The golden-orange Imperial Topaz is the most highly prized variety of November's birthstone.
Originally mined exclusively in Russia’s Ural Mountains during the 19th century, the intense orange crystals were so valuable that they earned the designation Imperial Topaz to honor the Russian czar. What's more, only royals were allowed to own it.
Flash forward to today, when the finest Imperial Topaz is sourced in Brazil. One of that country's most heralded crystals — an 875-carat head-turner from Minas Gerais — is now a permanent resident of the Smithsonian's National Gem Collection
According to the Smithsonian, topaz — especially the yellow-to-orange varieties — has been misunderstood and misidentified for 2,000 years. Before 1950, most “gem experts” shared the misconception that all yellow gems were topaz and that all topaz was yellow. Citrine (November's alternate birthstone) and even smoky quartz were often mistaken for topaz.
While the prized Imperial Topaz comes in a range or colors from brownish-yellow to orange-yellow and even vibrant red, other varieties of topaz are available in blue, green, pink and purple.
Interestingly, topaz gets its name from Topazios, the ancient Greek name for a tiny island in the Red Sea. The island is now known as Zabargad Island, or St. John’s Island, and is controlled by Egypt. It is very likely that the “topaz” mined there in ancient times was actually a yellow-green variety of peridot.
Brazil is the largest producer of quality topaz, but the stone is also mined in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Russia, Australia, Nigeria, Germany, Mexico and the U.S (specifically California, Utah and New Hampshire). Topaz rates an 8 on the Mohs scale, making it a durable and wearable gem.
If the trending continues, Holiday Season 2020 promises to be the most romantic ever.
Welcome to “engagement season,” that special time of the year when more than 40% of all marriage proposals take place. It officially starts next week on Thanksgiving Day and stretches through Valentine's Day.
WeddingWire’s 2020 Newlywed Report reveals a significant spike in the portion of proposals taking place during the month of December. A surprising 19% of all engagements are happening during that festive month, and the number represents a significant rise of three percentage points since 2017. December proposals outnumber any other month by a margin of better than 2 to 1.
According to WeddingWire, the hottest proposal days take place in December. Christmas Day is the most popular day of the year to pop the question, followed by Christmas Eve, New Year’s Day, the Sunday before Christmas Eve and Valentine’s Day.
Suitors likely choose December to pop the question because they love the spirit of the holiday season. And, certainly, there’s no better time to propose than when all the family is in town to celebrate with the newly engaged couple.
The 2020 Newlywed Report, which chronicled the opinions and experiences of 27,250 individuals who were married during the full year of 2019, also revealed that when it comes to finding a one-of-a-kind engagement ring, 45% of proposers began researching/looking for rings more than five months ahead of the proposal.
The average couple spent $5,900 on the engagement ring, although 20% of those surveyed spent more than $10,000.
Couples told WeddingWire that they considered style/setting to be the most important aspect of an engagement ring, and nearly 80% admitted to dropping hints about their ring preferences to their significant others. Seven out of 10 ring recipients had some involvement in selecting and/or purchasing the ring itself.
On average, proposers visited three retailers and looked at 15 rings before making a decision.
Nearly nine in 10 (89%) of suitors proposed with ring in hand and 84% popped the question on bended knee. The average age of engaged couples is 32 and the average engagement length is 15 months.
Using a wire hanger and a snake cam, Stockton, CA, resident Danny Gutierrez deftly fished his wife's engagement ring from the "plumbing cleanout" pipe in their backyard. The successful rescue mission took place three weeks after the ring — wrapped in a tissue — was accidentally flushed down the toilet.
The family was so determined to get the ring back that they sacrificed running water so the ring wouldn't be forced farther down the sewer line.
The saga began when Angela Gutierrez's diamond engagement ring ended up on the bathroom floor while she was getting ready for a Zoom call. Her 7-year-old son noticed it and, in a considerate attempt to protect the ring and keep anyone from stepping on it by mistake, wrapped it in tissue and placed it on the sink.
When Danny Gutierrez happened upon the tissue wad on the sink, he tossed it in the toilet and flushed it down.
After her Zoom call, Angela went to retrieve her ring and was told by her young son how he had found it on the floor. Then Danny filled in the rest of the story about how the ring had been flushed.
The family hired professional plumbers to find the ring, but their efforts came up empty. Still, the couple refused to give up.
In a last ditch effort to locate the ring, Angela used a snake camera to peer down her home’s “plumbing cleanout.” This is an access pipe in their backyard that would typically be used to access the sewer line in the event of blockage.
