11/27/11: René Boivin bracelet on the left sold for $245,756, more than expected, but Suzanne Belperron's design with green stones, far right, sold for $330,980, a record price for a Belperron bracelet and more than double the estimate. Further proof that Belperron's reputation is continuing to grow, along with the value of her jewelry.]

Bracelet on the left was designed by Juliette Moutard of Boivin around the time Suzanne Belperron created the two on the right. Moutard took over as chief designer at Boivin in 1931, the  year Belperron went out on her own, having working for Boivin since 1921. The bracelets have the characteristic bold, geometric style and unconventional materials for which the house of René Boivin became famous under Jeanne Boivin.

Suzanne Belperron and Juliette Moutard of the René Boivin were both rising design stars in the decade before World War II, after which gold and lavish gems became difficult, if not impossible, to come by – especially in occupied Paris.

Their bracelets show how similarly the two women were designing at the time, even though Belperron had left Boivin several years before. Like Moutard, Belperron’s career was launched by Jeanne Boivin, who took over the firm after her husband’s death in 1917 and continued his legacy for bold innovation. Even though the Boivin jewels created in the following decades carry his name, what you’re really seeing, for the most part, is the collective, creative genius of a small group of women.

One of the bracelets by Belperron (center) is made with amethysts, tourmalines and kunzite; the other (right) has tourmalines, emeralds, and peridot. Each is estimated to sell at Christie’s Paris on November 24 for $110,000 to $165,000. (For more about upcoming jewelry auctions, visit our auction calendar.) The Boivin bracelet is expected to bring a bit more ($137,600 to $206,400). Here’s a closer look at that one:

Gold bracelet with amethysts and emeralds by René Boivin, late 1930s (Christie's Images)

Soon after designing this piece, Juliette Moutard would abandon bold, geometric work for a more naturalistic style. Unlike Belperron, who went out on her own, Moutard stayed with Boivin for the rest of her career, well into the 1970s. Boivin’s daughter Germaine joined the firm as a designer in 1938 and took over running the company after her mother retired.

Related posts:

Women who paved the way: Jeanne Poiret Boivin

Women who paved the way: Suzanne Belperron

Women who paved the way: Jeanne Toussaint of Cartier

Jewelry & watch auctions 2011

Related products: (Buying from links on this site doesn’t cost you extra but does add a few pennies to the maintenance of this blog.)

                          

Anna Torv wearing Lorraine Schwartz earrings with more than 80 carats of carved rubies at 2011 Emmy Awards

Sofia Vergara wearing Lorraine Schwartz emerald-and-diamond earrings at 2011 Emmy Awards

Aubrey Plaza wearing Lorraine Schwartz diamond cuffs and 20-carat diamond drop earrings at 2011 Emmy Awards

Elisabeth Moss in Lorraine Schwartz bronze champagne diamond earrings (and bronzed platinum diamond ring) at 2011 Emmy Awards

For the grand finale, when was the last time you saw fire opal mixed with amethyst on the red carpet – in an over-sized matching floral set? It took Heidi Klum to pull that one off:

Heidi Klum wearing Lorraine Schwartz floral earrings of fire opal, amethyst and diamonds at 2011 Emmy Awards and...

...her matching floral ring

It’s not the first time Heidi has strolled the red carpet wearing over-sized carved gems in nature-theme jewels. Here’s what she wore in 2008:

                          

She uses a combination of techniques and eco-friendly materials, with an emphasis on texture and movement. She also donates a percentage of all sales to charities such as the Komen Foundation.

How did you get involved in Reiki and how do you apply it to your jewelry designs?

When the sister of a friend found out she had leukemia, she asked for one of my necklaces and I decided to research healing stones to help her. I began cleansing my art jewelry, using sound (bells) and smudging – burning herbs and placing the stone or metal in direct contact with the smoke.

Reiki is more a process that I use after the piece is made. But being an artist opens me up to the Universe through the sheer act of creating. So in a sense, I apply a type of cleansing while I’m working. Applying Reiki after the piece is completed solidifies the healing process, at least for me.

Can you give me an example of a piece designed  with healing stones?

Waterfall (left), a collaborative piece I designed with wood turner Ed Kelle, combining his gorgeous textured, reclaimed walnut with a number of healing stones. Blue topaz helps with clarity and concentration. Labradorite protects one’s aura. Blue quartz produces a naturally balanced energy field. Apatite helps with healing, communicating and balancing energy. Smoky quartz disperses negative patterns. Aquamarine encourages the innate ability to always be prepared. And silver attracts and retains the qualities of the gemstones.

How do the other art forms and materials you work with affect your jewelry?

Sometimes a stone will spark a design – its matrix, color or shape. Sometimes it’s a material I want to work with – cement, wood or metal tubing – that brings forth the design. I prefer to use textures and materials that work with and against one another: dry wood against a shiny, “wet” stone, against cold metal. I enjoy juxtapositions.

My jewelry is formed from play and experimentation.  Each new piece becomes a bit more complex as I explore and learn.

How important is sustainability and eco-friendly material to your brand?

