Sunday, July 15, 2007
200 Top Art Collectors
The Art News 200 top art collectors list @ http://www.artnewsonline.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2311
European Commission May Reconsider Decision To Close SoC Investigations
Chaim Even-Zohar writes about European Commission's (EC) views regarding De Beers’ Supplier of Choice (SoC), background to the judgment + the impact + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp
Jewel Thieves Make Off With Huge Haul
(via ABC news) London thieves show up in Bentley, make off with millions worth of jewelry.
The victim: Graff Jewellers!
More info @ http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3368938
The victim: Graff Jewellers!
More info @ http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3368938
Who Is Smiling?
Economist writes:
Riches do not necessarily make happiness, but a poll of 130 countries by Gallup found more people in wealthy places (America, Europe, Japan, Saudi Arabia) consider themselves happy, while those in poor countries (in Africa especially) generally do not. A map of the results, therefore, looks rather like an income plot of the world. There are a few exceptions. Mid-income Costa Ricans and Venezuelans are among the happiest on the planet. Georgians and Armenians, although not terribly poor, are among the glummest.
More info @http://www.economist.com/daily/chartgallery/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9490466
Riches do not necessarily make happiness, but a poll of 130 countries by Gallup found more people in wealthy places (America, Europe, Japan, Saudi Arabia) consider themselves happy, while those in poor countries (in Africa especially) generally do not. A map of the results, therefore, looks rather like an income plot of the world. There are a few exceptions. Mid-income Costa Ricans and Venezuelans are among the happiest on the planet. Georgians and Armenians, although not terribly poor, are among the glummest.
More info @http://www.economist.com/daily/chartgallery/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9490466
The Pleasures Of Discovery
(via The Journal of Gemmology, Vol.XIV, No.3, July 1974) B W Anderson writes:
(being the substance of a talk given to the Gemmological Association of Great Britain at Goldsmith’s Hall on 29th October, 1973)
The war
When Munich made it clear that war must inevitably come, Payne joined the Territorial Army and was trained as a gunner, whilst I enrolled with the Auxiliary Fire Service in London. When war was declared Payne was called up at once and spent the next few years fighting with the Eighth Army, rejoining the laboratory in September, 1945, just in time to prevent my being totally submerged in a sea of pearl testing. I was able to carry on with such testing work as there was with the aid of Sgt Stelling, a stalwart commissionaire, who had been taken on for the holiday period but who stayed for the ‘duration’. Actually, after the initial shock of war and the London ‘blitz’, the amount of testing work became quite heavy for one person. The number of tests undertaken dropped from the 1938 figure of 776 to 531 in 1939 and 323 in 1940, but had risen to 782 in 1944 and to 1062 in 1945. It was in 1946 that the really great expansion began and we enlisted the help of Robert Webster and Alec Farn, which completed the ‘Phalanx of Four’ which coped with the strenuous testing work of the next 25 years.
I mustn’t dwell on those war years, as I want to carry on with the story of discovery of new gem minerals, but a few points perhaps may be worth recalling.
As a safety precaution, our committee had moved our valuable X-ray equipment to a basement belonging to Johnson, Matthey & Co in Poland Street. This made the testing of undrilled and part-drilled pearls a very time consuming business, as I had to go down to Poland Street to take the photographs, and then post back to the laboratory to develop them.
The laboratory had several ‘near misses’ with bombs and fire, with minor damage. On the worst occasion I was luckily fighting a fire nearby and obtained permission to see how things were in the lab. A large cupboard full of chemicals had fallen on its face, making a truly unwholeseome mess on the floor. All I could do at the time was to pick up the small bottle containing the spontaneously inflammable yellow phosphorus, which I could see glowing in the dark, and put it into a bucket of water to wait for the morrow. I also had to comfort as best I could our diminutive housekeeper and his tearful wife, who had been sleeping each under one of our endoscopes when the bomb fell, and awoke to find that the apparatus had fallen on and around their legs. It required a good deal of cannibalization from other endoscopes to get ours into working order again.
During this war period I was able to do some useful work on the classification of diamond absorption and fluorescence, the distinction between pyrope and red spinel, etc. I also became aware for the first time of the advantages of the Becke 2458 prism spectroscope for spotting purposes, and with its aid discovered the ‘difficult’ absorption spectrum of turquoise, which has
since proved extremely useful. But now I must resume my main narrative.
Taaffeite
The discovery of the new gem mineral Taaffeite reads like a gemological fairy tale. Count Taaffe, only son of the 12th Viscount Taaffe of Corran, Baron of Ballymote in County Sligo, Ireland, was born in Bohemia in 1898, and died in Dublin in 1967. He was the first of his family to be allowed to return to Ireland after its long exile in Bohemia and Austria. Taaffe was a keen amateur both of gemology and astronomy, and found it both profitable and interesting to peddle in gemstones. Amongst his sources for inexpensive stones were the boxes of addments which jewelers keep behind their counters, finding them useful for jobbing purposes. In October 1945 he spent some days looking through the boxes belong to a friendly jeweler, Mr Robert Dobbie, and paid him £14 for the stones which interested him, which were mostly broken out of jewelry: badly rubbed or chipped in many cases.
Taffee worked with meager equipment, but made very effective use of what he did possess. He had no refractometer and no accurate balance. His chief instrument was a Bausch and Lomb binocular microscope without a stage, giving a magnification of 21 diameters.
His first steps, to which he attached great importance, in tackling a mixed batch of stones such as the lot from Mr Dobbie, was to clean the stones very thoroughly and then divide them by eye into batches according to color. He then examined each stone very carefully, holding it in tongs an scrutinizing it from all angles over a sheet of white paper. The illumination was a flexible desk lamp with a 100 watt bulb.
The stone which, incredibly, was later found to belong to a new mineral species was amongst a group of violet, mauve, and lilac colored stones. These were mostly spinels, but the stone in question showed in certain directions distinct signs of double refraction. In his words, ‘every speck of dust on the back and every scratch appeared double, like on a badly wobbled snapshot’. Since, as we now know, the stone had a D.R of only 0.005 and weighed only 1.42 carats, this was a remarkably acute piece of observation. He confirmed that the stone was birefringent by a test between crossed nicols, took a remarkably good density measurement (the average of ten attempts, using a hand-held balance) and finally on November 1st he posted the stone to me at the laboratory with a covering letter: ‘This time a new riddle: what is this mauve stone? It seems to me to answer all the characteristics of spinel, yet it shows double refraction: doubling of facets visible under the Greenough, extinction when polarized, though with queer color effects. Could anomalous double refraction be so strong? R.I too high for topaz, too low for corundum. What is it?’
The stone as received weighed 1.419 carats. Its shape suggested that it had been cut in Ceylon. The refractive indices were 1.718 for the extraordinary ray and 1.723 for the ordinary ray—thus the stone was uniaxial negative. It gave a clear uniaxial interference figure through the table facet. The density as then determined by hydrostatic weighing in ethylene dibromide was 3.621—later corrected to 3.613 by our Clerici solution flotation method, using blue spinels as indicators, one slightly denser and the other a little less dense than the taaffeite. The absorption spectrum was weak, but resembled that of blue spinel very closely.
I replied to Count Taaffe on November 5th, stating our findings and asking permission to have an X-ray analysis made if possible without harming the stone.
Preliminary X-ray tests carried out by Dr Claringbull confirmed the optical indications that the stone could not be spinel. To enable more X-ray and chemical work to be carried out Count Taaffe courageously agreed to having first one slice and then another removed from the culet region, stipulating only that the remains of his historic little stone be returned to him as a faceted gem. This work most skillfully carried out by Charles Mathews Lapidaries Ltd, the stone being reduced first to 0.95 and then to 0.56 carat. With a little imagination one can appreciate Taaffe’s feelings, knowing that he had discovered something quite new to science, but with only one small specimen as the representative of the new species.
On small crushed fragments from the stone X-ray powder, rotation and oriented Laue photographs were taken, showing the mineral to be hexagonal and to belong to the hexagonal trapezohedral class of symmetry—a class to which only ‘high’ quartz (formed above 573ºC) is known to belong. Preliminary analysis showed the presence of magnesium, alumunium and beryllium, and the final analysis, which was not completed until 1951, and was carried out by Dr Hey on only 6.16 milligrams of material, gave the essential formula as MgO.BeO.2Al2O3—that is, intermediate in composition between spinel and chrysoberyl. The ‘Oscars’ were mounting up for taaffeite: it belonged to a very rare class of crystal symmetry; and it was the only mineral known to contain both beryllium and magnesium as essential constituents. Data for an artificial compound of similar composition which were published in 1946 showed only a rough resemblance to those for taaffeite.
Naturally we kept a sharp lookout for further specimens, and examined every pale mauve spinel we could lay our hands on with extreme care, but it was not until October 1949 that the second taaffeite came to light, the honor and credit falling to C J Payne. He was working rather late in the laboratory on an interesting collection of 104 stones (mostly from Ceylon) sent in by a dealer for a routine test. There were a number of green sapphires and pale blue spinels and one kornerupine, which served as a curtain-raiser for a pale mauve stone weighing 0.86 carat which gave what appeared to be a taaffeite reading on the refractrometer. This was confirmed by the observation of a uniaxial interference figure. Payne was naturally enormously excited by his discovery after four years of searching, and rang me up at Goldsmith’s Hall where Webster and I were attending at a Gemological Exhibition being held there. Next day I was on holiday in Devon and had to carry on some cautious haggling by telephone with Payne as intermediary. At any cost, we had to have that stone. By using the kornerupine as a stalking horse we were able to obtain the two stones for £20.