As she viewed the monitor, she was certain she saw the glint of her ring.
"It was as clear as day," Angela told the local ABC affiliate. "I'm like, 'Oh, my goodness! Danny's gonna think that I'm crazy.'"
In a home video shot by Angela and shared by ABC10, Danny carefully maneuvers a wire hanger and a snake cam into the pipe.
"I was so nervous and I had to look away," Angela said.
Within moments, Danny began celebrating his Eureka moment.
"We got it. We have it. The ring. Yes!" he exclaimed.
With the ring in hand, Danny instinctively went down on one knee and said to Angela, "Will you marry me?"
Later, Angela told ABC10 that it was hard to believe that she got her ring back after three weeks.
"We were slowly coming to accept the fact that we lost it," she said.
Please check out ABC10's report. It ends with a short scene of the children learning the happy news about their family's cherished keepsake.
Lucara's Karowe mine in Botswana has delivered another head-turning rough diamond — a 998-carat stunner that ranks as the fourth-largest gem-quality diamond ever recovered.
Other famous Botswana-sourced diamonds include the #2-ranked 1,758-carat Sewelô (2019), the #3 ranked 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona (2015) and the #9-ranked 812-carat Constellation (2015).
Despite being nearly the width of a baseball and weighing 7 ounces, Lucara's newest find is less than one-third the weight of the granddaddy of them all — the 3,106-carat Cullinan Diamond, which was discovered in South Africa in 1905. Finished gems cut from the Cullinan Diamond include the Cullinan I (530.20 carats) and the Cullinan II (317.4 carats).
The yet-to-be-named, 998-carat gem might be worth $50 million or more, based on the per-carat price achieved by diamonds exhibiting similar characteristics.
For example, Lesedi La Rona was sold in September of 2017 for $53 million, and the Constellation fetched $63 million in May of 2016. Both were D-color diamonds that had been rated Type IIa, which means they were chemically pure with no traces of nitrogen or boron impurities.
Lucara reported that its newest find measured exactly 67x49x45mm and was recovered from direct milling of ore sourced from the Karowe mine's South Lobe. Recent finds at the mine included gem-quality rough diamonds weighing 273, 105, 83, 73 and 69 carats.
The 998-carat diamond was pulled from Lucara’s MDR (Mega Diamond Recovery) XRT circuit, a system that uses advanced technology to identify 100-carat-plus diamonds by monitoring the rocky material for X-ray luminescence, atomic density and transparency. Previously, large diamonds might have been mistaken as worthless ore and pulverized during the primary crushing process.
This recovery represents the second 500-plus-carat diamond recovered from this circuit in 2020. Year to date, Karowe has produced 31 diamonds greater than 100 carats, including 10 diamonds greater than 200 carats.
Just last week, we reported that luxury brand Louis Vuitton had secured the rights to represent Lucara’s 549-carat “Sethunya” rough diamond. The retailer will be offering its discriminating clients an opportunity to customize a piece of the rough diamond, down to the exact shape and carat weight.
Credits: Images courtesy of CNW Group/Lucara Diamond Corp.
Welcome to Music Friday when we often unearth wonderful, but sadly forgotten, songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, we present the immortal Nat King Cole singing “The Ruby and the Pearl,” the theme song to the 1952 film, Thunder in the East.
In this ballad written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, Cole uses gemstones and precious metals to describe his love and devotion. He sings, “Can love be as warm as the ruby? / Can love be as pure as the pearl? / Just look in the heart of my love for you. / You’ll find the ruby and the pearl.”
In a later verse, he sings, “My love will endure as the diamond / And shine with the shimmer of gold. / It glows like a bright star above for you / A thing of beauty to behold.”
Released on Capitol Records only one year after his iconic hit, “Unforgettable,” “The Ruby and the Pearl” peaked at #23 on the U.S. Billboard chart. One online movie reviewer noted that Cole’s beautiful performance of “The Ruby and the Pearl” was the best thing to come out of Thunder in the East, which he called a routine action film.
In 1954, “The Ruby and the Pearl” was included in a 10-inch LP Nat King Cole compilation album called Eight Top Pops.
Born in Montgomery, AL, in 1919 to a Baptist minister and a church organist, Nathanian Adam Coles learned to play the piano at the age of four. He first came to prominence as a jazz pianist, but is most famous for his silky smooth baritone voice. In 1956, he hosted The Nat King Cole Show on NBC, the first variety program to be hosted by an African American.
Nat King Cole's adopted middle name was inspired by the nursery rhyme "Old King Cole." He dropped the "s" from his last name when he started performing in Chicago clubs.
