Gemstone ‘Secrets’ Book Gets an Update

Lenox, Mass.--The colored gemstone market is dependent on a number of factors, and fluctuations in supply and demand mean that a lot can change in a decade’s time.

For this reason, one author has given his book on the market an update.

The second edition of gem expert Richard Wise’s Secrets of the Gem Trade: The Connoisseur’s Guide to Precious Gemstones, covering the criteria used by professionals to judge the quality and value of gemstones, is out now.

Brunswick House Press first published the book in 2003, and it became a best-seller. Wise has been traveling and researching since then, slowly compiling new information and updates for the next copy of the book.

“A number of things have changed in the gem world in the 14 years (since),” Wise told National Jeweler. “In a sense, the principles of connoisseurship and quality are immutable, right? They don’t change. On the other hand, what’s available in the market has changed.”

For example, the supply of rubies has changed greatly since he wrote the last book. At that time, Myanmar was the only real source. Now Madagascar has come online and is a major player in the trade, he said.

What’s more, only some of the Madagascar rubies look like Burmese rubies, which means that the guide to evaluating the gem needed to be updated to differentiate between the types, as well as the types from a few other sources that have since emerged.

Wise added 11 gemstone chapters to the second edition of his book, like two on red spinel and cobalt blue spinel.

He said that spinel has always been a “dealer’s stone”--they’ve been trying to sell it to people for years and not been able to do it. 

“That all changed when Mahenge [Tanzania] came online, and the cobalt blues were discovered in North Vietnam. Now, all of a sudden, we have a 1,200 percent increase in the price of blue and pink and red spinels,” he said.

Wise added that the paradigm also has shifted on red spinel, as new sources produced stones that look less like rubies, which the market was familiar with, and have a greater saturation of color.

Additions also include sections on pearls--both natural nacreous pearls and conch pearls--which have seen a major resurgence since the last book was published, and a