After publication of the taaffeite story in Nature, the gemological journals, and Mineralogical Magazine in 1951, keen gemologists the world over were on the lookout for further specimens, but taaffeite number three did not appear until Christmas Eve, 1957, when it was spotted in the New York Gem Laboratory by our friend Robert Crowningshield. A further ten years were to elapse before a fourth specimen was identified in America following an article on the subject by George Bruce in the Modern Jeweler. This was a ‘giant’ of 5.34 carats, and, surprisingly, dark brownish purple in color.
In 1963 came a report that crystals of the mineral up to 1cm in length had been found in the Hunnan Province of China, though not of gem quality, and specimens are to be seen in the Mineralogical Museum of the Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Since then, tiny green crystals found in the Musgrave Ranges of Central Australia were found to be a ‘polytype’ of taaffeite in which nine subcells instead of four make up the unit cell, giving threefold in place of sixfold symmetry to X-ray patterns. One day, I am sure, a pebble of taaffeite will be found in the Ceylon gem gravels.
Of the four cut taaffeites mentioned, the original specimen was purchased by Mr R K Mitchell after Taaffe’s death, together with other stones from his small collection; the stone discovered by Payne is where it should be—in the Natural History Museum in South Kensington—while the American stones are apparently both in the hands of a private collector, though one was on show for a year at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington.
(continued)
(being the substance of a talk given to the Gemmological Association of Great Britain at Goldsmith’s Hall on 29th October, 1973)
The war
When Munich made it clear that war must inevitably come, Payne joined the Territorial Army and was trained as a gunner, whilst I enrolled with the Auxiliary Fire Service in London. When war was declared Payne was called up at once and spent the next few years fighting with the Eighth Army, rejoining the laboratory in September, 1945, just in time to prevent my being totally submerged in a sea of pearl testing. I was able to carry on with such testing work as there was with the aid of Sgt Stelling, a stalwart commissionaire, who had been taken on for the holiday period but who stayed for the ‘duration’. Actually, after the initial shock of war and the London ‘blitz’, the amount of testing work became quite heavy for one person. The number of tests undertaken dropped from the 1938 figure of 776 to 531 in 1939 and 323 in 1940, but had risen to 782 in 1944 and to 1062 in 1945. It was in 1946 that the really great expansion began and we enlisted the help of Robert Webster and Alec Farn, which completed the ‘Phalanx of Four’ which coped with the strenuous testing work of the next 25 years.
I mustn’t dwell on those war years, as I want to carry on with the story of discovery of new gem minerals, but a few points perhaps may be worth recalling.
As a safety precaution, our committee had moved our valuable X-ray equipment to a basement belonging to Johnson, Matthey & Co in Poland Street. This made the testing of undrilled and part-drilled pearls a very time consuming business, as I had to go down to Poland Street to take the photographs, and then post back to the laboratory to develop them.
The laboratory had several ‘near misses’ with bombs and fire, with minor damage. On the worst occasion I was luckily fighting a fire nearby and obtained permission to see how things were in the lab. A large cupboard full of chemicals had fallen on its face, making a truly unwholeseome mess on the floor. All I could do at the time was to pick up the small bottle containing the spontaneously inflammable yellow phosphorus, which I could see glowing in the dark, and put it into a bucket of water to wait for the morrow. I also had to comfort as best I could our diminutive housekeeper and his tearful wife, who had been sleeping each under one of our endoscopes when the bomb fell, and awoke to find that the apparatus had fallen on and around their legs. It required a good deal of cannibalization from other endoscopes to get ours into working order again.
During this war period I was able to do some useful work on the classification of diamond absorption and fluorescence, the distinction between pyrope and red spinel, etc. I also became aware for the first time of the advantages of the Becke 2458 prism spectroscope for spotting purposes, and with its aid discovered the ‘difficult’ absorption spectrum of turquoise, which has
since proved extremely useful. But now I must resume my main narrative.
Taaffeite
The discovery of the new gem mineral Taaffeite reads like a gemological fairy tale. Count Taaffe, only son of the 12th Viscount Taaffe of Corran, Baron of Ballymote in County Sligo, Ireland, was born in Bohemia in 1898, and died in Dublin in 1967. He was the first of his family to be allowed to return to Ireland after its long exile in Bohemia and Austria. Taaffe was a keen amateur both of gemology and astronomy, and found it both profitable and interesting to peddle in gemstones. Amongst his sources for inexpensive stones were the boxes of addments which jewelers keep behind their counters, finding them useful for jobbing purposes. In October 1945 he spent some days looking through the boxes belong to a friendly jeweler, Mr Robert Dobbie, and paid him £14 for the stones which interested him, which were mostly broken out of jewelry: badly rubbed or chipped in many cases.
Taffee worked with meager equipment, but made very effective use of what he did possess. He had no refractometer and no accurate balance. His chief instrument was a Bausch and Lomb binocular microscope without a stage, giving a magnification of 21 diameters.
His first steps, to which he attached great importance, in tackling a mixed batch of stones such as the lot from Mr Dobbie, was to clean the stones very thoroughly and then divide them by eye into batches according to color. He then examined each stone very carefully, holding it in tongs an scrutinizing it from all angles over a sheet of white paper. The illumination was a flexible desk lamp with a 100 watt bulb.
The stone which, incredibly, was later found to belong to a new mineral species was amongst a group of violet, mauve, and lilac colored stones. These were mostly spinels, but the stone in question showed in certain directions distinct signs of double refraction. In his words, ‘every speck of dust on the back and every scratch appeared double, like on a badly wobbled snapshot’. Since, as we now know, the stone had a D.R of only 0.005 and weighed only 1.42 carats, this was a remarkably acute piece of observation. He confirmed that the stone was birefringent by a test between crossed nicols, took a remarkably good density measurement (the average of ten attempts, using a hand-held balance) and finally on November 1st he posted the stone to me at the laboratory with a covering letter: ‘This time a new riddle: what is this mauve stone? It seems to me to answer all the characteristics of spinel, yet it shows double refraction: doubling of facets visible under the Greenough, extinction when polarized, though with queer color effects. Could anomalous double refraction be so strong? R.I too high for topaz, too low for corundum. What is it?’
The stone as received weighed 1.419 carats. Its shape suggested that it had been cut in Ceylon. The refractive indices were 1.718 for the extraordinary ray and 1.723 for the ordinary ray—thus the stone was uniaxial negative. It gave a clear uniaxial interference figure through the table facet. The density as then determined by hydrostatic weighing in ethylene dibromide was 3.621—later corrected to 3.613 by our Clerici solution flotation method, using blue spinels as indicators, one slightly denser and the other a little less dense than the taaffeite. The absorption spectrum was weak, but resembled that of blue spinel very closely.
I replied to Count Taaffe on November 5th, stating our findings and asking permission to have an X-ray analysis made if possible without harming the stone.
Preliminary X-ray tests carried out by Dr Claringbull confirmed the optical indications that the stone could not be spinel. To enable more X-ray and chemical work to be carried out Count Taaffe courageously agreed to having first one slice and then another removed from the culet region, stipulating only that the remains of his historic little stone be returned to him as a faceted gem. This work most skillfully carried out by Charles Mathews Lapidaries Ltd, the stone being reduced first to 0.95 and then to 0.56 carat. With a little imagination one can appreciate Taaffe’s feelings, knowing that he had discovered something quite new to science, but with only one small specimen as the representative of the new species.
On small crushed fragments from the stone X-ray powder, rotation and oriented Laue photographs were taken, showing the mineral to be hexagonal and to belong to the hexagonal trapezohedral class of symmetry—a class to which only ‘high’ quartz (formed above 573ºC) is known to belong. Preliminary analysis showed the presence of magnesium, alumunium and beryllium, and the final analysis, which was not completed until 1951, and was carried out by Dr Hey on only 6.16 milligrams of material, gave the essential formula as MgO.BeO.2Al2O3—that is, intermediate in composition between spinel and chrysoberyl. The ‘Oscars’ were mounting up for taaffeite: it belonged to a very rare class of crystal symmetry; and it was the only mineral known to contain both beryllium and magnesium as essential constituents. Data for an artificial compound of similar composition which were published in 1946 showed only a rough resemblance to those for taaffeite.
Naturally we kept a sharp lookout for further specimens, and examined every pale mauve spinel we could lay our hands on with extreme care, but it was not until October 1949 that the second taaffeite came to light, the honor and credit falling to C J Payne. He was working rather late in the laboratory on an interesting collection of 104 stones (mostly from Ceylon) sent in by a dealer for a routine test. There were a number of green sapphires and pale blue spinels and one kornerupine, which served as a curtain-raiser for a pale mauve stone weighing 0.86 carat which gave what appeared to be a taaffeite reading on the refractrometer. This was confirmed by the observation of a uniaxial interference figure. Payne was naturally enormously excited by his discovery after four years of searching, and rang me up at Goldsmith’s Hall where Webster and I were attending at a Gemological Exhibition being held there. Next day I was on holiday in Devon and had to carry on some cautious haggling by telephone with Payne as intermediary. At any cost, we had to have that stone. By using the kornerupine as a stalking horse we were able to obtain the two stones for £20.
