Publish Year: 2002 Title: The Ultimate Gemologist:A Tribute to Richard T. Liddicoat Abstract: Figure 1. Since 1940, Richard T. Liddicoat’s contributions to gemological education, diamond quality grading, gem identification, and gemological research and instrument development have advanced the study of gemology throughout the world. As a former president of GIA, now Chairman of its Board of Governors, and chief editor of Gems & Gemology for five decades, he has had a profound influence on the gem and jewelry industry.

              On this occasion—the celebration of Richard T. Liddicoat’s 50 years guiding Gems & Gemology— it is fitting to review his enormous impact on the field of gemology. This includes the development of GIA’s education program, the creation of the quality-grading system for polished diamonds that is now accepted worldwide, numerous contributions to the gemological literature, involvement in new gem-testing techniques and instruments, and the establishment of a formal research program. His greatest achievement, however, has been his personal influence on the professionalism and ethical standards of the international gem and jewelry industry.

With this special issue of Gems & Gemology, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Richard T. Liddicoat (figure 1) as editor and now editor-in-chief of GIA’s quarterly professional journal. This festschrift, or special celebratory issue, provides a welcome opportunity to review his contributions to gemology, especially in five main areas: education, diamond quality grading, gem identification, instrument development, and global information outreach. Following the lead of GIA’s founder, Robert M. Shipley, Liddicoat positioned GIA as a leading international educational institution, grading laboratory, manufacturer of gem instruments, and research center. Those who have had the privilege to know and work with him have been able to expand the frontiers of gemology “by standing on the shoulders” of this giant.

	THE EARLY YEARS
Robert M. Shipley founded the Gemological Institute of America in Los Angeles, California, in 1931. His vision was to create an institution that would promote professional education in gemology for jewelers in the United States, allowing them to buy and sell with increased knowledge and confidence. At the time, no such organization existed in the U.S. In the early 1930s, Shipley—working in partnership with his wife Beatrice—stimulated interest among jewelers by traveling across the U.S. to retail stores, where he would preach the benefits of gemological education. In the evenings in his hotel room, Shipley would write courses for jewelers to take through correspondence. He established the beginnings of an educational institute in Los Angeles with a small staff that grew slowly over the next decade as resources allowed. Together, he and his staff created lessons, gave instruction on gemstones and their properties, and began the process of helping jewelers correctly identify the gem materials they handled (Gilbert, 1977).

By 1940, Shipley realized the need for additional leadership at GIA. His son, Robert Shipley Jr., who had worked closely with him in recent years, had signed up for military service. Shipley contacted Chester B. Slawson, a mineralogy professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor who was co-author of one of the leading gemology texts at that time, Gems and Gem Materials (Kraus and Slawson, 1939), as well as one of GIA’s educational advisors. In his letter, Shipley asked Slawson to recommend a mineralogist to join the GIA faculty. Dr. Slawson suggested one of his graduate students, Richard T. Liddicoat. As Liddicoat recalled, “Slawson thought that I was wedded to graduate school and headed for a Ph.D. in mineralogy, so he didn’t think I’d be interested. But he showed the letter to me anyway. After years of school, I was ready to do something else. The idea of gems and Los Angeles really had appeal” (Youngs, 1980, p. 40).

Liddicoat drove with his wife Mary Imogene (“Gene”) Liddicoat to Cincinnati, Ohio, for an interview with Robert Shipley and then-chairman of GIA’s Board of Governors, Edward Herschede. He found both men impressive, with Shipley especially charismatic in his passion for education and gemstones.

Richard Thomas Liddicoat Jr. was born on March 2, 1918, in Kearsarge, Michigan, the son of a professor of engineering at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Carmen Beryl Williams Liddicoat. Both his grandfathers were miners from Cornwall, England, who had immigrated to the upper Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan in the latter half of the 19th century. These two men inspired their grandson to explore the geology of his surroundings. Liddicoat attended the University of Michigan, from which he received a bachelor’s degree in geology in 1939 and a master’s degree in mineralogy in 1940.

On June 28, 1940, Liddicoat joined the GIA staff as assistant director of education, beginning a 60+ year career of service to GIA and the jewelry industry (see highlights in the timeline). In those days, the Institute was a family affair: Beatrice Shipley managed the office, while Shipley Jr. focused on developing gemological instruments and techniques, as Shipley Sr. continued with education and attracting jewelers to the GIA programs. (Also involved was Beatrice’s nephew Al Woodill, who briefly worked at GIA in 1940 –1941. In 1947, Woodill became the executive head of GIA’s sister organization, the American Gem Society [AGS], which Shipley Sr. had established in 1934 as a professional guild of jewelers.)