Extremely.  I can’t very well offer healing jewelry if collecting the materials I use causes harm to our environment or others. I make sure the wood is sustainable (re-used). I mainly purchase metals that have been recycled and I’m always dipping into my metal clippings. With the price of metal these days, I’m sure that more jewelers are re-using their scraps.

Fair Trade and “conscious” gems are harder to come by. There are few companies who can state that their gems come from mines they monitor. I buy opals from a family who owns a mine in Ethiopia and cabochons from either the mines themselves or people who cut the stones and have extensive knowledge of their origins.

If you walk into a bead store or buy online, you have no idea where the stones came from and who is mining them, how the miners are being treated or how well they’re paid. I try to be as knowledgeable as possible about the materials I use.

How does your background in fashion merchandising impact your jewelry?

I have the unusual ability to not only design but also merchandise my line. When I create a piece I take into account the amount of materials used, material prices, number of pieces in a vignette,  length of time to create, and current retail jewelry pricing.

But it really comes down to creating. If I’m feeling a particular way about the design of a piece, sometimes I throw my merchandising hat out the window and just enjoy myself.  There is a balance between the free flow of design and the merchandiser in me and I try to allow them to live together peacefully.

I recently launched Open Studio, Creative Mentoring so that I can guide other artists who want to better understand the wholesale market and how to cross into that business territory.

For more of Andrea’s creations, visit Andrea Rosenfeld Designs.

                          

The Esmerians began like many jewelry businesses that relocated to New York in the early twentieth century, bringing their expertise in the old world European jewelry trade, then passing it on to the next generation. New York is full of successful third- and fourth-generation gem and jewelry dealers, but few rose as high as Esmerian.

Rockefeller Sapphire of 62.02 carats flanked by diamonds and mounted in platinum, sold for $3,031,000 in 2001 (Chrisitie's Images)

Esmerian’s grandfather Paul worked as a lapidary in Constantinople before relocating to Paris in 1890. His son Raphael entered the business in 1919 and began pioneering the cutting and trading of colored gems as we know it. Raphael Esmerian (1903-1976) became a leading gem dealer in Europe and began traveling to New York to supply stones for Cartier.

This famous sapphire (right) provided a steady source of income for the Esmerian family over the years. Raphael Esmerian appraised the stone, then owned by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., more than once. In the 1940s, he helped Pierre Cartier recut it for a brooch. Then, in 1971, he bought it at auction himself for $170,000 and resold it.

The Rockefeller Sapphire appeared again at auction in 1980, four years after Raphael passed away, and it was his son Ralph Esmerian who bought it this time – for $1.5 million. He had it repolished to its current weight of 62 carats, set in a platinum ring, and sold. In 1988, Esmerian repurchased the stone at auction, this time for the world record price of $2,850,000, and sold it yet again.

Butterfly brooch of fancy yellow diamonds set in oxidized steel and 18k gold with articulated wings by Ralph Esmeian, maker's mark Carvin French, c. 1997, sold at Christie's in 2001 (Christie's Images)

Over the next four decades, Esmerian built up the family business, joining forces with André Chervin at Carvin French to create jeweled creatures like the yellow-diamond butterfly (above) and pink-diamond flamingos (below). He also became a renowned collector of antique jewelry and folk art. It took decades to build his business and a collection worth many millions, but it all unraveled with breathtaking speed after he offered his personal collection as collateral to buy Fred Leighton.

Art Nouveau dog collar plaque by René Lalique of enamel and gold with carved glass profile of Narcissus, c. 1900, part of the canceled 2008 sale (Christie's Images)

Flamingo brooch (detail) of pink diamonds with black diamond beaks, ruby eyes and demantoid garnet grass by Carvin French from cancelled 2008 sale (Christie's Images)

Over the  years, Esmerian acquired some beautiful jeweled objects, including several rare examples of Art Deco gem-set desk clocks and Art Nouveau jewelry like the brooch (above) designed by René Lalique. Many were offered in the Christie’s auction arranged by Merrill Lynch in 2008 to pay off some of Esmerian’s loan. Esmerian called it “a fire sale.”

Esmerian’s name was not mentioned in the catalog for that sale, titled “Rare Jewels and Gemstones: The Eye of a Collector,” but in its introduction, François Curiel, head of jewelry at Christie’s, praised the “subtle taste and eye” behind the collection.

At 6:05 pm, as the sale was about to begin, a call came in. Esmerian had convinced the court to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy for Fred Leighton. Curiel announced from the podium that the sale would not take place. “We had a room full of 100 people, 150 more lined up to be on phone, and all the internet bidders waiting,” Curiel told me. “People were disappointed, disgusted, not happy. One guy who had flown in from Hong Kong especially to buy several pieces, left the room.”

Curiel too was disappointed but all was not lost. The next morning, an agent from the Louvre called, inquiring about buying the most famous piece in the sale: the diamond bow brooch created for Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoléon III. It had been housed in the Louvre until 1887, when it was sold at public auction by order of the Third Republic, ending up in the possession of New York socialite Caroline Astor.