After publication of the taaffeite story in Nature, the gemological journals, and Mineralogical Magazine in 1951, keen gemologists the world over were on the lookout for further specimens, but taaffeite number three did not appear until Christmas Eve, 1957, when it was spotted in the New York Gem Laboratory by our friend Robert Crowningshield. A further ten years were to elapse before a fourth specimen was identified in America following an article on the subject by George Bruce in the Modern Jeweler. This was a ‘giant’ of 5.34 carats, and, surprisingly, dark brownish purple in color.
In 1963 came a report that crystals of the mineral up to 1cm in length had been found in the Hunnan Province of China, though not of gem quality, and specimens are to be seen in the Mineralogical Museum of the Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Since then, tiny green crystals found in the Musgrave Ranges of Central Australia were found to be a ‘polytype’ of taaffeite in which nine subcells instead of four make up the unit cell, giving threefold in place of sixfold symmetry to X-ray patterns. One day, I am sure, a pebble of taaffeite will be found in the Ceylon gem gravels.
Of the four cut taaffeites mentioned, the original specimen was purchased by Mr R K Mitchell after Taaffe’s death, together with other stones from his small collection; the stone discovered by Payne is where it should be—in the Natural History Museum in South Kensington—while the American stones are apparently both in the hands of a private collector, though one was on show for a year at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington.
(continued)
Dumortierite
Chemistry: Aluminum boro-silicate
Crystal system: Orthorhombic; crystals rare; usually massive fibrous or columnar aggregates.
Color: Opaque; dark blue, blue, violet, brown/red.
Hardness: 7.0 – 8.5
Cleavage: Perfect; Fracture: conchoidal.
Specific gravity: 3.26 – 3.41
Refractive index: 1.686 – 1.723 (blurred, often intergrown with quartz will give quartz reading); 0.037
Luster: Vitreous to dull.
Dispersion: -
Dichroism: Strong; brown, orange, red.
Occurrence: Metamorphic and pegmatites; Brazil, Sri Lanka, Canada, Namibia, France, Madagascar, Poland.
Notes
Ornamental material; much gem Durmortierite is intergrown with quartz; for red/brown higher physical properties; may look like lapis lazuli, sodalite and azurite; weak but variable fluorescence; usually cut cabochon, beads and carvings.
Crystal system: Orthorhombic; crystals rare; usually massive fibrous or columnar aggregates.
Color: Opaque; dark blue, blue, violet, brown/red.
Hardness: 7.0 – 8.5
Cleavage: Perfect; Fracture: conchoidal.
Specific gravity: 3.26 – 3.41
Refractive index: 1.686 – 1.723 (blurred, often intergrown with quartz will give quartz reading); 0.037
Luster: Vitreous to dull.
Dispersion: -
Dichroism: Strong; brown, orange, red.
Occurrence: Metamorphic and pegmatites; Brazil, Sri Lanka, Canada, Namibia, France, Madagascar, Poland.
Notes
Ornamental material; much gem Durmortierite is intergrown with quartz; for red/brown higher physical properties; may look like lapis lazuli, sodalite and azurite; weak but variable fluorescence; usually cut cabochon, beads and carvings.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
The Offer-You-Can’t-Refuse Market
Milton Esterow writes about the art market + the characters behind the purchases + the importance of private markets (than the auction markets) + other viewpoints @ http://www.artnewsonline.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2310
Indonesian Art: The Undercutting Edge
Jason Tedjasukmana writes about the talented Indonesian artists + the extraordinary value in comparison to the record-breaking sums trading hands at Asian art auctions + other viewpoints @ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1642682,00.html
George Melly
The Economist writes:
.....but Mr Melly liked fishing for another reason. As a lifelong Surrealist, he was sure that the bizarre and marvellous lay in wait for him everywhere, and carried in his head a Surrealist motto, “the certainty of chance”. Chance might give him a fish with the next cast; and chance shaped his drifting, exuberant, deep-drinking life, from Stowe to the wartime navy to art-dealing to journalism on the Observer, through a rich cast of queens, hoodlums, sailors, old trouts, whores and martinets, until in 1974 the career of a risqué jazz singer finally hooked him for good.
More info @ http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9467099
Alan George Heywood Melly, jazzman and writer, was Britain's most outrageous jazz singer + a tranquil fisherman. Think for a moment. Certainity of chance might/should work in other faculties of life too, like finding a new gem deposit, flawless, near flawless diamonds, rubies, blue sapphires + other colored stones, good men + women, business partner (s) and so on.....by the way, I do believe in the certainty of chance.
.....but Mr Melly liked fishing for another reason. As a lifelong Surrealist, he was sure that the bizarre and marvellous lay in wait for him everywhere, and carried in his head a Surrealist motto, “the certainty of chance”. Chance might give him a fish with the next cast; and chance shaped his drifting, exuberant, deep-drinking life, from Stowe to the wartime navy to art-dealing to journalism on the Observer, through a rich cast of queens, hoodlums, sailors, old trouts, whores and martinets, until in 1974 the career of a risqué jazz singer finally hooked him for good.
More info @ http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9467099
Alan George Heywood Melly, jazzman and writer, was Britain's most outrageous jazz singer + a tranquil fisherman. Think for a moment. Certainity of chance might/should work in other faculties of life too, like finding a new gem deposit, flawless, near flawless diamonds, rubies, blue sapphires + other colored stones, good men + women, business partner (s) and so on.....by the way, I do believe in the certainty of chance.
Africa First In Focus: Has It Got What It Needs To Succeed?
(Vol.3 Edition 7, June 2007) Antwerp Focus writes:
Observers note that, ironically, the first shot in what was supposed to be a revolutuion in the South African minerals sector was heard not at home, but in Belgium, at Antwerp Diamond Conference in November 2004. It was fired by President Thabo Mbeki, who was the guest of honor and keynote speaker at the conference’s gala dinner.
‘There is a widely shared view that all humanity should seek to make an impact on the globalization process so that it does not result in the marginalization and impoverishment of large numbers of people globally,’ Mbeki said. ‘With regard to our own continent, it is our firm view that this cannot be done on the basis of the pertuation of the old relationnship according to which we as colonies produced and exported raw materials and imported high vaue added manufactured goods from the colonizing countries.’
Thus was unveiled a policy that came to be known as ‘beneficiation’. It referred to a deliberate practice of preferential treatment for South African industry, with the goal being that a greater percentage of the country’s mineral output would be processed at home, thereby providing the domestic economy with an increased share of the added value that comes from further down the distribution pipeline.
‘From a jewelry perspective, it is common knowledge that South Africa is one of the richest countries in the world in mineral reserves, producing approximately 25% of all raw materials for worldwide jewelry production,’ explained Elizabeth Thabethe, South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, in an address she delivered on March 12 to the 2007 CIBJO Congress in Cape Town. ‘But although South Africa is an exporter of jewelry, we contribute less than half a percent to the world’s fabricated jewelry market. There is growing recognition that South Africa must develop the means to transform its compartive advantage as a leading producer of precious metals and stones to become a globally competitive producer and marketer of jewelry.’
Initially, the international reaction to the South African government’s beneficiation policy was lukewarm at best. But a growing recognition among the leadership of the gemstone and jewelry sector that the industry needs to play a more proactive role in promoting sustainable economic social development in the producing countries has led to a general acceptance that the ‘Africa First’ approach has merit.
For the South African government, there is a link between economic development and longterm political stability. ‘We have more than 10 million young, unskilled people with 12 years and less of schooling to focus on in the short term,’ explained South Africa’s deputy president, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, in her address to the CIBJO Congress. ‘If our democracy is to work, it is with them, in the first place, with whom the growth must be shared.’
The government is vesting a great deal in beneficiation. It hopes that the policy will contribute to its achieving a level of GDP growth of 6 percent per annum by 2010. It it falls short, the post-apartheid honeymoon, which still has not completely ended, would definitely be over.
But members of the South African jewelry industry, while supportive of the beneficiation strategy, are nonethelss skeptical about its chances of success. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I would love for it to work out,’ said a jewelry manufacturer in Johannesburg. ‘But, as it is designed right now, I am not sure that it addresses our most basic concerns, and the world certainly is not waiting for us to catch up.’
Beneficiation is not simply a goal; it is being ensconced into law. The country’s new Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act, as well as recent amendments to the Diamond Act and chapter 16 of the Minerals Rights Act were, in the words of the South African Minerals and Energy Minister, Buyelwa Sonjica, ‘carrierd out to encourage wider participation, across race and gender, in both mining and beneficiation.’
A key element of the amended Diamond Act invovles the establishment of the State Diamond Trader, whose role it will be to acquire and distribute rough diamonds to local cutters and polishers. While the minister of Minerals and Energy is still scheduled to provide a detailed explanation of the functions and modus operandi of the State Diamond Trader, reportedly the new government agency will purchase 10 percent of South African rough output specifically for local beneficiation. Furthermore, the output of the government-owned Alexkor mine will be supplied to the State Diamond Trader, and De Beers transferring to the new government agency its local Diamdel infrastructure and personnel.
