A stone is read in six ways, and felt in one.
A precious stone is judged by its colour, tone, saturation, inclusions, character and clarity. Alongside colour, cut, clarity and carat weight sit a stone's symbolism and its personality.
The depth, angles and symmetry of a stone's facets decide how light moves through it. When white light enters, some rays are reflected outward while others are absorbed, creating its body colour, and the rest are returned to the eye.
Colour is hue, tone and saturation, best pictured as a globe. The most desirable colour sits on its equator: a medium tone with high saturation.
A doubly refractive gem can show different colours from different angles, as tanzanite does. A skilled lapidary cuts it so the full colour shows face up, with little or no secondary hue.
01
What the stone carries of where it came from.
02
Hue, tone and saturation, read together.
03
The inclusions, and what they tell you.
04
Depth, angle and symmetry: the light's path.
05
Weight, which is not the same as size.
06
The report, and any treatment disclosed.
One hill at the foot of Kilimanjaro.
The only source of this stone is a small patch of ground at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. The Maasai tell of a thunderbolt that came down from the heavens, struck the earth and turned the rocks a glistening blue. That, they say, was the birth of Tanzanite.
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