May 2015 Newsletter

Shows and Events

• Thirteenth Annual Sinkankas Symposium – Opal: Proceedings Available
  • 45 Nationalities Celebrate Opal Capital Centennial
• Pala at Las Vegas: May 28 – June 1, 2015
• Mineral & Gem à Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines: June 25–28, 2015
• Carnegie: Out of This World! Jewelry in the Space Age
• Ruby Has Cameo in Minions Trailer

Pala International News

• Joe Kast Collection Comes to Pala
• Pala's Featured Stones

Gems and Gemology News

• That Other Collection…
• Antique Jewelry

Industry News

• Ruby News
• Diamond News
• Bonhams: "Colored gemstones reigned supreme"
• Burma Bits

Editor: David Hughes

Shows and Events

Pala International is the publisher of this year's Sinkankas Symposium proceedings on the topic of Opal. The volume is edited by GIA's Stuart Overlin, designed by Faizah Bhatti, and production coordinated by Juan Zanahuria, both also of GIA. Featured are 120 pages of original material accompanied by more than 150 photos.

The following authors contributed to this edition: Dr. Eloise Gaillou, Dr. Raquel Alonso-Perez, with Jason Tresback and Theresa Smith, and also Bill Larson, Renee Newman, Helen Serras-Herman, Robert Weldon, Nathan Renfro, Dr. James Shigley, and Si and Ann Frazier. Principal photography was provided by Robert Weldon (including the cover image), Mia Dixon, and Jurgen Schutz.

Copies of the Opal proceedings can be ordered from Roger Merk. The price is $35.00 plus shipping. (Shipping to Canada is $19, and $24.50 to most countries in Europe.)

It's 100 years since opal was discovered by 15-year-old gold prospector Willie Hutchinson in what is now Coober Pedy, South Australia. The outback town, founded the year after the boy's discovery, is namesake to a 5,000 square kilometer gemstone field that provides most of the world's precious opal; only 10% of the field has been mined, according to the town's website. Yet 250,000 mine shaft entrances dot the landscape, due in part to a ban on large-scale operations, per Wikipedia. While the town has a tiny population of only 3,500, the inhabitants come from an estimated 45 nations.

BBC has marked Coober Pedy's centennial with an examination of the prospect (ahem) of this Australian opal being designated Global Heritage Stone Resource (GHSR). No stone has yet been so designated, but an international group of geologists is to recognize stones that have played a significant role in human culture. Thus, other contenders, according to BBC are Portland stone, Carrara marble, Sydney sandstone and Norwegian larvikite. Should Australian opal be chosen, similar opal from other localities could not be called "Australian." Including opal in the GHSR pantheon has its detractors, who feel that the designation was meant for building-stone exclusively, not precious stone.

It's time to plan for the JCK Las Vegas show. Pala International will be there in force, with one of America's largest selections of fine colored gems.

Note: The JCK Show this year will run Friday through Monday.

What: AGTA GemFair
When: May 28 – June 1, 2015
Where: South Pacific and Islander Ballrooms in the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV
Hours: AGTA Gemstone Section
   Thursday, May 28 thru Sunday, May 31: 9:30 AM – 6:00 PM
   Monday, June 1: 9:30 AM – 4:00 PM
Booth: AGTA Pavilion, booth AGTA514

The JCK Show offers a variety of seminars and other events of interest to attendees.

Pala will be unveiling the Joe Kast Collection at the upcoming Las Vegas show. Come check it out: lots of great gems for the big buyers and small calibrated goods for stock pieces.

We look forward to seeing our many friends there. Visit the Pala International Show Schedule for future events.

The 52nd Sainte-Marie show will be held June 25–28, with the first two days limited to trade only. This year, Bill and Will Larson will attend the show along with spouses Jeanne and Rika Larson. Friend and fellow gem dealer Mark Kaufman also will be in the party. They will be meeting up with Patrick and Pia Dreher. (See this Ganoksin.com blog entry by Robyn Hawk regarding Patrick Dreher's recent appearance at GIA.)

New in 2015: The Sainte-Marie show continues to cater to the colored gemstone lover this year with Le Pôle Aalberg, an addition to the show's Gem Zone, featuring the full range of creation, luxury and fashion.