Liddicoat’s first priority was to take the GIA courses, which he completed in less than three months. As an instructor, he was responsible for grading GIA correspondence exams—on average, 225 tests per week. “When I first came out here, I used to grade all the papers. They were all essay questions in those days. I would take all the papers home with me, one day a week, and just keep going until I finished them. Sometimes, it was pretty late when I got through with them all,” Liddicoat later recalled (Youngs, 1980, p. 40).

Within a year of his hiring, Liddicoat was named director of education, the first person outside the Shipley family to hold a major position within GIA.

Figure 2. Standing in the back of a February 1949 gemology class at GIA's New York office are G. Robert Crowningshield (in front of chalkboard) and Richard T. Liddicoat (back row, far right).

	CONTRIBUTIONS TO GEMOLOGICAL EDUCATION
One of Liddicoat’s first innovations in gemological education was an intensive one-week class that was launched at the AGS Conclaves in Philadelphia and Chicago in 1942 (Federman, 1985a). He developed this class to enable students to complete the prerequisite Diamond and Colored Stone training of Shipley’s original fundamental course in a one-week resident education format. This class also gave jewelers the opportunity to work with equipment in a classroom setting under the guidance of GIA instructors (figure 2). Liddicoat would become a mainstay as a speaker and instructor at these Conclaves, and in 1997 the AGS honored him for having attended 50 of them (“A special tribute…,” 1997).

During World War II, from August 1942 until January 1946, Liddicoat left GIA to serve in the U.S. Navy. After working for a few months in a shipyard, he eventually was assigned to the Pacific fleet as a weather officer on aircraft carriers and at Pearl Harbor (“Liddicoat resumes work at headquarters… ,” 1946).

Upon his return from military service in February 1946, Liddicoat was named director of research and, later, director of education and research. The March 1946 issue of the AGS magazine Guilds described him as “an extremely popular leader and instructor who proved his ability to project his personality into instruction in the mail courses” (“Liddicoat resumes work at headquarters…,” 1946, p. 5). In June 1946, he helped launch the first evening gemology class in Los Angeles, which allowed local GIA correspondence students to gain hands-on experience while continuing to work in their jewelry stores during the day.

Recognizing the need for an inexpensive handbook for GIA students, Shipley assigned Liddicoat the task of creating it. This new gem identification reference book was the first directed to the needs of the practicing gemologist. Closely tied to the GIA course work, it also was unique in organizing the gemstones by color. Liddicoat spent almost a year on the book, dictating sections to his wife Gene in the evening (R. T. Liddicoat, pers. comm., 2002). In August 1947, the first edition of his Handbook of Gem Identification was published (figure 3). This book, one of the first to include photomicrographs of inclusions as identifying characteristics, supported GIA education classes that increasingly focused on gem identification and gem-testing instrumentation. It continues to be one of the most widely used textbooks in gemology, now in the fourth printing of its 12th edition.

Beginning in 1948, GIA granted the title gemologist to those students who had completed all of the home study courses, and awarded the title graduate gemologist (G.G.) when students completed the additional class training and passed the 20-stone exam. Since the inception of the graduate gemologist diploma, approximately 25,000 students have gained this important industry recognition. Later in 1948, Shipley turned over much of the day-to-day operation to Liddicoat (“Executive staff changes…,” 1948). GIA student enrollment grew substantially during the postwar years, influenced in large part by the G.I. Education Bill, by which the U.S. government gave financial support to its military veterans. To meet the needs of a growing student population, more instructors were added to the GIA staff to teach the students both in “extension” classes at the Los Angeles headquarters and through home study education. During the latter half of the 1940s, the GIA staff doubled from 20 to 40. When the G.I. Bill’s benefits ended in the early 1950s, however, enrollment fell off sharply, and GIA faced a financial challenge just as Shipley was planning to retire.

Figure 3. The first edition of Richard Liddicoat’s Handbook of Gem Identification, published in 1947, presented “simple and often conclusive” tests to identify gems. Now in its 12th edition (4th printing), it is one of the most widely read textbooks in gemology.

Liddicoat, Shipley’s handpicked successor, became executive director of GIA on April 1, 1952. He moved quickly to address the Institute’s financial problem by focusing GIA’s education on a key concern of jewelers: diamond grading.