During his abbreviated career (he died of lung cancer in 1965 at the age of 45), Cole released 29 albums and scored 79 Top-40 singles. His famous daughter, singer Natalie Cole, saw her career cut short by congestive heart failure at the age of 55, in 2015.
In 1990, Nat King Cole was posthumously awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and, in 2000, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 1994, his likeness adorned an official U.S. postage stamp. More than 35 million 29-cent Nat "King" Cole stamps were released on September 1, 1994.
We invite you to enjoy the audio track of Cole’s hypnotizing performance of “The Ruby and the Pearl.” The lyrics are below if you’d like to sing along…
“The Ruby and the Pearl”
Music by Jay Livingston. Lyrics by Ray Evans. Performed by Nat King Cole.
Can love be as warm as the ruby?
Can love be as pure as the pearl?
Just look in the heart of my love for you.
You’ll find the ruby and the pearl.
My love will endure as the diamond
And shine with the shimmer of gold.
It glows as a bright star above for you,
A thing of beauty to behold.
Come close and cling to my kiss.
Stay close and share the passion of this.
Yes, love is as warm as the ruby
And love is as pure as the pearl.
Just look in the heart of my love for you.
You’ll find the ruby and the pearl.
Come close and cling to my kiss.
Come close and share the passion of this.
Yes, love is as warm as the ruby
And love is as pure as the pearl.
Just look in the heart of my love for you.
You’ll find the ruby and the pearl.
Credits: Cleary, Strauss, Irwin & Goodman-publicity, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Stamp image by the United States Postal Service, Smithsonian National Postal Museum.
“The Spirit of the Rose" set an auction record when an anonymous phone bidder secured the 14.83-carat, fancy vivid purple-pink diamond with an offer of 21 million Swiss francs at Sotheby's Geneva yesterday. With the buyer's premium added, the final price totaled 24.4 million Swiss francs ($26.6 million), or about $1.8 million per carat.
The bidding opened at 16 million Swiss francs and accelerated quickly in increments of 1 million francs. Within three minutes, Sotheby's Head of Magnificent Jewels sales, Benoit Repellin, slammed down the hammer and affirmed that The Spirit of the Rose had just set a record for the highest price ever paid at auction for a fancy vivid purple-pink.
The oval modified brilliant-cut stone, however, failed to live up to its pre-auction hype — slotting into the low range of its presale estimate of $21.1 million to $34.8 million.
The three-month promotional lead-up to the sale saw the gem making appearances in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taipei before returning to Geneva. One expert who got to see the stone close-up predicted it would fetch nearly double Sotheby's high estimate and rival the priciest pink diamonds the world has ever seen.
That elite group includes the 59.60-carat “CTF Pink Star” ($71.2 million), the 18.96-carat “Winston Pink Legacy” ($50.3 million), the 14.93-carat “Pink Promise” ($32.4 million), the 15.38-carat “Unique Pink” ($31.5 million) and the 16.08-carat “Sweet Josephine” ($28.5 million).
The Gemological Institute of America had graded The Spirit of the Rose as internally flawless with excellent polish and very good symmetry. It has the distinction of being the largest vivid purple-pink diamond ever graded by the GIA.
The gem was sourced in 2017 at Alrosa’s Ebelyakh deposit in Yakutia, Russia. In its rough state, it weighed 27.85 carats and remains the largest pink diamond ever mined in Russia.
The rough diamond was named “Nijinsky,” after Russian ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky.
The diamond was cut and polished at the Diamonds of Alrosa cutting facility in Moscow. Alrosa reported that the process took nearly a full year.
Alrosa named the faceted stone “The Spirit of the Rose” to honor the famous 1911 ballet of the same name. In French, the ballet was called “Le Spectre de la Rose,” and its primary dancers were Tamara Karsavina and Nijinsky.
Credits: Images courtesy of Sotheby's. Auction screen capture via Sothebys.com.
An ecstatic Anthony Anderson showed off his Hollywood Walk of Fame diamond ring during an interview with guest host Sarah Silverman on Monday's installment of The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
The Black-ish actor told Silverman that George Lopez and Cedric the Entertainer surprised him with the supersized, championship-style ring after his Walk of Fame Star was unveiled in mid-August.
After explaining how the celebration had to be pared down due to COVID-19 social gathering restrictions, he aimed the ring directly at the camera operator so the home audience could get a perfect view of the jewelry. The design features a miniature Walk of Fame star set in white precious metal and embellished by diamonds.