• Le Swanky Area: bijouterie et joaillerie and designers both traditional and contemporary
• Le Trendy Corner: fantasy designs and fashion accessories
• Le Gem Fashion Show: a scripted jewelry presentation offering "unusual perspectives in response to hidden desires." Ooh la la!

Lectures will include the following (note that only the first lecture will be delivered in English as well as French). We're delighted to see our old friend Eloïse Gaillou, who has relocated to Paris, and who will speak on her subject of expertise.

• Victor Tuzlukov, lapidary: Philosopher's Stone – When Wisdom Sparkles in the Precious Stone (in conjunction with his curation of Lapis Philosophorum)
• Yellow Amber: presented by the Musée de l'Ambre de Kaliningrad (in conjunction with the exhibition Baltic Stone of the Sun)
• Michel Boudard, gemologist: A Look at Gemology, specifically the intersection between stones of greater carat weight and the treatments that may lurk within; an aid to the prospective buyer
• Jean-Jacques Chevallier, lecturer: Geological History of the Earth ("The study of the infinitely small explains the infinitely large)
• Eloïse Gaillou, associate curator of the Musée Mines ParisTech (School of Mines): Treatment and the Synthesis of Diamond
• Jean-Christian Goujou, lecturer: The Minerals of Metamorphism
• Alain Carion, lecturer: Meteorites and Their Impacts

In addition to the above-referenced exhibitions, the following also will be presented.

• Exhibition of the INETPhoto Contest: an international competition for photographs and graphic art about Mineralogy and Micro-mineralogy
• Minerals and Paintings: an exhibition curated by Jörg Thomas and Andrée Roth
• Jewelry – Silver Arsenic: Remarkably, this exhibition will take place in situ—along the vein of the Gabe Gottes silver mine, 6 km away from the Sainte-Marie show's Mineral Zone
• The Staurolites of Russia: an exhibition of "cross-stones" curated by Jean-Claude Leydet

Finally, our good friend and mineral dealer Alain Martaud curates The Prestige Exhibition. Entitled simply, Alpes, the display will pay homage to the mineralogical bounty of the 1000-km arc of mountains that stretches from north of Corsica to Austria and Slovenia. Among the Alpine varieties coveted by collectors: epidot, garnet, fluorite, emerald, quartz and gold. Specimens to be displayed will be loaned from local and national museums, as well as collectors both prominent and obscure. Pala International has a magnificent old classic double quartz from Switzerland in the display.

Time to dust off the Esquivel LPs and prepare your bachelor pad to moodify before attending the Carnegie Museum of Natural History's Out of This World! Jewelry in the Space Age. This exhibition is a perfect cocktail of science and stylin'.

Out of This World first goes retro with jewelry, objets d'art and ephemera inspired by Halley's Comet (its 1835 apparition), the publication of Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon, the Soviet launch of Sputnik (our personal favorite) and much more. The exhibition opens June 27 and is on view through January 4, 2016.

While you're at the Carnegie Museum, be sure to check out the Wertz Gallery of gems and jewelry—and its Time Machines exhibition (ends June 1)—as well as the Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems.

Fans of the Despicable Me animation movies will receive a treat this summer with the release of Minions, a sort of prequel to the other two films. Lest the public have any questions, however, regarding the third in this very successful franchise—earning nearly eight times its budget for D1 and thirteen times for D2—the distributor, Universal Pictures, is leaving nothing to chance, by releasing three trailers and four spots for D3, and counting.

Minions features an evil character called Scarlet Overkill (fair enough) voiced by Sandra Bullock. Overkill wants world domination, but she isn't above sharing her secrets via Villain-Con International, a convention for miscreants in need of motivation. At about 0:55 in Trailer 2, Overkill's image is spied by a conventioneer in Villain-Con's promo brochure. The spread includes an eggcup-sized ruby ring, stolen and still missing. "Millions of dollars gone goodbye," reads the display copy. The ruby is unlikely to reappear, given its relative insignificance for Overkill, whose vault also holds Michelangelo's David, Myron's Discobolus (Discus Thrower), a moai statue from Easter Island, myriad portraits by the masters, and an overturned Chinese vase here, a bathtub of gold chains there (at 1:47). Guess we'll have to wait 'til its release July 10. Or the next trailer.