In the early 1950s, jewelers were calling for a standardized diamond grading system to counter the fanciful and often inconsistent terminology then being used to describe polished diamonds. Such descriptions only made effective communication between dealers and customers more difficult. Liddicoat tackled the problem with Los Angeles colleagues Lester Benson and Joe Phillips, with input from the New York laboratory’s Bob Crowningshield (then director of GIA’s Eastern Headquarters and Gem Trade Laboratory and later vice president of GTL Gem Identification) and Bert Krashes (who retired in 1987 as managing director of the GIA Gem Trade Laboratory). Together, they developed a diamond grading and evaluation appraisal program based on the color, clarity, cutting, and carat weight of diamonds. To unveil the class, they decided to go to the heart of the diamond district in New York.

Liddicoat and Crowningshield taught the first one-week classes on the new diamond grading system in April 1953 at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City (figure 4 shows a one-week class from 1954). This diamond grading class became part of GIA’s regular gemology program in 1955. Liddicoat also established a new traveling one-week class, Diamond Evaluation, to bring an understanding of the benefits of this new diamond grading terminology to jewelers throughout the United States (Shuster, in press). Glenn Nord, who was then taking the new diamond course, recalls: “GIA was introducing an entirely new culture to the jewelry industry with its education, and it was Dick Liddicoat’s leadership that helped people accept these changes” (pers. comm., 2002).

Figure 4. GIA instructors Bert Krashes, Eunice Miles, and G. Robert Crowningshield stand in the center of a group of students taking a one-week class at GIA New York in June 1954, a year after the introduction of the GIA diamond grading system.

In 1955, 14 of the 45 lessons—or nearly a third of GIA’s home study diamond courses—were rewritten. Liddicoat personally revised 10 of them. During the same time period, he expanded the education program by adding a jewelry retailing home study course. The first jewelry design course, long presented in Brooklyn by Christian Jakkob, was turned over to GIA and reorganized by Lester Benson, a GIA educator and inventor. Liddicoat reflected, “I always had the feeling that once the gemology program was in place, we should offer a complete curriculum for the retail jeweler” (pers. comm., 2001).

To further meet the need for a standardized terminology for its students and members of the trade, GIA began working on a glossary of diamond terms. Out of these efforts came the first Diamond Dictionary (1960), by Lawrence Copeland with Richard Liddicoat and other staff members (see Copeland et al., 1960; figure 5). Later that same decade came Liddicoat and Copeland’s The Jewelers’ Manual (again, see figure 5). Published in 1964, it was an expansion of Shipley’s earlier Jewelers Pocket Reference Book (1947).

Liddicoat worked closely with Lester Benson to produce a revised course structure for the gemology program (“GIA courses to have new look,” 1958). In 1962, after providing a variety of supplemental classes for students to obtain additional training time, GIA began to offer a full-time resident G.G. program in Los Angeles. Before then, students could obtain this diploma only through home study, supplemented by short-term classes.

During this same period, Liddicoat (1962) wrote an article for Gems & Gemology on the “rapid sight” system for judging diamond cut quality. According to Nord (pers. comm., 2002), “After Dick developed the system, he and I would sit and trade diamonds back and forth for hours. We could judge so many factors, including proportions and angles, very accurately. It was an important teaching tool that is still a key part of the diamond program today.”

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Liddicoat oversaw Nord’s development of corporate training classes for Zales, one of the largest retail jewelry store chains in the U.S., a program that continues today with a number of major businesses.

Also in the late ‘60s, Liddicoat made several trips to Japan in an effort to glean the information necessary to develop a cultured pearl course and, ultimately, GIA’s first pearl grading system.

Richard Liddicoat took Shipley’s concept of home study (or “distance”) education beyond North America when, in 1970, he sent Nord to Israel to teach the first diamond course outside the U.S. A year later, with Liddicoat’s endorsement, GIA courses were being taught in Japan (figure 6). Yoshiko Doi, a former GIA staff member who had returned to Japan, and Kenzo Yamamoto established the Association of Japan Gem Trust (AGT), a non-profit organization with exclusive rights to administer GIA courses in Japanese (“Focus on: Kenzo Yamamoto,” 1984). Doi translated all course materials into Japanese, thus beginning GIA’s ability to offer courses internationally and in other languages. Currently, GIA programs are offered in 11 countries outside the U.S.