"It was kind of weird," the actor explained to Silverman. "They held the ceremony in a backroom at Ripley's Believe It or Not because of COVID. Only 11 people were allowed to be in the room, eight were family members. My mom was one. She gave a great speech for me. George Lopez was there, he gave a speech. And he also gave me this ring right here."
In a Tinseltown twist of fate, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce placed Anderson's star on the corner of Hollywood and Hyland.
"What's crazy [is] I went to Hollywood High School. So for years I would walk up and down Hollywood Boulevard, never in a million years thinking I would be immortalized on the Walk of Fame," Anderson said. "My star is literally across the street from my old high school."
In September, Anderson shared a closeup of the ring on his Instagram page and included this caption: "A gift from my brothers @cedtheentertainer and @georgelopez welcoming me to The Hollywood Walk of Fame. I have a Star amongst the Stars with my brothers!"
The 50-year-old told Silverman how bizarre it is to shoot a television series during a pandemic.
"It's been crazy," he said. "We have everything on our stage now except stop lights. We have crossing guards. We have grids on the floor. One way in, one way out. When the actors are moving, everything shuts down and everyone splits like the Red Sea."
There are more than 2,690 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, CA. The Hollywood Walk of Fame, which was conceived in the mid-1950s, honors all the major branches of the entertainment industry: motions pictures, broadcast television, audio recording or music, radio broadcast and theater/live performance.
Check out this clip of Anderson chatting with Silverman on Monday's show. The ring conversation starts at the 3:28 mark.
Credits. Screen captures via Youtube/TheEllenShow. Closeup ring image and Hollywood Walk of Fame image via instagram/anthonyanderson.
Back in 1979, the diamond industry was changed forever when the first Argyle Pinks were discovered atop an anthill in the Kimberley wilderness of Western Australia. You see, while excavating underground passages, ants famously bring unwanted obstacles to the surface. In this case, their painstaking work signaled that the anthill sat above a pipe of diamond-rich ore.
And so began an improbable 37-year odyssey that would see the Argyle mine generate more than 865 million carats of rough diamonds and become the world’s largest producer of colored diamonds.
Having exhausted its reserves, Rio Tinto shuttered its Argyle mining operations last Tuesday. Argyle employees, executives and local stakeholders attending a special event to mark the mine's formal transition from operational to under closure.
The Argyle mine had been the world's only consistent source of rare pink diamonds, accounting for more than 90% of the supply. Prior to the 1980s, pink diamonds had trickled into the market sporadically from India, Brazil, Africa and Indonesia.
“Fifty years ago, there were very few people who believed there were diamonds in Australia – even fewer could have foreseen how the Argyle story would unfold,” said Arnaud Soirat, Rio Tinto’s chief executive of Copper & Diamonds. “To arrive at this final chapter has required vision, courage and determination to overcome significant challenges to enter new territory in diamond exploration, mining and marketing."
According to Rio Tinto, the Argyle ore body — a single pipe known as AK1— was discovered in October 1979. Alluvial operations began in 1983, open pit mining began in 1985 and the mine became a fully underground operation in 2013. At its peak production, the mine was producing 40% of the world's diamond output by volume.
“This is a historic day for the Argyle mine and the east Kimberley region, and a great source of pride for this unique Australian success story,” noted Andrew Wilson, general manager of the Argyle mine. “A new chapter will now begin as we start the process of respectfully closing the Argyle mine and rehabilitating the land, to be handed back to its traditional custodians.”
That process is schedule to take about five years.
Luxury brand Louis Vuitton is taking the concept of bespoke opulence to a whole new level. By securing the rights to represent Lucara's 549-carat "Sethunya" diamond, the retailer can offer its discriminating clients a unique opportunity to design the gem of their dreams, down to the exact shape and carat weight.
"In this way, the client will be involved in the creative process of plotting, cutting, polishing and becoming part of the story that the stone will carry with it into history," noted a Lucara press release.
Back in February of 2020, Lucara Diamond Corp. announced that it had recovered a massive white diamond of “exceptional purity” from its Karowe mine in Botswana — a mine that has earned worldwide recognition for producing the 1,758-carat Sewelô, the 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona and the 813-carat Constellation diamond.
The 549-carat diamond was given the name Sethunya, which means "flower" in Setswana, the primary language spoken where the diamond was recovered.
In the three-way collaboration among Lucara, Louis Vuitton, and HB Antwerp, the latter will provide state-of-the-art scanning and planning technology to determine the number and size of diamonds that can be derived from the stone.
