Jewelry Gems – Antique Jewelry University

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Jewelry Gems

Jewelry Gems are those gemstones that are most likely to be set in fine jewelry. While gemstone popularity ebbs and wanes with fashion, culture, and other influences, the stones we call “Jewelry Gems” have stayed the course and become the most cherished by jewelry lovers throughout the world. Select from the Jewelry Gems pictorial glossary below to expand your knowledge of Mother Nature’s most magnificent creations.

Vignettes

Asscher-Cut Diamond.

Diamond

Diamonds are valued for their incredible brilliance and hardness. Diamonds are chemically pure carbon, identical to the graphite used for pencils. Diamonds’ hardness is the result of extremely strong chemical...

Terms & Definitions

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Banded Agate and Seed Pearl Victorian Brooch.

Agate

Agate is a variety of chalcedony found in many different colors and degrees of translucency. There are several varieties of agate named after their location of origin or physical characteristics....

Alexandrite and Diamond Ring

Alexandrite

Alexandrite is a variety of chrysoberyl with a distinct change of color when viewed in incandescent and fluorescent light. The colors that alexandrite occurs in depend on its geographical source...

Art Deco Amber Teardrop Earrings. Signed Day, Clark & Co.

Amber

In the forest primeval, a creature calls… Its echo is heard for millions of years. Frozen in time; the drama unfolds– A death struggle painted in amber tears.1 Amber is the fossilized resin...

Edwardian Amethyst and Diamond Brooch.

Amethyst

Amethyst is the most coveted member of the quartz family. It can be found in shades ranging from a very deep royal purple with hints of red, to a pale pastel lilac...

Diamond and Aquamarine Day and Night Earrings.

Aquamarine

Aquamarine is the blue variety of the mineral beryl. Most natural aquamarine is a pale bluish-green, which was the preferred color before 1900. Today it is routinely heat treated to...

Green Beryl and Diamond Pendant Necklace.

Beryl

Beryl is a beryllium aluminum silicate that occurs in every color of the rainbow but is colorless in pure form; various metallic impurities give beryl its varied coloration. When green,...

Antique Cat's-Eye Chrysoberyl and Diamond Ring.

Chrysoberyl

Chrysoberyl is among the most brilliant of gems and its hardness is only surpassed by diamonds and corundum. The name chrysoberyl derives from the Greek, meaning “Golden Beryl”, although, in...

Vintage Citrine Bracelet.

Citrine

Citrine is a yellow or golden variety of quartz, colored with iron. Natural citrine is relatively rare, occurring in Brazil, Madagascar and Myanmar. Most citrine on the market today is...

Art Deco Diamond and Coral Drop Earrings.

Coral

Coral is one of the very few organic gemstones. It consists of a mass of skeletons of tiny marine invertebrates that once lived in a colony attached to rocks or...

Antique Demantoid Garnet Earrings.

Demantoid

At the end of the reign of Nicholas I, Emperor of Russia, and the beginning of the reign of Tsar Alexander II – after whom the mineral alexandrite was named – a...

Emerald and Diamond Ring.

Emerald

Emerald is the green variety of the mineral beryl, owing its vibrant color to a trace amount of chromium and occasionally a slight trace of vanadium. The majority of emeralds...

Victorian Garnet Carbuncle and Diamond Necklace.

Garnet

The term garnet applies to a group of minerals with six main varieties. The varieties differ in chemical composition and color but share the same crystal system. These varieties are:...

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