Figure 5. The Diamond Dictionary, first published in 1960 and now in its 3rd edition (1993), provides a standard reference for diamond terminology. The Jewelers’ Manual, a handy reference guide to gemology and jewelry for the working jeweler, was first published in 1964 and is now in its 3rd edition (1989).

Early GIA efforts to establish a system to describe the quality of polished diamonds can be traced back to the 1930s, when Robert M. Shipley Sr. and De Beers collaborated to develop the concept of the “Four Cs”: color, clarity, cut, and carat weight. In 1939, the AGS adopted this terminology for describing diamonds. A 1941 article in Guilds describes a nine-year process by GIA to develop a unit for color grading diamonds and efforts to standardize color grading (“Standardization of color grading…,” 1941). That same year, Shipley Sr. and Liddicoat published an article on diamond grading that described the use of a standardized light source (the Diamolite) and a prototype colorimeter for grading diamond color against a graduated color scale (Shipley and Liddicoat, 1941). This same research by Shipley, Dorothy Jasper Smith, and Liddicoat led to the creation of the first master set of color comparison diamonds for diamond grading in 1941 (R. T. Liddicoat, pers. comm., 2002).

Nevertheless, as indicated above, ongoing confusion and inconsistency in diamond grading terminology brought about the demand for a new vocabulary to more clearly express the color, clarity, and cut of individual diamonds. As Bert Krashes (pers. comm., 2001) notes, “There was a lot of ambiguity and confusion when it came to trade grading of diamond color and clarity, so there was a significant need for GIA to create this system.”

Liddicoat became the architect of the GIA diamond grading system, developing a practical approach to quality grading colorless to light yellow polished diamonds on the basis of color, clarity, and cut. A central feature was the D-to-Z color grading system for faceted, colorless to light yellow diamonds, which comprise the vast majority of diamonds seen in the trade. The letter D was chosen as the starting point (colorless) to avoid confusion with other, more loosely defined classification systems being used, which typically began with the letter A (King et al., 1994). Liddicoat remembers that at the time the diamond companies had their own descriptions, which included A and AA, so it was felt that D would be less confusing (R. Liddicoat, pers. comm., 2001).

Having discussed quality grading of diamonds at earlier AGS Conclaves, Liddicoat introduced the GIA diamond grading system at the 1953 Conclave in Philadelphia. “Richard Liddicoat deserves the credit for developing the diamond grading system. He had some assistance from Lester Benson, but it was mainly Liddicoat” (B. Krashes, pers. comm., 2002).

Beginning in 1953, GIA instructors taught this grading system to hundreds of students so they could evaluate their own diamonds. Subsequently, many of these students requested that GIA set up a procedure whereby they could submit their grading worksheets, and eventually the diamonds themselves, for an independent assessment.

Bert Krashes recalls the transition (pers. comm., 2002): “It began as a service we offered students. After they took the courses, whether correspondence or one-week classes, we agreed to double-check their grading of their own diamonds. We would make our comments on the diamond worksheets. Eventually, word reached the industry that we were capable of doing this work, and soon there was a demand for a more formal presentation.” Liddicoat teamed with Crowningshield, Krashes, and Eunice Miles to design and develop the Diamond Grading Report (Christie, 1988), the first of which was issued in 1955.

Figure 6. One of GIA’s early global outreaches was in Japan, where Kenzo Yamamoto (second from the left, next to his wife) and Yoshiko Doi (third from the left, next to former GIA president Glenn Nord) began teaching GIA courses in 1971. Since its inception, nearly 3,000 graduate gemologists have been trained at the Japanese affiliate. In the inset photograph, Richard Liddicoat is shown with a group of Japanese students.

	UNLOCKING THE MYSTERIES: GEM IDENTIFICATION AND GEMS & GEMOLOGY
Gem Identification. When Robert M. Shipley set up his Los Angeles laboratory in the early 1930s, the Institute’s resources were devoted to identifying gems and to documenting the properties and techniques that would aid in their separation (Jasper, 1948). Late in 1948, following the unexpected resignation of Dr. Mark Bandy as director of the fledgling New York laboratory, Shipley assigned Liddicoat to New York to lead the expansion of that new branch. Liddicoat and his wife Gene drove across the country and arrived there in early January 1949. While Liddicoat and Crowningshield took care of the gem identifications and taught classes at night, Gene was the office administrator (R. T. Liddicoat, pers. comm., 2002). The resources of the New York operation were further enhanced when the Gem Trade Laboratory, which had been established by A. E. Alexander, was turned over to GIA in October of that same year. As director of GIA New York and the GIA Gem Trade Laboratory, Liddicoat was responsible for integrating the facilities of the two labs (“Richard T. Liddicoat Jr.appointed…,” 1952). The early identification work was typically a group effort among staff members who became known as the “Liddicoat brain trust” (Federman, 1985a).