Pala International News

Our longtime friend for over 30 years, fellow AGTA and AGS member, Joe Kast, has decided to retire from the gem business.

Joe has graciously decided to allow Pala International the opportunity to liquidate his wonderful inventory. Joe's main strengths are ruby, sapphire, and emerald. His delightful inventory will nicely augment Pala's own extensive catalog.

We are now able to furnish many more blue sapphires in several colors, sizes, and prices. The emerald collection is quite large and we can offer a wide variety of colors, shapes, locations and prices. The fancy sapphires, including pinks, yellows and greens, as well as the ruby collection, now boosts Pala's supply significantly. Along with larger single free-sizes, the collection has a lot of calibrated smaller sizes and matched pairs. We are extremely grateful to Joe Kast for allowing Pala International this unprecedented opportunity.

Pala will be unveiling the Joe Kast Collection at the upcoming Las Vegas show. Come check it out: lots of great gems for the big buyers and small calibrated goods for stock pieces.

This month we feature some highlights from the Joe Kast Collection. This collection exhibits a full spectrum of colors from the corundum family and a strong selection of emeralds as well.

Please call to hear more about this important collection—or see it in person at the Las Vegas show.

Interested? Contact us! 

Gems and Gemology News

While perusing the Kast Collection, above, we were reminded of another collection, now housed at GIA: The Dr. Edward J. Gübelin Collection. When the latter collection was acquired by GIA in 2006, we published the recollections surrounding it by Pala International's Bill Larson, "World's Foremost Buys World's Finest."

Now the collection is available for browsing in the comfort of your own home, via the GIA Gem Project. We're talking about 2,800 gemstones from 225 different minerals in the collection. The Gem Project goals are: to systematically document these gemstones using a range of techniques, and to make the results available on the GIA website as a valuable resource for students, gemologists, researchers, and anyone interested in gem materials. Each gemstone is identified with a photograph, species (group and variety as needed), locality, shape, carat weight, dimensions, and much more.

An extinct species of human, Denisovans (or Denisova hominins) is being credited with having crafted the oldest piece of jewelry "of its kind made of stone" about 40,000 years ago, according to a May 7 story by The Siberian Times. Like Neanderthals, Denisovans were considered to be more primitive than modern humans, yet the technique used in creating the jewelry—a bracelet fashioned from chlorite—was not known to have been used until the Neolithic period, beginning about 10,000 BCE. Mikhail Shunkov, deputy director of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in Novosibirsk, suggests that Denisovans were more advanced than either Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.

The green-colored bracelet, found in two pieces, contains a drilled hole. Scientists feel that the drill's speed of rotation was relatively high, with little instability—again evidence of technology that would not be used for millennia. It's believed that the hole allowed a strap, perhaps of leather, to dangle a charm of some weight, which polished the bracelet.

It was found in the Altai region of Siberia in 2008, but its dating was confirmed only recently. The chlorite stone is not native to the locality where the bracelet was unearthed. It likely came from about 125 miles away, and thus was valued. And valued it is today, being held in the collection of the Museum of History and Culture of the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East in Novosibirsk.

Industry News

Bloomberg, in an April 16 article, quotes Ian Harbottle of Gemfields as predicting that ruby prices could double in a couple of years. If this sounds a bit optimistic (at least for the seller), the article points out that Harbottle "and peers" increased production of emerald, with a 1,000 per cent price hike in five years. Harbottle envisions the same for ruby as Gemfields makes inroads into Mozambique's relatively vast ruby supply.

While Gemfields offered rubies at a recent sale for $689 a carat on average, there is still a market for bargains. Of course, when doing the hunting it pays to read the fine print. As reported by JCK May 4, CBS Chicago was tipped off by a buyer who bought a pair of "ruby" earrings at Macy's only to belatedly see the "lead glass filled" tag on the purchase when she got home. In a May 1 story, CBS recounted how its investigators went to two Macy's locations, but were a little more diligent in their inquiries, asking whether they were buying costume jewelry. After all, the earrings had a $117 price tag. They were reassured by the sales associate they were getting real ruby. Same story for two ruby stud earrings, at $93.60.