The amended Diamond Act also includesa tax on rough diamond exports, which at one stage was pegged 15 percent, but since has been reduced to a more moderate 5 percent. But, warned South African analyst James Allan, when he addressed a mainly local audience at the Diamonds Africa 2007 conference in Johannesburg on April 23, the export tax may have ‘unintended consequences’. While it certainly has the potential of creating between 400 and 500 additional jobs in the local cutting industry, as result of more rough remaining in the country, it may also have the effect of cutting rough diamond supplies by up to 30 percent and, ultimately, could lead to the loss of about 5000 mining jobs, Allan said. In his opinion, the pressures created by the addition of the 5 percent export tax could accelerate due to De Beer’s decision to close or sell the more marginal Cullinan, Namaqualand and Koffiefontein diamond mines.
Allan said that the local cutting industry can only be grown by reducing costs and improved productivity. He said that South African cutters find it very difficult to compete with India and China, when their cutting costs vary between $45 per carat and $100 per carat, whereas in India the costs are between $1 per carat and $8 per carat, and in China between $6 per carat and $12 per carat. For South Africa to become a major diamond beneficiation center, it would have to cut its production costs to no more than $20 per carat, he stated.
Despite the difficulties facing it, South Africa’s diamond cutting sector is still in better shape to impact the international marketplace than is the country’s jewelry manufacturing sector. The South African jewelry industry comprises 350 manufacturing companies, employing about 3000 people, although there may be up to 2500 manufacturers in the informal sector. Most of the jewelry sector’s output is geared to the local market, with only a handful of companies actively targeting overseas customers. In 2000, AngloGold—now AngloGold Ashanti—one of the world’s largest gold producers, acquired a 25 percent stake in OroAfrica, and began to cooperate with the company on a number of strategic marketing initiatives, including the establishment of a new product design center. The company exports a significant part of its output to the United States and Europe.
But, said Gary Nathan, OroAfrica’s managing director, while his company has shown that is possible for South Africans to penetrate and compete in foreign market, ‘we face a range of obstacles that severely hinder the development of an export oriented jewelry sector. If, for example, I was manufacturing in Italy and I needed findings, I could walk down the street to my supplier and buy exactly the amount that I require. Here, my options are to make them myself, or to order them from abroad. Right from the outset I am working at a disadvantage.’
In October 2000, AngloGold Ashanti and Rand Refinery initiated a ‘clustering’ project designed to assist jewelry manufacturers to export. Called the Gold Zone, it involved the establishment of a manufacturing enclosure on a 3.3 hectare plot provided by Rand Refinery, whose own facility is adjacent. Firms in the zone could not only benefit from low rental and maintenance costs, but also from the direct and secure supplies of gold from the refinery, and access to secure export facilities at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. To date, only one manufacturer—albeit one the country’s largest, Alan Mair Manufacturing Jewellers—was prepared to invest in building a factory in the Gold Zone.
Unlike other jewelry manufacturing centers, South Africa never developed an active bullion lending business, which would have enabled manufacturing jewelers to benefit from gold lending rates based on the gold lease rate, which is typically lower than monetary interest rates. Local jewelers had to rely on ordinary bank loan agreements for financing working gold inventory, and South Africa is a high interest rate country. Local jewelry manufacturers typically pay prime interest rates plus a 2-3 percent risk premium. Local manufacturers say that this makes their gold at least 6 percent more expensive than their competitors abroad.
The government has been looking for a solution. At the end of 2005, it initiated the launch of a 1000 kilogram gold advance scheme through a consortium that included European defense contractors Saab and BAE Systems, and gold mining companies AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields Limited, which collectively extended guarantees of $10.5 million to Standard Bank, which would underwrite the scheme.
For a variety of reasons the gold loan has to date been ineffectual, but it and other complementary programs continue to enjoy the strong support of government. ‘The jewelry industry, as a down stream industry, is ideally placed to contribute to job creation and economic growth,’ Deputy President Mlambo-Ngcuka, told the CIBJO Congress in March. ‘The industry is in large parts labor intensive and could be a contributor to social and economic development. We recognize direct jobs are not in millions but we welcome the thousands and the indirect jobs.’
Observers note that, ironically, the first shot in what was supposed to be a revolutuion in the South African minerals sector was heard not at home, but in Belgium, at Antwerp Diamond Conference in November 2004. It was fired by President Thabo Mbeki, who was the guest of honor and keynote speaker at the conference’s gala dinner.
‘There is a widely shared view that all humanity should seek to make an impact on the globalization process so that it does not result in the marginalization and impoverishment of large numbers of people globally,’ Mbeki said. ‘With regard to our own continent, it is our firm view that this cannot be done on the basis of the pertuation of the old relationnship according to which we as colonies produced and exported raw materials and imported high vaue added manufactured goods from the colonizing countries.’
Thus was unveiled a policy that came to be known as ‘beneficiation’. It referred to a deliberate practice of preferential treatment for South African industry, with the goal being that a greater percentage of the country’s mineral output would be processed at home, thereby providing the domestic economy with an increased share of the added value that comes from further down the distribution pipeline.
‘From a jewelry perspective, it is common knowledge that South Africa is one of the richest countries in the world in mineral reserves, producing approximately 25% of all raw materials for worldwide jewelry production,’ explained Elizabeth Thabethe, South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, in an address she delivered on March 12 to the 2007 CIBJO Congress in Cape Town. ‘But although South Africa is an exporter of jewelry, we contribute less than half a percent to the world’s fabricated jewelry market. There is growing recognition that South Africa must develop the means to transform its compartive advantage as a leading producer of precious metals and stones to become a globally competitive producer and marketer of jewelry.’
Initially, the international reaction to the South African government’s beneficiation policy was lukewarm at best. But a growing recognition among the leadership of the gemstone and jewelry sector that the industry needs to play a more proactive role in promoting sustainable economic social development in the producing countries has led to a general acceptance that the ‘Africa First’ approach has merit.
For the South African government, there is a link between economic development and longterm political stability. ‘We have more than 10 million young, unskilled people with 12 years and less of schooling to focus on in the short term,’ explained South Africa’s deputy president, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, in her address to the CIBJO Congress. ‘If our democracy is to work, it is with them, in the first place, with whom the growth must be shared.’
The government is vesting a great deal in beneficiation. It hopes that the policy will contribute to its achieving a level of GDP growth of 6 percent per annum by 2010. It it falls short, the post-apartheid honeymoon, which still has not completely ended, would definitely be over.
But members of the South African jewelry industry, while supportive of the beneficiation strategy, are nonethelss skeptical about its chances of success. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I would love for it to work out,’ said a jewelry manufacturer in Johannesburg. ‘But, as it is designed right now, I am not sure that it addresses our most basic concerns, and the world certainly is not waiting for us to catch up.’
Beneficiation is not simply a goal; it is being ensconced into law. The country’s new Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act, as well as recent amendments to the Diamond Act and chapter 16 of the Minerals Rights Act were, in the words of the South African Minerals and Energy Minister, Buyelwa Sonjica, ‘carrierd out to encourage wider participation, across race and gender, in both mining and beneficiation.’
A key element of the amended Diamond Act invovles the establishment of the State Diamond Trader, whose role it will be to acquire and distribute rough diamonds to local cutters and polishers. While the minister of Minerals and Energy is still scheduled to provide a detailed explanation of the functions and modus operandi of the State Diamond Trader, reportedly the new government agency will purchase 10 percent of South African rough output specifically for local beneficiation. Furthermore, the output of the government-owned Alexkor mine will be supplied to the State Diamond Trader, and De Beers transferring to the new government agency its local Diamdel infrastructure and personnel.
The amended Diamond Act also includesa tax on rough diamond exports, which at one stage was pegged 15 percent, but since has been reduced to a more moderate 5 percent. But, warned South African analyst James Allan, when he addressed a mainly local audience at the Diamonds Africa 2007 conference in Johannesburg on April 23, the export tax may have ‘unintended consequences’. While it certainly has the potential of creating between 400 and 500 additional jobs in the local cutting industry, as result of more rough remaining in the country, it may also have the effect of cutting rough diamond supplies by up to 30 percent and, ultimately, could lead to the loss of about 5000 mining jobs, Allan said. In his opinion, the pressures created by the addition of the 5 percent export tax could accelerate due to De Beer’s decision to close or sell the more marginal Cullinan, Namaqualand and Koffiefontein diamond mines.
Allan said that the local cutting industry can only be grown by reducing costs and improved productivity. He said that South African cutters find it very difficult to compete with India and China, when their cutting costs vary between $45 per carat and $100 per carat, whereas in India the costs are between $1 per carat and $8 per carat, and in China between $6 per carat and $12 per carat. For South Africa to become a major diamond beneficiation center, it would have to cut its production costs to no more than $20 per carat, he stated.
Despite the difficulties facing it, South Africa’s diamond cutting sector is still in better shape to impact the international marketplace than is the country’s jewelry manufacturing sector. The South African jewelry industry comprises 350 manufacturing companies, employing about 3000 people, although there may be up to 2500 manufacturers in the informal sector. Most of the jewelry sector’s output is geared to the local market, with only a handful of companies actively targeting overseas customers. In 2000, AngloGold—now AngloGold Ashanti—one of the world’s largest gold producers, acquired a 25 percent stake in OroAfrica, and began to cooperate with the company on a number of strategic marketing initiatives, including the establishment of a new product design center. The company exports a significant part of its output to the United States and Europe.