This is the second time Louis Vuitton has entered an agreement with Lucara to secure a huge rough stone. In January of 2020, the Paris-based retailer purchased the 1,758-carat Sewelô diamond, also from the Karowe mine.
Town and Country reported that the retailer will be taking both stones on a worldwide promotional tour, during which VIP clients will get a closeup look at the Sethunya and Sewelô diamonds and consult with cutting experts.
Sethunya is the fourth-largest diamond ever recovered from the prolific Karowe mine. It was cherry-picked from Lucara’s MDR (Mega Diamond Recovery) XRT circuit, a system that uses advanced technology to identify 100-carat-plus diamonds by monitoring the rocky material for X-ray luminescence, atomic density and transparency. Previously, large diamonds might have been mistaken as worthless ore and pulverized during the primary crushing process.
Credit: Photo by Philippe Lacombe, courtesy of Louis Vuitton (CNW Group/Lucara Diamond Corp.).
Welcome to Music Friday when we bring you fabulous songs with jewelry, gemstones or precious metals in the title or lyrics. Today, Carly Simon and then-husband James Taylor perform their hit, “Mockingbird,” in a rare live performance at NYC's Madison Square Garden in 1979.
In the catchy song that is actually based on the lullaby “Hush Little Baby,” the duo sings, “Everybody have you heard? / He’s gonna buy me a mockingbird / And if that mockingbird won’t sing / He’s gonna buy me a diamond ring."
“Mockingbird” reached #5 on the US Billboard Top 40 chart in 1974 and was released as the lead single from Simon’s Hotcakes album.
Five years later, “Mockingbird” would be back in the spotlight as Simon (who suffered from stage fright) and Taylor kicked off the high profile MUSE No Nuke concert at Madison Square Garden with a rousing rendition of the song.
MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) staged a series of concerts in September of 1979 to bring national attention to the dangers of nuclear power. Among the artists participating in the all-star shows were Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Brown, Bonnie Raitt, John Hall, The Doobie Brothers and Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Even though “Mockingbird” is widely associated with Simon and Taylor, who were married from 1972 to 1983, Inez and Charlie Foxx first released the song in 1963. That version was also a Top 10 hit.
It’s hard to believe that Simon, one of the quintessential singer/songwriters of the 1970s celebrated her 75th birthday in June. The Bronx-born, two-time Grammy winner has amassed 24 Billboard Hot 100 singles over her stellar career.
A few items of Simon trivia…
• She attended Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y.
• She is the daughter of Richard Simon, co-founder of the publishing house Simon & Schuster.
• She submitted a demo tape to Clive Davis at Columbia Records, who turned her down. She she ended up signing with Elektra.
• She earned a Grammy for Best New Artist in 1971.
• She and James Taylor lived in the house later owned and made infamous by O.J. Simpson.
The 72-year-old James Taylor is a five-time Grammy Award winner and one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 100 million records worldwide.
Please enjoy the video at the end of this post. It’s a classic clip from Simon and Taylor’s triumphant performance of “Mockingbird” during the No Nukes concert. As a bonus, we're including the audio track of the original release by Inez and Charlie Foxx. The lyrics are below if you'd like to sing along…
“Mockingbird”
Written by Inez and Charlie Foxx. Performed by Carly Simon and James Taylor.
Everybody have you heard?
He’s gonna buy me a mockingbird
And if that mockingbird won’t sing
He’s gonna buy me a diamond ring
And if that diamond ring won’t shine
He’s gonna surely break this heart of mine
And that’s why I keep on tellin’ ev’rybody, sayin’
Wo, wo, wo, wo, wo
Hear me now and understand
He’s gonna find me some peace of mind
And if that peace of mind won’t stay
I’m gonna find myself a better way
And if that better way ain’t so
I, I, I’ll ride with the tide and go with the flow
And that’s why I keep on shoutin’ in your ear sayin’
Wo, wo, wo, wo, wo
Everybody have you heard?
She’s gonna buy me a mockingbird
And if that mockingbird won’t sing
She’s gonna buy me a diamond ring
And if that diamond ring won’t shine
She’s gonna surely break this heart of mine
And that’s why I keep on tellin’ ev’rybody, sayin’ no, no, no, no,no
Listen now and understand
She’s gonna find me some peace of mind
And if that peace of mind won’t stay
I’m gonna find myself a better way
I might rise above , I might go below
I, I, I’ll ride with the tide and go with the flow
And that’s why I keep on shoutin’ in your ears y’all
No, no, no, no, no, no, now, now, baby