By the 1970s, the GIA Gem Trade Laboratory staff was examining large numbers of gemstones, including the grading of diamonds and the identification of colored stones and pearls. Sensing the need for a group of scientists who would focus on the many emerging technical challenges in gemology, Liddicoat formally established the current GIA Research Department in 1976. Dr. D. Vincent Manson, formerly curator of gems and minerals at the American Museum of Natural History, was named its director.

Figure 7. Along with G. Robert Crowningshield and Lester Benson, Richard Liddicoat pioneered the Gem Trade Lab Notes section of Gems & Gemology. These reports of new findings from the GIA Gem Trade Laboratory first appeared as “Highlights at the Gem Trade Lab” from both New York and Los Angeles. Today, the Lab Notes section remains one of the journal’s most popular features.
Gems & Gemology. Robert Shipley’s early efforts in gem testing and characterization were incorporated not only into updates of the GIA courses, but also (starting in 1934) into the pages of Gems & Gemology, GIA’s quarterly journal. Richard Liddicoat continued this legacy through articles that he wrote and co-authored in G&G, reporting on his activities to improve the ability of jewelers to properly identify gems. (An extensive bibliography of his publications is provided at the end of this article.)

Liddicoat became editor of Gems & Gemology on Robert Shipley’s retirement in 1952, with Jeanne G. M. Martin as his associate editor. Liddicoat himself led a procession of notable mineralogists, gemologists, and other scientists who contributed groundbreaking articles to the journal. Subsequent associate editors included Dr. Robert Gaal (1973–1977) and John I. Koivula (1978–1980). In 1981, Alice Keller was brought on as the journal’s managing editor to oversee its redesign; she was subsequently promoted to her current position as editor and director.

Liddicoat encouraged Crowningshield and Benson to write their “Highlights at the Gem Trade Lab” columns—Crowningshield in New York and Benson in Los Angeles—which debuted in the Winter 1958–59 issue of Gems & Gemology (R.T. Liddicoat, pers. comm., 2002). Liddicoat took over the Los Angeles column in 1962 (figure 7). “Highlights at the Gem Trade Lab” later became the Gem Trade Lab Notes section, which continues to describe interesting gem materials that have been seen in the GIA Gem Trade Laboratory.

Five times in the last decade, Gems & Gemology has won the American Society of Association Executives Gold Circle Award for best peer-review journal in America. Liddicoat continues to serve as editor-in-chief, writing editorials, reviewing books and articles, and setting editorial policy for the award-winning publication.

	CONTRIBUTIONS TO GEMOLOGICAL INSTRUMENTATION
Liddicoat presided over four decades of innovation in gem instrument development at GIA, and established gem instruments as one of the Institute’s highest priorities (Federman, 1985b). In addition to his early work with Shipley to develop the Diamolite (figure 8), Liddicoat worked with various GIA scientists on a number of other instruments. Liddicoat’s own scientific background enabled him to foster the development of instruments such as the prism spectroscope and the ProportionScope (GIA Diamond Grading course, 1994). His objective throughout instrument development at GIA was to provide jewelers with practical tools that could help them in the day-to-day operation of identifying gemstones.

Figure 8. Richard Liddicoat, shown teaching the use of the Diamolite in 1946, helped develop the instrument in 1941.

	GLOBAL INFORMATION OUTREACH
In the early 1980s, Liddicoat championed the use of computer networks to connect jewelers and gemologists to a vast array of knowledge. In a 1985 interview in Modern Jeweler, he predicted that one day jewelers across the country would be connected to GIA through such a network: “Imagine not having to leave your store or business to consult with GIA” (Federman, 1985c, p. 56). That idea became reality in 1986 with the creation of GIA-Net under the leadership of Dennis Foltz, then director of education and operations at GIA, and has evolved today into GIA Virtual Campus (for students) and the GIA Web site: http://www.gia.edu. Approximately 150,000 people access the GIA Web site monthly.