But, said Gary Nathan, OroAfrica’s managing director, while his company has shown that is possible for South Africans to penetrate and compete in foreign market, ‘we face a range of obstacles that severely hinder the development of an export oriented jewelry sector. If, for example, I was manufacturing in Italy and I needed findings, I could walk down the street to my supplier and buy exactly the amount that I require. Here, my options are to make them myself, or to order them from abroad. Right from the outset I am working at a disadvantage.’
In October 2000, AngloGold Ashanti and Rand Refinery initiated a ‘clustering’ project designed to assist jewelry manufacturers to export. Called the Gold Zone, it involved the establishment of a manufacturing enclosure on a 3.3 hectare plot provided by Rand Refinery, whose own facility is adjacent. Firms in the zone could not only benefit from low rental and maintenance costs, but also from the direct and secure supplies of gold from the refinery, and access to secure export facilities at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. To date, only one manufacturer—albeit one the country’s largest, Alan Mair Manufacturing Jewellers—was prepared to invest in building a factory in the Gold Zone.
Unlike other jewelry manufacturing centers, South Africa never developed an active bullion lending business, which would have enabled manufacturing jewelers to benefit from gold lending rates based on the gold lease rate, which is typically lower than monetary interest rates. Local jewelers had to rely on ordinary bank loan agreements for financing working gold inventory, and South Africa is a high interest rate country. Local jewelry manufacturers typically pay prime interest rates plus a 2-3 percent risk premium. Local manufacturers say that this makes their gold at least 6 percent more expensive than their competitors abroad.
The government has been looking for a solution. At the end of 2005, it initiated the launch of a 1000 kilogram gold advance scheme through a consortium that included European defense contractors Saab and BAE Systems, and gold mining companies AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields Limited, which collectively extended guarantees of $10.5 million to Standard Bank, which would underwrite the scheme.
For a variety of reasons the gold loan has to date been ineffectual, but it and other complementary programs continue to enjoy the strong support of government. ‘The jewelry industry, as a down stream industry, is ideally placed to contribute to job creation and economic growth,’ Deputy President Mlambo-Ngcuka, told the CIBJO Congress in March. ‘The industry is in large parts labor intensive and could be a contributor to social and economic development. We recognize direct jobs are not in millions but we welcome the thousands and the indirect jobs.’
The Pleasures Of Discovery
(via The Journal of Gemmology, Vol.XIV, No.3, July 1974) B W Anderson writes:
(being the substance of a talk given to the Gemmological Association of Great Britain at Goldsmith’s Hall on 29th October, 1973)
Kornerupine
One thing leads to another. During our search for blue spinels of high refractive index in parcels of mixed Ceylon stones, we had come across a few specimens which we couldn’t identify. These were brownish green in color, had a density nearly matching that of methylene iodide (3.33) and refractive indices 1.670 – 1.683. They were strongly pleochroic from pale brown to dark green and had vague absorption bands in the blue and violet. We put them on one side in a packet, labeled ‘Y’, as we could find nothing in the tables of mineral properties to tally with these constants.
At that time I was very interested in the absorption spectrum of enstatite, since we had found that the attractive green pebbles from Kimberley showed a beautifully clear cut line 5600 Angstrom and I wanted to know whether specimens from other localities showed the same. The Natural History Museum had in their collection a cut stone weighing 9.18 carats, which had been rescued from an ‘idocrase’ box by Dr Herbert Smith on the basis of a refractometer test, and more plausibly labeled ‘enstatite’. I asked permission from then Keeper of Minerals, Dr L J Spencer, to examine the stone, and we found that it was not enstatite, but did tally closely in properties with our unknown ‘Y’ specimens. Naturally the Museum people were now interested, and Dr Claringbull by X-ray analysis was able to identify our unknowns as kornerupines of a hitherto unrecorded type. Previously the only gem quality kornerupines known were pale aquamarine-colored stones from Madagascar, containing less iron and with rather lower constants.
By one of those lucky and highly improbable chances with which we have been favored from time to time in our work, a mounted kornerupine of ‘our’ kind was sent to us for testing by a York jeweler. I was able to purchase the stone (which weighed 6.74 carats) for a reasonable price: the jeweler was very happy to replace it by a tourmaline rather than to try and sell a stone which had a name quite unknown to the public. A slice was removed from this for analysis, the recut stone weighing 3.50 carats.
Kornerupine is a complex borosilicate of aluminum, magnesium and iron, and the chemical analysis, undertaken by Dr Max Hey, was unusually difficult on a micro-scale, owning to the presence of boron, which several previous analysts had missed. For Dr Hey, this developed into a major piece of chemical research into the best methods for analysis of this difficult subject and a re-assessment of all previous analyses.
Meanwhile our main concern was to prove that these ‘new style’ kornerupines did in fact come from Ceylon, which we strongly suspected from the company they kept, by the style of cutting, and some of the inclusions. Through the kindness of Mr Hans Van Starrex we were sent two generous consignments of the gem gravel from Matale, and from the first of these, after about an hour’s search, we were delighted to find the first recorded kornerupine from the illam of Ceylon. Twenty minutes later another turned up—but in the second parcel there were none. My method was to segregate the pebbles of likely color, then quickly run through them with the spectroscope, eliminating all the zircons, which formed the bulk of the parcel. Any stones which seemed possibly to be kornerupine were passed to Mr Payne who examined them with a dichroscope and checked their density in methylene iodide, in which kornerupine remained virtually suspended.
The long chemical investigation naturally involved delay, and it was not until more than two years after the war had started that the full details were published. After the war, Mr Kenneth Parkinson, on one of his several successful visits to Ceylon in search of rare gemstones, returned with a cut kornerupine weighing 9.89 carats and a large piece of rough weighing 24.12 carats. This was unusual in showing traces of prism faces and is now in the collection of the Natural History Museum. And at about this time Dr E H Rutland sorted through some 15 lb. of illam provided by Mr Reggie Mathews, and was able to recover 8 kornerupines, which yielded cut stones ranging in size from 0.30 to 1.15 carats. These were mostly the usual brownish green, but some were distinctly green and one was yellow.
Before leaving kornerupine, let me say just a word about another ‘new’ occurrence of the mineral which we were the first to establish.
About 1937 we had acquired a small but very pretty green stone weighing 0.22 carat, which had refractive indices and density near those of the Ceylon kornerupines discussed above. After these had been identified by the Museum we realized that this stone, too, must be a kornerupine, but from some other source. Not until August 1952 did we know that this source must be the Mogok stone tract in Burma, for it was then that A C D Pain submitted for test a collection of interesting stones, all from Burma, amongst which was a bright green specimen with only the table facet polished, which we identified as kornerupine. The color, the inclusions and the properties were close enough to ours to make us sure that the origin was the same. It is curious how the jingle ‘anything you can do, I can do better’ seems to be appropriate when it comes to Burma versus the Ceylon gem fields.
The Pleasure Of Discovery (continued)
(being the substance of a talk given to the Gemmological Association of Great Britain at Goldsmith’s Hall on 29th October, 1973)
Kornerupine
One thing leads to another. During our search for blue spinels of high refractive index in parcels of mixed Ceylon stones, we had come across a few specimens which we couldn’t identify. These were brownish green in color, had a density nearly matching that of methylene iodide (3.33) and refractive indices 1.670 – 1.683. They were strongly pleochroic from pale brown to dark green and had vague absorption bands in the blue and violet. We put them on one side in a packet, labeled ‘Y’, as we could find nothing in the tables of mineral properties to tally with these constants.
At that time I was very interested in the absorption spectrum of enstatite, since we had found that the attractive green pebbles from Kimberley showed a beautifully clear cut line 5600 Angstrom and I wanted to know whether specimens from other localities showed the same. The Natural History Museum had in their collection a cut stone weighing 9.18 carats, which had been rescued from an ‘idocrase’ box by Dr Herbert Smith on the basis of a refractometer test, and more plausibly labeled ‘enstatite’. I asked permission from then Keeper of Minerals, Dr L J Spencer, to examine the stone, and we found that it was not enstatite, but did tally closely in properties with our unknown ‘Y’ specimens. Naturally the Museum people were now interested, and Dr Claringbull by X-ray analysis was able to identify our unknowns as kornerupines of a hitherto unrecorded type. Previously the only gem quality kornerupines known were pale aquamarine-colored stones from Madagascar, containing less iron and with rather lower constants.
By one of those lucky and highly improbable chances with which we have been favored from time to time in our work, a mounted kornerupine of ‘our’ kind was sent to us for testing by a York jeweler. I was able to purchase the stone (which weighed 6.74 carats) for a reasonable price: the jeweler was very happy to replace it by a tourmaline rather than to try and sell a stone which had a name quite unknown to the public. A slice was removed from this for analysis, the recut stone weighing 3.50 carats.
Kornerupine is a complex borosilicate of aluminum, magnesium and iron, and the chemical analysis, undertaken by Dr Max Hey, was unusually difficult on a micro-scale, owning to the presence of boron, which several previous analysts had missed. For Dr Hey, this developed into a major piece of chemical research into the best methods for analysis of this difficult subject and a re-assessment of all previous analyses.
