Look Book

34 | The Jewelr y Book FINALLY GETTING THEIR DUE: GARNET, SPINEL & ZIRCON A F T E R WA L K I N G T H E F LO O R of The COUTURE Show this year, it became apparent to me that garnets, spinels, and zircons were having their moment. Yet for most of recorded history, these gemstones were hiding in plain sight, answering to names that weren't theirs. Take the garnet, whose name comes by way of the Old French grenate, for the stone's resemblance to the seeds of a pomegranate. Garnets have been coveted as far back as the Bronze Age, whether by Egyptian pharaohs who adorned themselves with garnet neck- laces, Roman nobles who wore signet rings of carved garnet, or Native American healers who believed gar- nets could protect against injury and poison. Yet for centuries the stone was referred to as "carbuncle," a name once given to a number of red gemstones and still used for a garnet cut en cabochon. In fact, it was a carbuncle that some accounts identify as the glowing stone that, according to Jewish tradition, lit Noah's Ark through the Flood. Spinel spent centuries being mistaken for ruby—until mineralogist Jean-Baptiste Louis Romé de l'Isle identified spinel as a unique mineral in 1783—and as a result, three of history's most storied and celebrated rubies have all been outed as spinels. Most famously, there's the 170-carat Black Prince's Ruby, which passed through a succession of Moorish and Spanish kings before reaching Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1367; and which, since the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838, has held pride of place at the front of Britain's Imperial State Crown. Not to be outdone, Russia's Great Imperial Crown, created for the coronation of Empress Catherine II in 1762, is topped by the aptly (though still erroneously) named 398.72-carat Catherine the Great's Ruby, itself another misidentified spinel. But perhaps it's the unfaceted 352.54-carat Timur Ruby that most completely missed the mark with its name, because not only is this incredible stone—inscribed with the names of its Mughal, Persian, and Afghan owners, and currently part of Britain's Royal Collection—not a ruby, but according to scholars, it was never possessed by Timur. JADE RUZZO: OOAK 'Danielle' Cuff with Rose Zircon (from the "Gloria" collection) featuring an oval-cut Rose Zircon (23.50ct | Tanzania), set in 18K Gold, on a cuff of hand-finished Palisander Wood. JadeRuzzo.com ARA VARTANIAN: Garnet and Black Diamond Brooch (from the "Ara x Mr. Dean" collection, developed in collaboration with Swizz Beatz) featuring a pair of faceted kite-shaped Garnets (6.11ctw | Madagascar), 3 reverse-set round brilliant-cut Black Diamonds (2.17ctw), and 24 round brilliant-cut Diamonds (0.11ctw), set on a brooch of 18K White Gold and 18K Gold. AraVartanian.com YAEL SONIA: Tsavorite 'Circle' Earrings (from the "Perpetual Motion" collection) featuring round brilliant-cut Tsavorite Garnets (3.37ctw | Africa), set in 18K Gold. YaelSonia.com PICCHIOTTI: OOAK Unheated Nigerian Spessartite and Diamond Brooch (from the "Essentially Color" collection) featuring an oval-cut unheated Spessartite (28.67ct | Nigeria) and round brilliant- cut Diamonds (26.39ctw | F-G, VS), set in 18K White Gold. Picchiotti.it by Michael Shulman C U R R E N T O B S E S S I O N ASSAEL: Collectible Natural-Color Fijian Pearl and Zircon Necklace (from the "Colors" collection by Peggy Grosz) featuring 16 coronet- set Zircons in an array of hues (62.00ctw), and 9 natural-color Cultured Fijian Pearls (10.4-11.8mm), set in 18K Gold and Sterling Silver. Assael.com

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