6 Interesting Facts About Gemstones

 For centuries, gems have accompanied us on a daily basis, popularized in turn by beliefs, personalities or brands, and evolve hand in hand with society. Their wide variety of colours, sizes and symbols has opened up the field of possibilities in the creative sectors, particularly in the world of crafts, jewellery, watchmaking and fashion. Here are 6 things to know about some of the most popular stones today.

1. According to some ancient Asian traditions, the pink sapphire is the ultimate symbol of love and its beauty is compared to the sacred lotus flower. The color of this gemstone can range from the palest of pinks to the most vibrant, and its use as a stone adorning engagement rings dates back to ancient Rome. Most pink sapphires come from Sri Lanka and Myanmar, although since the 1990s Madagascar has become one of the countries where many deposits have been discovered.
2. Coral was a particularly popular stone in ancient Egypt and during the Victorian era. In ancient Rome and Egypt, parents hung coral beads around their children's necks for protection. The famous Roman scholar Pliny the Elder recommended people wear coral to ward off temptations. Beliefs in these protective powers revived during the Victorian era, and children were often offered the stone in the form of bracelets or earrings.
3. The history of emerald dates back 2.97 billion years, in South Africa, where the oldest deposits are found. It is said that Cleopatra already wore them in the time of ancient Egypt. During her reign, she also took control of the emerald mines near the Red Sea. In 1963, Elizabeth Taylor starred as Cleopatra alongside her husband Richard Burton. For the film, the actress is adorned with emeralds, stones that she also loved to wear outside of filming. In 2011, Elizabeth Taylor's emerald jewelry broke multiple auction records.
4. Tanzanite is often associated with Tiffany & Co. due to an advertising campaign the brand ran in 1968. The story of the discovery of tanzanite says that Maasai herders found blue crystals in the hills of Merelani, in Tanzania, while herding cattle in 1967. They brought in a prospector named Manuel d'Souza, who initially thought of sapphires, but quickly identified the stone as a bright blue variety of zoisite, a mineral stone that had been around since the early 1800s. Tiffany & Co. recognized the potential of this blue gem to compete with the more expensive sapphire and agreed to become its primary distributor. Instead of marketing the stone as "blue zoisite," which didn't sell well, Tiffany named the gemstone "tanzanite" to emphasize its unique geographic origin. The publicity campaign that followed sealed their reputation and their connection to the stone.
5. Princess Grace Kelly was particularly fond of pink sapphires: in 2012, Montblanc even created the Princess Grace of Monaco collection, a limited edition jewelry collection embellished with petals, in reference to the flower baptized "Princess of Monaco" in 1956 for her marriage. Montblanc has teamed up with the Princess Grace Foundation-USA, which helps emerging talent in the performing arts, to create the pieces in this collection.
6. Contrary to what one might think, ametrine, a stone with very diverse colors that range from yellows to the range of lilacs and deep purples, is not a variety of amethyst but a mixture of amethyst and citrine. Its name therefore comes from the contraction between these two names, from which we took the first two and the last two syllables (respectively). Legend has it that ametrine was brought to Europe by a conquistador who gave an ametrine from Brazil as a gift to the Spanish Queen. Today, the Anahi mine in Bolivia is the only place where ametrine is extracted, and its formation conditions are still debated.

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