Meanwhile our main concern was to prove that these ‘new style’ kornerupines did in fact come from Ceylon, which we strongly suspected from the company they kept, by the style of cutting, and some of the inclusions. Through the kindness of Mr Hans Van Starrex we were sent two generous consignments of the gem gravel from Matale, and from the first of these, after about an hour’s search, we were delighted to find the first recorded kornerupine from the illam of Ceylon. Twenty minutes later another turned up—but in the second parcel there were none. My method was to segregate the pebbles of likely color, then quickly run through them with the spectroscope, eliminating all the zircons, which formed the bulk of the parcel. Any stones which seemed possibly to be kornerupine were passed to Mr Payne who examined them with a dichroscope and checked their density in methylene iodide, in which kornerupine remained virtually suspended.
The long chemical investigation naturally involved delay, and it was not until more than two years after the war had started that the full details were published. After the war, Mr Kenneth Parkinson, on one of his several successful visits to Ceylon in search of rare gemstones, returned with a cut kornerupine weighing 9.89 carats and a large piece of rough weighing 24.12 carats. This was unusual in showing traces of prism faces and is now in the collection of the Natural History Museum. And at about this time Dr E H Rutland sorted through some 15 lb. of illam provided by Mr Reggie Mathews, and was able to recover 8 kornerupines, which yielded cut stones ranging in size from 0.30 to 1.15 carats. These were mostly the usual brownish green, but some were distinctly green and one was yellow.
Before leaving kornerupine, let me say just a word about another ‘new’ occurrence of the mineral which we were the first to establish.
About 1937 we had acquired a small but very pretty green stone weighing 0.22 carat, which had refractive indices and density near those of the Ceylon kornerupines discussed above. After these had been identified by the Museum we realized that this stone, too, must be a kornerupine, but from some other source. Not until August 1952 did we know that this source must be the Mogok stone tract in Burma, for it was then that A C D Pain submitted for test a collection of interesting stones, all from Burma, amongst which was a bright green specimen with only the table facet polished, which we identified as kornerupine. The color, the inclusions and the properties were close enough to ours to make us sure that the origin was the same. It is curious how the jingle ‘anything you can do, I can do better’ seems to be appropriate when it comes to Burma versus the Ceylon gem fields.
The Pleasure Of Discovery (continued)
Datolite
Chemistry: Calcium boro-silicate
Crystal system: Monoclinic; short prismatic crystals of varied habit; polycrystalline; massive.
Color: Transparent to opaque; crystalline: colorless, green, yellow and pink; massive: white, orange, pink, brown.
Hardness: 5 – 5.5
Cleavage: None; Fracture: brittle, uneven to conchoidal.
Specific gravity: 2.9 – 3.0
Refractive index: 1.625 – 1.699; Biaxial negative; 0.044
Luster: Vitreous.
Dispersion: Low
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: Igneous rock; Australia, USA, UK.
Notes
Collector’s stone; may fluoresce blue and sometimes pink or yellow; blue in short wave; usually faceted.
Crystal system: Monoclinic; short prismatic crystals of varied habit; polycrystalline; massive.
Color: Transparent to opaque; crystalline: colorless, green, yellow and pink; massive: white, orange, pink, brown.
Hardness: 5 – 5.5
Cleavage: None; Fracture: brittle, uneven to conchoidal.
Specific gravity: 2.9 – 3.0
Refractive index: 1.625 – 1.699; Biaxial negative; 0.044
Luster: Vitreous.
Dispersion: Low
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: Igneous rock; Australia, USA, UK.
Notes
Collector’s stone; may fluoresce blue and sometimes pink or yellow; blue in short wave; usually faceted.
Friday, July 13, 2007
Fortified Wine vs Heat Treated Corundum
(via Wikipedia) A fortified wine is a wine to which additional alcohol has been added, the most common additive being brandy (a spirit distilled from wine).
The original reason for fortification was to preserve wines, as the higher alcohol level and additional sweetness help to preserve the wine (when supplemental alcohol is added before fermentation finishes, it kills the yeast and leaves residual sugar). Even though other preservation methods exist, the fortification process survives, as consumers have developed tastes for wines preserved this way.
Common fortified wines include:
Sherry
Port
Marsala
Madeira
Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise and other vins doux naturels
Fortified wines must be distinguished from spirits made from wine. While both have increased alcohol content, spirits are the result of a process of distillation, while fortified wines have spirits added to them. Fortified wines generally have an alcohol content between that of wines and spirits.
Fortified wines are legally called dessert wines in the U.S. but are called liqueur wines in Europe. In UK legislation they are called fortified wines except where the EU insists on the use of "liqueur wine".
A friend of mine who works in the gem and jewelry + wine industry had an interesting point: why not describe (old) heat treated rubies and sapphires as fortified rubies and sapphires. I had never thought about it. Not a bad idea. Then I thought about the consequences. The industry is contaminated with radioactive egomaniacs + endlessly complicated characters. Who has the guts to communicate with them? If the concept were put forward for discussion I wouldn't be surprised if there were shooting contest (s) between the wine industry, gem industry, the lab experts + the dysfunctional trade associations, but you may never know. Watch out for fortified + advanced fortified rubies and sapphires!
The original reason for fortification was to preserve wines, as the higher alcohol level and additional sweetness help to preserve the wine (when supplemental alcohol is added before fermentation finishes, it kills the yeast and leaves residual sugar). Even though other preservation methods exist, the fortification process survives, as consumers have developed tastes for wines preserved this way.
Common fortified wines include:
Sherry
Port
Marsala
Madeira
Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise and other vins doux naturels
Fortified wines must be distinguished from spirits made from wine. While both have increased alcohol content, spirits are the result of a process of distillation, while fortified wines have spirits added to them. Fortified wines generally have an alcohol content between that of wines and spirits.
Fortified wines are legally called dessert wines in the U.S. but are called liqueur wines in Europe. In UK legislation they are called fortified wines except where the EU insists on the use of "liqueur wine".
A friend of mine who works in the gem and jewelry + wine industry had an interesting point: why not describe (old) heat treated rubies and sapphires as fortified rubies and sapphires. I had never thought about it. Not a bad idea. Then I thought about the consequences. The industry is contaminated with radioactive egomaniacs + endlessly complicated characters. Who has the guts to communicate with them? If the concept were put forward for discussion I wouldn't be surprised if there were shooting contest (s) between the wine industry, gem industry, the lab experts + the dysfunctional trade associations, but you may never know. Watch out for fortified + advanced fortified rubies and sapphires!
In Your Face
Pernilla Holmes writes about the concept of portraiture + personal identity + issues of politics, social inequity + our obsession with celebrity + other viewpoints @ http://artnews.com/issues/article.asp?art_id=2292
Think of the gem and jewelry: the unique characters and their perceptions + our obsession with celebrity + the swarm theory + the concept of jewelerture........
Think of the gem and jewelry: the unique characters and their perceptions + our obsession with celebrity + the swarm theory + the concept of jewelerture........
The Golden Years Of The Baby Boomers
Chaim Even-Zohar writes about the future of baby boomers in the U.S + GAO (General Accounting Office) analysis of national survey + other viewpoints @ http://www.idexonline.com/portal_FullEditorial.asp?TextSearch=&KeyMatch=0&id=26072
China Close To Becoming Third Largest Economy
(via Economic Times) China's sizzling economy grew even faster in 2006 than previously reported, bringing it closer to overtaking Germany as the world's third-biggest, and its export-fueled foreign reserves have risen to a new high of $1.33 trillion, according to new government data.
The figures released Wednesday reflect China's stunning economic success but could fuel fears of overheating and prompt Beijing to boost interest rates or tighten regulatory controls to cool the boom. The National Bureau of Statistics raised its estimate of China's 2006 growth rate from 10.7 per cent to 11.1 per cent. It nudged up its estimate of total output to 21.1 trillion yuan ($2.705 trillion; euro 2.048 trillion), bringing China closer to overtaking Germany as the world's No. 3 economy after the United States and Japan.
The statistics agency routinely issues such revisions to economic growth rates. But the latest report could receive special attention from Chinese leaders, who are trying to rein in a boom that they worry could ignite a financial crisis.
Chinese leaders want to maintain fast growth to reduce poverty but are trying to slow investment in auto manufacturing, real estate and other areas where supply outstrips demand. They worry that runaway spending could ignite inflation or leave banks and borrowers with dangerously high debt levels.
The central bank's research bureau said last month the economy was expected to expand by 10.8 per cent this year. That was in line with projections by the World Bank and other economists, and would be China's fifth straight year of growth in excess of 10 per cent. China's trade surplus soared to a new monthly high of $26.9 billion (euro 19.8 billion) in June, the government reported Tuesday. The flood of export revenues has forced the central bank to drain billions of dollars a month from the economy through bond sales to reduce pressure for prices to rise, piling up the money in US Treasury’s and other foreign securities and helping to finance Washington's budget deficit.
The reserves, already the world's largest, rose to US$1.33 trillion (euro 965 billion) at the end of June, a 41.6 per cent increase over the same time last year, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the central bank. The reserves soared by $266.3 billion (euro 193 billion) in the first six months of this year, more than in all of 2006, the bank said. Beijing is creating a company to make more profitable use of the reserves through commercial investments abroad. Plans call for the company to receive an initial injection of $200 billion (euro 160 billion) in government money.