Taking the earrings to none other than Richard Drucker of GemWorld International, they got the bad news: the rubies couldn't be called "real." Another consultant from Chicago's Jewelers Row agreed that the purchases were of red stones, but not rubies. The resulting complaint—not the first by any means—is that it is up to the consumer to do the due diligence. Store clerks simply don't offer the information.

Back to Harbottle: he may have a point about ruby's "uplift potential." Last Tuesday, Sotheby's set a new world auction record for ruby. The "Sunrise Ruby," a 25.59-carat Burmese ruby and diamond ring, sold for far more than its $12 million to $18 million pre-sale estimate. At $30.3 million, it set two other records: per-carat price for ruby and for any jewel by its creator, Cartier. And it tripled the price-per-carat record set by the "Graff Ruby" last fall, of $997,727, according to a news release.

Sotheby's itself must have been pretty proud. With 94 per cent of lots sold, the auction as a whole set an industry record, the highest ever total for any jewelry auction: just under $161 million. Other corundum records set in the sale:

• World auction record for a pair of Burmese sapphire earrings (Lot 500)
• World auction record price for a Kashmir sapphire jewel (Lot 499)

As we noted last month, on offer via Sotheby's as the headliner in its April 21 Magnificent Jewels sale in New York was a 100.20-carat "perfect diamond." Its sale at $22.1 million to an anonymous buyer set a record of sorts—highest price for a colorless diamond in New York—it fell midway in the pre-sale estimate of $19 million and $25 million. (Can we look forward to future "records" for, say, highest price for a colorless diamond sold in the spring quarter?)

Diamond (and other gemstone) aficionados are familiar with the Four C's: Color, Clarity, Cut and Carat Weight. GIA even offers a brochure on the subject, available in 18 languages. But what of the more obscure language of the diamond trade? In New York, for instance, the diamond district is a Babel regarding baubles, precious stones having a lexicon, per a recent New York Times story, that is essentially Yiddish, but also uttered with the flair of other European and Asian tongues. And trade terms from India and elsewhere are becoming more common on 47th Street.

In "The Secret Slang of the Diamond District," the Times challenges readers to play the name game. How many of the esoteric terms listed are you familiar with, like mame-zitser, oysshis, andjalebi, amid the more familiar?

Making a modest $8 admission on April 23 at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas, Evening Shade resident Susie Clark sealed the deal by saying a prayer for luck in the form of a question: Would she be blessed by a diamond that day? She was—3.69 carats' worth—and in her joy she called the white, teardrop-shaped gem Hallelujah. It's the largest diamond found in the park since the Limitless Diamond, 6.19 carats, was found about a year before, as reported by CNN.

A pity there's no on-site appraisal service, but a 3.85-carat diamond unearthed at the park was sold for a cool $20K. The park's Diamond Discovery Center does ID the stones gratis, however; weighing and certification are offered free of charge.

Last month, in our Auctions item, we included an image of a 9.94-carat Kashmir sapphire sugarloaf cabochon offered at Sotheby's April 21 Magnificent Jewels sale. The ring went for $874,000 well within its pre-sale estimate. A day later, a sale by Bonhams featured a similar ring—just a lot more of it, at 21.27 carats. This one sold for less—$455,090—but it was more than three times its estimate.

The Bonhams sale as a whole caused the firm to report, "Colored gemstones reigned supreme at Bonhams Fine Jewelry sale."

Rubies, sapphires and emeralds are this year's must-have gems according to Bonhams and its first London sale of 2015 demonstrated the huge appetite for colored stones with fierce bidding taking place in the saleroom, on the telephone and online from buyers across the globe.

Among the highlights: a 17.97-carat Burmese sapphire; a 7.10-carat fancy-colored pear-shaped diamond; a 4.54-carat Burmese ruby; a 3.25-carat Colombian emerald; a pair of Sri Lankan sapphires, 10.50 and 9.50 carats.

