Colored Stones: Quality’s in the Eye of Beholder
Some say colored gemstones are more popular now because today’s independent woman buys jewelry for herself, instead of waiting for some unimaginative man to give her diamonds. Some say it’s just copycat fashion, following Princess Diana with her sapphire and Fergie with her ruby.
Actually, colored gemstones--basically, all precious gems but diamonds--began to get attention when investment fever in the early 1980s pushed up diamond prices. They were “affordable,” as the industry says, particularly the many stones (aquamarine, amethyst, garnet, topaz, etc.) that had always played second-string to the more expensive emerald, sapphire and ruby. They’re also pretty, available “in a vast range of color,” says Los Angeles jeweler Henry Yamada, “and more individual than diamonds, which always appear to be white and shiny.”
Some of that color, however, is because of treatments or “enhancements” by someone other than Mother Nature. As a result, colored stones are the focus of an industry debate over disclosure standards that has heated up with the increased sales.
Colored stone jewelry, including pearls, is still not a huge market, accounting for barely 10% of the sales dollars at the nation’s jewelry stores, according to the trade magazine, Jewelers’ Circular-Keystone. In fact, a jeweler who has more than a few trays of unmounted colored stones is almost a specialist.
Fortunately, the consumer’s own untrained eye “can pretty much tell the quality,” says Yamada. “With diamond color, your eye has to be perceptive; with a ruby, you can see the difference in grades.”
‘Inclusions’ Visible
Not surprisingly, color “is the greatest reason for someone’s liking or wanting a stone,” says Roland Naftule, a Scottsdale, Ariz., wholesaler and president of the International Colored Gemstone Assn. It’s also the “key factor” in a stone’s value, says Dino DeGhionno, a colored stone instructor at the nonprofit Gemological Institute of America in Santa Monica, with the ideal generally a “nice medium-to-dark color--not too light or dark.”
Consumers can judge a colored stone’s clarity more easily than a diamond’s because any “inclusions” tend to be visible. These are expected in all but the finest emeralds, rubies and sapphires; other stones--amethyst and topaz, for example--are commonly clear and clean.
Consumers are less able to judge the cut, although as Naftule says, “if the cutting is well-done, the stone will sparkle.” Ironically, less popular stones may be cut for spectacular sparkle to overcome their lack of cachet. Better stones may be poorly cut because the cutter wants as big a stone as possible. Colored stones may also be cut shallow, so that one sees right down through them--a “window” diminishing their value.
Stones whose image and value are well-established are said to have “history.” Newly discovered or newly marketed stones don’t have history, so they’re sometimes given some: Citrines are sometimes called “citrine topaz “ even though they’re not even related, and “ ruby spinel” is simply a red spinel given an implied association.
Colored stones may also lack much color, but even that can be added. Obviously “a fine quality stone out of the ground wouldn’t be treated,” DeGhionno says. But many stones sold aren’t fine enough, and are heated, irradiated, dyed, oiled or waxed, usually by suppliers just before or right after cutting.
Rubies and sapphires can be heated to darken a light stone or lighten a dark one. Amethysts, which generally start out pale, can be irradiated, as is topaz, particularly the new “blue topaz,” which is virtually colorless in its natural state. Heat treatment also makes aquamarine, commonly greenish-blue, a more valuable clear blue.
Lapis lazuli is often dyed, as is most onyx and sardonyx. Turquoise is waxed or treated with plastic. And almost all cultured pearls, says DeGhionno, “have been processed in some way or another--dyed, bleached or somehow treated to make them look their best.”
Such treatment is all perfectly legal. It should, however, be disclosed to the buyer, say Federal Trade Commission guides for the jewelry industry.
There should also be some mention that “artificial coloring or tinting is not permanent if such is the fact.” (There have been no recent FTC cases involving retail jewelers.)
Jewelers endorse the idea of disclosure but only to a degree. Such practices are old, even traditional, they say: Ancient Egypt treated turquoise; aquamarine has been heat-treated for 100 years. Furthermore, treatment is not just common now, but prevalent, done to so many colored gemstones. Why disclose the accepted, the normal?
The retailer may not even know whether the stones are treated. The original supplier is probably in the Orient, Afghanistan or maybe Brazil, and not big on disclosure, and the retailer may not be able to tell the difference. In some cases, even an expert can’t tell because both heat and radiation also occur in nature.
The industry’s solution is a little disclosure and a lot of distinctions. Some are semantic. “Enhancement” is OK; “treatment” is not. Heating stones and oiling emeralds are enhancements, but irradiating, dying or oiling emeralds with colored oil are treatments that industry officials think should be disclosed.
Some distinctions are practical. “Permanent treatments aren’t considered unethical,” says North Hollywood jeweler-appraiser Cosmo Altobelli, “but that which is not permanently treated should be disclosed, particularly if it has to be taken care of in some way.” Dyed lavender jadeite fades in light, for example, and dyed lapis may bleed onto clothing. Repair work that involves soldering may also alter treated stones: One’s amethyst or citrine may come back from the bench a very different color.
Such distinctions might not impress consumers or their protectors. “The commission has always held that a material fact must be disclosed,” says Susanne Patch, FTC staff attorney in Washington, “and a material fact is something that would make it more or less likely that a consumer would make the purchase.” It might also affect the pricing.
Such facts must seem material to the Gemological Institute, which starting this fall will note any discernible enhancements on colored gem reports. Consumers should get something similar. They could at least, suggests Altobelli, “ask the merchant to give them a statement that what they have is a permanent enhancement.”