The figures released Wednesday reflect China's stunning economic success but could fuel fears of overheating and prompt Beijing to boost interest rates or tighten regulatory controls to cool the boom. The National Bureau of Statistics raised its estimate of China's 2006 growth rate from 10.7 per cent to 11.1 per cent. It nudged up its estimate of total output to 21.1 trillion yuan ($2.705 trillion; euro 2.048 trillion), bringing China closer to overtaking Germany as the world's No. 3 economy after the United States and Japan.
The statistics agency routinely issues such revisions to economic growth rates. But the latest report could receive special attention from Chinese leaders, who are trying to rein in a boom that they worry could ignite a financial crisis.
Chinese leaders want to maintain fast growth to reduce poverty but are trying to slow investment in auto manufacturing, real estate and other areas where supply outstrips demand. They worry that runaway spending could ignite inflation or leave banks and borrowers with dangerously high debt levels.
The central bank's research bureau said last month the economy was expected to expand by 10.8 per cent this year. That was in line with projections by the World Bank and other economists, and would be China's fifth straight year of growth in excess of 10 per cent. China's trade surplus soared to a new monthly high of $26.9 billion (euro 19.8 billion) in June, the government reported Tuesday. The flood of export revenues has forced the central bank to drain billions of dollars a month from the economy through bond sales to reduce pressure for prices to rise, piling up the money in US Treasury’s and other foreign securities and helping to finance Washington's budget deficit.
The reserves, already the world's largest, rose to US$1.33 trillion (euro 965 billion) at the end of June, a 41.6 per cent increase over the same time last year, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing the central bank. The reserves soared by $266.3 billion (euro 193 billion) in the first six months of this year, more than in all of 2006, the bank said. Beijing is creating a company to make more profitable use of the reserves through commercial investments abroad. Plans call for the company to receive an initial injection of $200 billion (euro 160 billion) in government money.
Toxic Trinkets
(via Harvard's World Health News) An investigation by Florida's Tampa Tribune finds unsafe amounts of lead in inexpensive jewelry marketed to children.
"They're an irresistible buy: cheap children's jewelry and toy trinkets, lining the shelves of some of the nation's best-known retailers. And though consumers snap up these adorable items by the millions, retailers love them even more. They cost little to make overseas and can be highly profitable. But such trinkets are exposing America's children to potentially lethal levels of lead, a cheap bonding agent. The Tampa Tribune conducted an investigation of stores and federal regulations aimed at protecting consumers from such hazardous products. It found: One in three children's trinkets bought randomly in Bay area stores last month contained a level of lead considered a serious health risk to children younger than 6. Two pieces were purchased after in-house or national recalls of the toxic products had been issued, but items remained on local store shelves. Health officials, government regulators and retailers say there's no foolproof system to keep lead-tainted products out of stores, given inconsistent and lax quality controls at overseas factories. About 9 million pieces of children's jewelry have been recalled since 2006, but an understaffed and underfunded U.S. consumer regulatory agency has failed to fine a U.S. retailer or distributor for selling jewelry containing toxic levels. Blame the flood of potential danger on an expanding global marketplace."
"They're an irresistible buy: cheap children's jewelry and toy trinkets, lining the shelves of some of the nation's best-known retailers. And though consumers snap up these adorable items by the millions, retailers love them even more. They cost little to make overseas and can be highly profitable. But such trinkets are exposing America's children to potentially lethal levels of lead, a cheap bonding agent. The Tampa Tribune conducted an investigation of stores and federal regulations aimed at protecting consumers from such hazardous products. It found: One in three children's trinkets bought randomly in Bay area stores last month contained a level of lead considered a serious health risk to children younger than 6. Two pieces were purchased after in-house or national recalls of the toxic products had been issued, but items remained on local store shelves. Health officials, government regulators and retailers say there's no foolproof system to keep lead-tainted products out of stores, given inconsistent and lax quality controls at overseas factories. About 9 million pieces of children's jewelry have been recalled since 2006, but an understaffed and underfunded U.S. consumer regulatory agency has failed to fine a U.S. retailer or distributor for selling jewelry containing toxic levels. Blame the flood of potential danger on an expanding global marketplace."
The Pleasures Of Discovery
2007: A real treat from a gemological genius. Good tips for students of gemology, lab gemologists, gem dealers, jewelers and those who love colored stones.
(via The Journal of Gemmology, Vol.XIV, No.3, July 1974) B W Anderson writes:
(being the substance of a talk given to the Gemmological Association of Great Britain at Goldsmith’s Hall on 29th October, 1973)
In the talk I gave in January I described our early struggles in the Precious Stone Laboratory from 1925 onwards, first in learning our main job of pearl testing and later in improving and extending the techniques for testing gemstones of all kinds. Tonight, in continuing the inside story of the Laboratory I am proposing to stick pretty closely to one main theme rather than risk getting lost in recalling a host of little incidents: the theme being the story of discoveries of new gem varieties and new gem minerals in which we were lucky enough to be involved to a major or minor extent.
At present time there are some 2500 separate mineral species known to science. Each year a number of new names are added, but most of them are not only very rare but quite insignificant in form. One sometimes feels rather sorry for some worthy scientist whose name is given by its discoverer as compliment to some very indifferent mineral! The small importance of most of these in indicated by the fact that in a standard textbook such as the 1971 edition of Dana’s Manual of Mineralogy only some 200 species were considered worthy of description.
But the discovery of a new gem mineral is a rare event, for it implies that the specimens found are at least large enough to be cut as stones suitable for jewelry, and usually that they are transparent and pleasingly colored. From the trade point of view the recovery of new varieties of an already known mineral may be much more important. One has only to think of demantoid (1878), kunzite (1902), and tanzanite (1967) as instances of this.
Gahnospinel
Our first investigation into stones which had not previously been described concerned certain blue spinels from Ceylon which had a normal appearance but which were found to have a refractive index, and particularly a density, which was far higher than any quoted in the literature. C J Payne and I had already noted several such anomalous stones, but the real challenge came in 1935 when T W Oliver, who was then a gemology student at Chelsea Polytechnic, showed me a blue spinel which puzzled him in having a refractive index of over 1.74 instead of customary 1.715 or 1.72 of a spinel with so pale a lavender blue. In the laboratory we found the actual figures to be 1.7432 for the refractive index (using the minimum deviation method), and the density to be 3.947, which was even more startling.
The hunt was now on: we set to work in earnest to search for comparable stones, working through parcels of Ceylon stones borrowed from the rich stock of E Hahn & Sons, who were in those happy days established in 26, Hatton Garden. We also segregated by means of Clerici solution high density blue spinels from samples of the Ceylon gem gravels. The rarity of these anomalous stones is indicated by the fact that of over 300 spinels examined, only four had densities above 3.85.
Eventually we had in our hands a graduated range of blue spinels ranging from No.1 specimen, which was a pebble polished as a prism by Mathews Lapidaries, which gave us the measured figures of 1.7469 for refractive index and 3.981 for density, down to No.22, which had the normal values of 1.7153 and 3.584 respectively.
We realized that the replacing element causing these enhanced figures had to be one known to form a ‘spinel’ on its own and one which would have no influence on the color. Our guess that this element was zinc soon proved to be correct. We prepared a graph on which we plotted the density and refractive index of pure magnesium spinel and the corresponding figures (4.625 and 1.805) for a man-made zinc spinel, known in nature as the mineral gahnite. The zinc-rich spinels of our newly discovered series found to fit satisfactorily along the line between the two points and were well away from the line leading from the plot for magnesium spinel to that for the iron spinel, hercynite. Our ‘gahnospinels’, as we christened them, varied in color from pale to dark blue, according to their content of ferrous iron, but this had very little influence on their properties. Any considerable influx of iron causes spinel to become black and opaque and fit only for mourning jewelry. Ceylonite and pleonaste are variety names which have been used for such stones, typical values for which are 3.8 for density and 1.78 for refractive index.
We also used a small grating spectrograph made for us by Bellingham and Stanley to record the emission spectrum of small samples of stones selected from our series, fusing them in a purified carbon arc for the purpose. The spectra not only showed the expected increase in the strength of the zinc emission lines in the higher density samples, but also revealed the unexpected fact that all blue spinels from Ceylon contain at least a trace of zinc.
Dr Max Hey, the highly skilled analyst in the Mineral Department of the Natural History Museum, kindly carried out a quantitative analysis of one our ‘top’ stones and found it to contain 18.21% zinc oxide, 16.78% magnesium oxide, and 1.93% ferrous oxide—to which last the color and absorption spectrum were due. We then had enough data to justify a paper on these stones, which was published in the Mineralogical Magazine—this being the Journal of the Mineralogical Society, which is the accepted vehicle for contributions to mineralogy in this country.
This whole investigation was ideal for our first serious incursion into mineralogy. In those far-off days specimens for our purpose were readily and cheaply obtainable (Ceylon, it may be remembered, was still under the British rule); we had recently acquired a Beck table spectrometer, which enabled us, with suitably cut stones, to measure refractive indices and dispersions to four decimal places, and we were able to make accurate density determinations even on small specimens by suspension in Clerici solution followed by measurement of the R.I of the solution to our places of decimals in a hollow prism and working from a graph we had prepared showing the connexion of the density and R.I of this solution. It also gave us practice in an essential part of all research work—the art of ‘consulting the literature’ to ensure that our findings had not been already written by other workers.