Burma's Ministry of Mines on April 30 announced the dates for the 52nd Myanma Gems Emporium this summer: June 24 through July 6. Both local and foreign merchants are invited to the emporium, which will be held in Nay Pyi Taw. The announcement was covered in the May 1 edition of the official New Light of Myanmar.

Nay Pyi Taw's development—everything from shopping centers to pagodas—is booming, as reported on May 10 by Mizzima. A thousand hotels and inns are mushrooming to accommodate visitors to the Emporium, conventions, sports events, civic and military celebrations, and more. Last year, the city hosted the ASEAN Business Summit, the ASEAN Summit and the East Asia Summit.

Meanwhile, Kyaw Win, secretary of the Myanmar Gold Entrepreneurs Association, told The Irrawaddy last week that jade and colored gemstone production in general is decreasing in Hpakant and Mogok. And the Wall Street Journal last week noted that foreign investment in mining has stalled in anticipation of Burma revamping outdated regulations that haven't been revised since 1994. Another practice considered passé is the continued industry involvement by SOEs (state-owned enterprises) in Burma, once the centerpiece of Ne Win's "Burmese Way to Socialism." A critique, by economist Tom Brookes, of the remaining SOEs, which began to be discarded in 1988, appeared in the May 8 Myanmar Times. Brookes notes that twelve activities, including the export of gemstones, are by law operated by SOEs solely or in joint ventures.

Other ghosts from the past were being conjured by the U.S. State Department as it dropped gemstone (among other interests) mogul Win Aung from its sanctions list without much explanation, as reported by The Irrawaddy on April 24 and Myanmar Times on the 29th. Although Win Aung was considered a military-regime crony previously, he also is chair of Burma's biggest trade group, representing 10,000 companies. The Irrawaddy story speculated on other big names that could be next in line. The newspaper published an editorial the same day urging prudence in considering future moves: "Note to Washington: Use Your Blacklist Wisely."

In the interview referenced above, Kyaw Win discussed several topics of interest: how he got started in the gold business, the history of gold procurement as investment amongst the people of Burma, the price of gold, the fact that gold could be produced in all of Burma's fourteen states and regions, and more.

But gold extraction can come at a price. Myanmar Times reported on April 28 about the challenges facing the Chindwin River, which flows in northwestern Burma. Where it flows through the gold mining area at Hkamti Township, in Sagaing Region, the river is clogged with red sludge. And the punch line? A Myanmar Gems Enterprise representative says it issued no mining permits in the area, and thus knew nothing about the excavations. One unnamed government official said mining is allowed—and protected—by armed ethnic groups in the region. Another factor: small-scale mining can be masked from any visiting authorities by simply hiding the machinery.

Myanmar Gemological Laboratory opened for business on May 6, as reported by Myanmar Times. While it's certainly not the country's only gem lab, it features cutting-edge technology that could put it ahead of rivals. But its true competitors are labs with international reputations. Gemstone buyers and dealers who are tempted to have their stones certified outside Burma now have a local option. The new lab's U Wai La Win has studied and worked at GIA, allowing him to incorporate best practices that he has learned.

Last Wednesday, Myanmar Times published a profile of the jade market in Mandalay. But it was not devoted to dealers in rough, but rather to the artisans carving jade into statues for sale to Chinese buyers. The market is not an easy one, since standards are high, in part due to overwhelming experience coupled with finishing machinery available to Chinese craftsmen. On the other hand, why should Burma's carvers not market Burmese designs?

• Mizzima: Burma launches an export strategy to integrate the country more broadly into the international economy—featuring an image of gemstone traders
• The Irrawaddy: $20 million in smuggled goods seized last year, twice as much as the previous year
• Eleven: Suu Kyi to visit jade land on Friday
• The Irrawaddy: Ceasefire with ethnic armies, hailed as historic, has a long way to go
• Myanmar Times: Burma citizens donate thousands to Nepal relief effort

— End May Newsletter • Published 5/18/15 —

Note: Palagems.com selects much of its material in the interest of fostering a stimulating discourse on the topics of gems, gemology, and the gemstone industry. Therefore the opinions expressed here are not necessarily those held by the proprietors of Palagems.com. We welcome your feedback.