Empress Eugenie brooch of old mine diamonds set in silver-topped gold, c. 1855, in original case (Christie's Images)

Christie’s now had to get approval from both Merrill Lynch and Esmerian to sell the brooch. Esmerian was not interested in selling to a private party but a museum was a different story. “He has always been very hot for museums and patrimony, conservation, public display,” Curiel told me at the time. “He likes museums. Exhibits have always been his thing.”

The Eugenie brooch, estimated at $4-6 thousand, sold to the Louvre for $10.5 million.

Everyone was happy. Merrill Lynch was happy to get twice the estimated price. Curiel, a French citizen, was happy to see a royal jewel from the French court returned to France, and Esmerian, a founder and former chairman of the Museum of American Folk Art, was happy the brooch went to the Louvre.

Negotiating the sale was complicated, given the now questionable ownership of the jewelry. “The judge could have blocked everything and held things up. After all, the brooch has been out of country for 121 years, what was another six months?” Curiel said. “But we managed to do it so quickly, the brooch ended up at the Louvre within a month.”

Page from catalog for the 1887 auction of the Diamonds of the Crown, including Empress Eugenie's brooch, then housed in the Louvre (Christie's Images)

Now it appears Esmerian was doing a little private dealing of his own, putting up the same jewelry as collateral more than once (double-pledging), and quietly selling off choice pieces without notifying his lenders, including the now infamous $10 million diamond-and-ruby Endymion butterfly brooch by Boucheron.

Looking through the 2008 catalog of Esmerian’s treasures, I can’t help mourning the jewelry itself, now dispersed among personal collections around the world and hidden from view – except for the Eugenie brooch, which was, at long last, returned to the museum from whence it came.

I would have preferred to have it all waiting in a museum display case where I could come and admire it from time to time, along with the rest of the non-millionaire masses who love beautiful, sparkly, historical things.

I suspect Esmerian signed his collection over as collateral the way people pledge their homes, when the future looks rosy, never expecting someone to take him up on it. I think he felt proprietary towards those jewels, as collectors often do, and couldn’t resist trading them on his own, as he had done all his life. He may pay for that mistake by spending the rest of his life in jail.

Related posts:

Bankruptcy sale of Ralph Esmerian’s historic jewelry

Ralph Esmerian: rise and fall of a jewelry connoisseur

Christie’s sells Fred Leighton jewels

René Lalique: ultimate art jeweler

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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.

                          

Topaz earrings designed by JAR in diamond surround with ruby clusters (Christie's Images)

One of the JAR jewels made famous at the 2006 sale of Ellen Barkin’s jewelry is up for grabs again – four years later and in the same showroom, Christie’s announced yesterday. Those who didn’t make the winning bid can try again in October, if they still have the funds.

These earrings created a stir when Barkin put them up for sale, along with more than 100 jewels from her ex-husband, Ron Perelman, including 17 by Joel Arthur Rosenthal (JAR). But no one predicted these would sell for $710,000.

In fact, many people thought the $60,000-80,000 estimate was excessive. “People talk about the topaz earrings in the Barkin sale and question the price,” said Ralph Esmerian, then owner of Fred Leighton, before the 2006 sale. “But the interesting thing about Joel is that he doesn’t evaluate stones from a normal dealer perspective. Other people focus on certificates, lab reports. Joel makes sure it’s natural but he will tell you the perfect cut, the type of color. He’s thinking conceptually from start to finish. He’s looking for a certain palette, the look of 19^th century jewelry or Russian jewels.”

(Esmerian would make headlines himself in 2008 by declaring Fred Leighton bankrupt and having the Christie’s sale of his famous jewelry collection cancelled at the last minute, only to see most of it sold there a year later.)

Hundreds (including me) showed up for that Barkin sale, where lovely women in long, black gowns modeled the actress’s jewels while a well-heeled crowd bid furiously (a scene parodied in the first Sex & the City movie). A signature JAR thread ring with an oval-cut 22.76ct diamond sold for $1,808,000 and a delicate pair of diamond bangles, estimated at $350,000–$500,000, went for $1,136,000.

Christie's sale of Ellen Barkin's jewelry in October 2006 (photo Cathleen McCarthy)

No one expected the topaz earrings to sell for ten times their estimated value, however, not even François Curiel, who organized the sale.

“These will bring a lot of money, probably $150,000,” Curiel said when he showed me the toffee-colored danglers the day before the 2006 sale. “JAR had the topaz beautifully cut in this long, elegant marquis shape inspired by a window of a palace he loved. What are they worth really—$10,000, $15,000 at most?”

Four years later, Christie’s has upped their own estimate to $300,000-500,000 for the October 2010 sale but a spokesperson for the auction house admits it’s conservative. Times have changed since the heady days of late 2006, when art and jewelry were setting world auction records, but JAR jewelry still brings hefty prices at auction. We’ll see this fall if JAR still carries the cachet to make a topaz jewel worth three-quarters of a million, recession or no recession.

UPDATE: JAR’s earrings sold for $650,500 on Oct. 20, 2010, twice the low estimate but about $60k shy of what Ellen Barkin got for them three years before.

Related products (You don’t pay extra buying through these links and it puts a little cash in the blog fund):

                          

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.