A brief word on this last process may be of help to beginners in this fascinating business called research. Looking round the shelves laden with scientific journals in a big science library, such as the one in Southampton Buildings off Chancery Lane, which was formerly the Patent Office Library and is now the Science Library of the British Museum (proximity to which was not the least of our blessings), one might despair of making a thorough search. But it is not so difficult as it seems. For the past few decades at least, Mineral Abstracts have existed and a rapid search through the indexes of their more recent volumes under ‘spinel’, say, will lead you to papers on the subject that interests you. Consulting the latest of these will provide you with all the necessary references up to that time: the author will have done that work for you. A knowledge of German may be helpful, but copying facilities are provided by the library, and in ten minutes you can be provided with a photocopy which you can brood over at your leisure.
Before leaving the subject of gahnospinel I might mention that the highest figures yet encountered were in blue spinel sent for a routine test in 1964. This had density 4.06 and refractive index 1.7542. It is hardly likely that even so extreme a case might be confused with sapphire, but it is not uncommon for stones containing only a small proportion of zinc to have refractive indices around the 1.728 mark—a value associated in the mind with synthetic spinel.
The Pleasure Of Discovery (continued)
(via The Journal of Gemmology, Vol.XIV, No.3, July 1974) B W Anderson writes:
(being the substance of a talk given to the Gemmological Association of Great Britain at Goldsmith’s Hall on 29th October, 1973)
In the talk I gave in January I described our early struggles in the Precious Stone Laboratory from 1925 onwards, first in learning our main job of pearl testing and later in improving and extending the techniques for testing gemstones of all kinds. Tonight, in continuing the inside story of the Laboratory I am proposing to stick pretty closely to one main theme rather than risk getting lost in recalling a host of little incidents: the theme being the story of discoveries of new gem varieties and new gem minerals in which we were lucky enough to be involved to a major or minor extent.
At present time there are some 2500 separate mineral species known to science. Each year a number of new names are added, but most of them are not only very rare but quite insignificant in form. One sometimes feels rather sorry for some worthy scientist whose name is given by its discoverer as compliment to some very indifferent mineral! The small importance of most of these in indicated by the fact that in a standard textbook such as the 1971 edition of Dana’s Manual of Mineralogy only some 200 species were considered worthy of description.
But the discovery of a new gem mineral is a rare event, for it implies that the specimens found are at least large enough to be cut as stones suitable for jewelry, and usually that they are transparent and pleasingly colored. From the trade point of view the recovery of new varieties of an already known mineral may be much more important. One has only to think of demantoid (1878), kunzite (1902), and tanzanite (1967) as instances of this.
Gahnospinel
Our first investigation into stones which had not previously been described concerned certain blue spinels from Ceylon which had a normal appearance but which were found to have a refractive index, and particularly a density, which was far higher than any quoted in the literature. C J Payne and I had already noted several such anomalous stones, but the real challenge came in 1935 when T W Oliver, who was then a gemology student at Chelsea Polytechnic, showed me a blue spinel which puzzled him in having a refractive index of over 1.74 instead of customary 1.715 or 1.72 of a spinel with so pale a lavender blue. In the laboratory we found the actual figures to be 1.7432 for the refractive index (using the minimum deviation method), and the density to be 3.947, which was even more startling.
The hunt was now on: we set to work in earnest to search for comparable stones, working through parcels of Ceylon stones borrowed from the rich stock of E Hahn & Sons, who were in those happy days established in 26, Hatton Garden. We also segregated by means of Clerici solution high density blue spinels from samples of the Ceylon gem gravels. The rarity of these anomalous stones is indicated by the fact that of over 300 spinels examined, only four had densities above 3.85.
Eventually we had in our hands a graduated range of blue spinels ranging from No.1 specimen, which was a pebble polished as a prism by Mathews Lapidaries, which gave us the measured figures of 1.7469 for refractive index and 3.981 for density, down to No.22, which had the normal values of 1.7153 and 3.584 respectively.
We realized that the replacing element causing these enhanced figures had to be one known to form a ‘spinel’ on its own and one which would have no influence on the color. Our guess that this element was zinc soon proved to be correct. We prepared a graph on which we plotted the density and refractive index of pure magnesium spinel and the corresponding figures (4.625 and 1.805) for a man-made zinc spinel, known in nature as the mineral gahnite. The zinc-rich spinels of our newly discovered series found to fit satisfactorily along the line between the two points and were well away from the line leading from the plot for magnesium spinel to that for the iron spinel, hercynite. Our ‘gahnospinels’, as we christened them, varied in color from pale to dark blue, according to their content of ferrous iron, but this had very little influence on their properties. Any considerable influx of iron causes spinel to become black and opaque and fit only for mourning jewelry. Ceylonite and pleonaste are variety names which have been used for such stones, typical values for which are 3.8 for density and 1.78 for refractive index.
We also used a small grating spectrograph made for us by Bellingham and Stanley to record the emission spectrum of small samples of stones selected from our series, fusing them in a purified carbon arc for the purpose. The spectra not only showed the expected increase in the strength of the zinc emission lines in the higher density samples, but also revealed the unexpected fact that all blue spinels from Ceylon contain at least a trace of zinc.
Dr Max Hey, the highly skilled analyst in the Mineral Department of the Natural History Museum, kindly carried out a quantitative analysis of one our ‘top’ stones and found it to contain 18.21% zinc oxide, 16.78% magnesium oxide, and 1.93% ferrous oxide—to which last the color and absorption spectrum were due. We then had enough data to justify a paper on these stones, which was published in the Mineralogical Magazine—this being the Journal of the Mineralogical Society, which is the accepted vehicle for contributions to mineralogy in this country.
This whole investigation was ideal for our first serious incursion into mineralogy. In those far-off days specimens for our purpose were readily and cheaply obtainable (Ceylon, it may be remembered, was still under the British rule); we had recently acquired a Beck table spectrometer, which enabled us, with suitably cut stones, to measure refractive indices and dispersions to four decimal places, and we were able to make accurate density determinations even on small specimens by suspension in Clerici solution followed by measurement of the R.I of the solution to our places of decimals in a hollow prism and working from a graph we had prepared showing the connexion of the density and R.I of this solution. It also gave us practice in an essential part of all research work—the art of ‘consulting the literature’ to ensure that our findings had not been already written by other workers.
A brief word on this last process may be of help to beginners in this fascinating business called research. Looking round the shelves laden with scientific journals in a big science library, such as the one in Southampton Buildings off Chancery Lane, which was formerly the Patent Office Library and is now the Science Library of the British Museum (proximity to which was not the least of our blessings), one might despair of making a thorough search. But it is not so difficult as it seems. For the past few decades at least, Mineral Abstracts have existed and a rapid search through the indexes of their more recent volumes under ‘spinel’, say, will lead you to papers on the subject that interests you. Consulting the latest of these will provide you with all the necessary references up to that time: the author will have done that work for you. A knowledge of German may be helpful, but copying facilities are provided by the library, and in ten minutes you can be provided with a photocopy which you can brood over at your leisure.
Before leaving the subject of gahnospinel I might mention that the highest figures yet encountered were in blue spinel sent for a routine test in 1964. This had density 4.06 and refractive index 1.7542. It is hardly likely that even so extreme a case might be confused with sapphire, but it is not uncommon for stones containing only a small proportion of zinc to have refractive indices around the 1.728 mark—a value associated in the mind with synthetic spinel.
The Pleasure Of Discovery (continued)
Danburite
Chemistry: Calcium boro-silicate
Crystal system: Orthorhombic; striated prisms of diamond-shaped cross section, terminated by domes; distinctive chisel-shape appearance; habits similar to topaz.
Color: Transparent; yellow and colorless; rarely pink.
Hardness: 7
Cleavage: None; Fracture: sub-conchoidal.
Specific gravity: 3.0
Refractive index: 1.63 – 1.64; Biaxial positive/negative; 0.006
Luster: Vitreous.
Dispersion: Low
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: Burma, Madagascar, Mexico, Australia.
Notes
Collector’s stone; distinguished from topaz (S.G = 3.53) by lower S.G; Apatite (D.R: 0.003) by higher D.R and Tourmaline (D.R: 0.018) by lower D.R; may show rare earth spectrum; usually faceted.
Crystal system: Orthorhombic; striated prisms of diamond-shaped cross section, terminated by domes; distinctive chisel-shape appearance; habits similar to topaz.
Color: Transparent; yellow and colorless; rarely pink.
Hardness: 7
Cleavage: None; Fracture: sub-conchoidal.
Specific gravity: 3.0
Refractive index: 1.63 – 1.64; Biaxial positive/negative; 0.006
Luster: Vitreous.
Dispersion: Low
Dichroism: -
Occurrence: Burma, Madagascar, Mexico, Australia.
Notes
Collector’s stone; distinguished from topaz (S.G = 3.53) by lower S.G; Apatite (D.R: 0.003) by higher D.R and Tourmaline (D.R: 0.018) by lower D.R; may show rare earth spectrum; usually faceted.
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