When Nayla Hayek, chief executive of Harry Winston, demanded in June that her proxy at the Christie’s New York auction of the Rockefeller emerald “bring this magnificent gem home at any price,” she may or may not have realized it would mean setting a new world record: When the hammer fell, the final sale price for this historic ring was $5.51 million.
Of course, this was no ordinary ring. It had serious provenance: Owned by American industrialist dynasty the Rockefellers, it had passed through the workshops of Van Cleef & Arpels and Raymond C. Yard. The 18.04-carat stone was also an exceptional example of a top-quality Colombian emerald. Tom Berstein, head of jewelry at Christie’s in the US, went as far as to describe the Rockefeller as “one of the best gemstones to ever be offered at auction.”
The sale set a new price-per-carat record for an emerald at auction — $305,000 — placing it on the map alongside record-setting rubies and sapphires. The Sunrise Ruby, for instance — a 25.59-carat Burmese pigeon’s blood ruby — sold at Sotheby’s Geneva in May 2015 for $28.9 million (CHF 28.3 million), or $1.1 million per carat, while in October that year, Sotheby’s Hong Kong set a world record for a Kashmir sapphire when it sold a 27.68-carat sapphire ring for $6.7 million ($242,144 per carat).
“For fine Colombian emeralds, the market continues to grow,” says Oren Nhaissi, managing director of New York Colombian emerald dealer EMCO Gem, which sources directly from the major Colombian mining companies and operates the Itoco mine in the Muzo emerald formation — one of the most desirable areas for Colombian emerald mining. “The Rockefeller showed how rare and unique fine Colombian emeralds really are as the trade continues to pay record-breaking prices. You only appreciate how rare these stones are when you search for them and realize how difficult they are to find.” Nhaissi expects demand for the gems to keep increasing, as they are becoming more popular in the commercial market. West Coast gem dealer Robert Procop shares this outlook, claiming he has sold more emeralds in the past three years than in the first 35 of his career.
Supply, however, remains limited, especially for top-quality Colombian emeralds, says Nhaissi. The country’s emeralds have always been highly prized for their warm, intense green color, with aficionados preferring them to the lighter stones from alternative mines in Zambia or Brazil. Yet the difficulty of accessing ethically sound and reliable supply routes has caused many jewelers to look elsewhere.
“For the past 60 years, the Colombian business has been dominated by gangs — it’s been a focus of violence and very little government regulation,” says Charles Burgess, director of Minería Texas Colombia — the mining arm of Colombian emerald dealer Muzo. “There was no foreign investment, no modernization. Workers weren’t even paid. It was almost a feudal system.”
Muzo was one of the first internationally funded emerald miners in Colombia when it started digging in 2009, and Burgess and his team have worked closely with the government to drive out the gangs.
Other investors have taken note of the changing political climate, and Gemfields, which can be credited with driving much of the consumer demand for emeralds in recent years thanks to its modern marketing campaigns, laid out plans to enter the market through an interest in a Colombian mine. It pulled out in May, however, and then-chief executive Ian Harebottle stated at the time that “the company believes its portfolio of high-quality assets in Africa, as well as other potential expansion opportunities within Zambia, Mozambique and Ethiopia, are all likely to deliver considerably higher returns with shorter payback periods.”
Though Gemfields won’t be the rocket that Colombian emerald mining needs (just yet, anyway), the company’s latest tender gives a clear indication of the strong demand for emeralds in general. The average price per carat at its October Zambian emerald sale was $66.21, its second-highest to date.
This and high-profile auctions of items like the Rockefeller ring bode well for the prospects of these velvety green gems from the Boyacá province and beyond.
Five designers who feature emeralds in their creations
Bayco
Bayco trades in some of the most spectacular gemstones in the world, and this 9.18-carat emerald is a shining example of its prowess. The platinum ring from the designer’s Ultimate collection stars a clear and deeply hued old-mine Colombian emerald. Surrounding the emerald-cut gem is a halo of round brilliant white diamonds. The shank is also fully pavé set, and on each side of the emerald sits a larger, kite-shaped diamond. The total diamond weight is 3.02 carats.
bayco.com
Margery Hirschey
What attracted Margery Hirschey to these emeralds was what she describes as their “inner light.” Each large drop earring is decorated with seven emerald-cut stones and a pear-shaped emerald, with no two the same due to the visible inclusions. Each has been individually articulated to ensure the earrings have movement and catch the light. The yellow gold settings are all handmade — no casting was used — giving them a slightly rough, rustic finish.
margeryhirschey.com
Marian Maurer
More than a carat of emeralds sit snugly within rubover settings in this satin-finish 18-karat yellow gold Porch band. All Marian Maurer jewelry is handmade in Brooklyn, New York, with recycled gold and ethically sourced gemstones. The emeralds in this ring came from miner Gemfields, which guarantees a transparent supply chain for its Zambian emeralds. Maurer describes her style as heavily influenced by a lifetime in New York: “the layers of people, textures, colors, sounds.”
marianmaurer.com
Anita Ko
These Floating diamond and emerald earrings have been designed to sweep up the ear, and are sold individually. Each 18-karat yellow gold earring contains 0.13 carats of round brilliant diamonds and 0.38 carats of round emeralds. Anita Ko, whose studio is in Los Angeles, is dedicated to ethical gem sourcing and only works with one family-owned gem dealer in her home city. The earrings can be worn singly, as a pair or — as Ko’s website shows — as part of an ear stack.
anitako.com
Suzanne Kalan
Los Angeles jeweler Suzanne Kalan has been working a lot with emeralds recently. This ring is one of the fruits of her labors and is a modern twist on the classic cluster ring. The central stone is an emerald-cut emerald set on an 18-karat yellow gold band. In place of the classic halo setting of round brilliant diamonds, Kalan has instead used baguette-cut diamonds at scattered angles; this is the jeweler’s signature design across all of her collections.
suzannekalan.com
Image: MuzoArticle from the Rapaport Magazine - November 2017. To subscribe click here.