Liddicoat’s contributions to spreading gem and jewelry knowledge were immortalized with the creation of the Richard T. Liddicoat Gemological Library and Information Center in 1989. Although Robert Shipley had built the beginnings of a library from the very first days of GIA, Liddicoat was the one who envisioned a world-class, state-of-the-art library that would serve not only GIA staff and students, but also jewelers, gemologists, and consumers worldwide. This repository was greatly expanded under the direction of one of the authors (DMD) with the purchase of the 15,000-volume John and Marjorie Sinkankas Gemology and Mineralogy Library in 1988 (figure 9). Located at the Institute’s headquarters in Carlsbad, California, the Liddicoat Library is now the largest gemology and jewelry library in the world. At almost 836 square meters (9,000 square feet), it houses over 30,000 volumes and journals as well as extensive collections of photos, videotapes, and other media resources.

Figure 9. The world’s largest collection of gemological books and articles, the Sinkankas Collection, was acquired for the GIA library in 1988. Photo by Shane McClure and Robert Weldon, © GIA.

As director of education and later president, Richard Liddicoat was GIA’s ambassador to many gemology and jewelry associations. As indicated earlier, he was a mainstay at AGS Conclaves for more than 50 years, frequently accompanied by GIA’s finest gemologists (figure 10). He attended industry meetings and then incorporated the information he gathered into Gems & Gemology and the education program. He actively participated in the International Kimberlite Conferences and the International Gemmological Conferences (IGC), as well as a variety of trade association events. In 1983, Liddicoat retired as president of GIA, but was subsequently named chairman of GIA’s Board of Governors, a position that he still holds. Liddicoat is a founding member of the International Colored Gemstone Association (ICA) and the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA). In recent years, he has continued to attend trade shows and visit gem mines, in addition to his involvement with GIA and Gems & Gemology (figure 11).

Figure 10. Since the inaugural American Gem Society Conclave in 1937, GIA educators have taught gemological courses and seminars to AGS jewelers. In this photo, Glenn Nord, Chuck Fryer (then head of Gem Identification in Los Angeles), Richard Liddicoat, Bert Krashes, and G. Robert Crowningshield participate in a GIA panel at the 1972 AGS Conclave in Washington, DC.

Figure 11. Richard Liddicoat has remained an active figure in the gemological community. In this 2001 photo, Liddicoat is seen touring the historic Tourmaline Queen pegmatite mine in the Pala district of San Diego County, California, with mine owner Ed Swoboda. This mine has produced large amounts of gem tourmaline, for cut stones and mineral specimens. Photo by Brendan Laurs, © GIA.

	THE “FATHER OF MODERN GEMOLOGY”
In recognition of his more than 60 years of service to the gem and jewelry industry, Liddicoat has received many awards and commendations. Among the most prestigious are:

		American Gem Society Honorary Certified Gemologist (1947)

		American Gem Society Robert M. Shipley Award (1976)

		Honorary Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain (1981)

		American Gem Trade Association Honorary Member (1983)

		Consolidated Jewelers Association of New York’s Man of the Year (1984)

Modern Jeweler’s Lifetime Achievement Award (1985)

		The Morris B. Zale Lifetime Achievement Award (1987)

		Honorary Lifetime Membership of the Gem Testing Laboratory of Great Britain (1987)

		National Home Study Council’s Hall of Fame (1991)

		GIA Board of Governors’ Chairman for Life (1992)

		GIA League of Honor Lifetime Achievement Award (1995)

		American Gem Society Lifetime Achievement Award (2001)

Liddicoat received special recognition in 1977 with the naming in his honor of a new gem species of tourmaline (figure 12). Dr. Pete J. Dunn and his colleagues from the U.S. National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution; Dunn, 1977) named “the mineral liddicoatite [the calcic lithiumtourmaline end member], in recognition of his contributions to gemological knowledge and education.” Liddicoat is one of only a few gemologists ever to be so recognized (Federman, 1985a).

When Liddicoat was honored as Man of the Year by the Consolidated Jewelers Association of New York in 1984, National Jeweler publisher Milton Gralla said of him, “There is not a community of any size anywhere in the United States where one or many jewelers have not been touched, influenced, educated, upgraded or professionalized by the thinking of this particular industry leader—Richard T. Liddicoat” (“Liddicoat honored . . . ,” 1985).

In 1994, GIA established the Richard T. Liddicoat Award for Distinguished Achievement to acknowledge those GIA staff members who have provided unique talent and demonstrated unparalleled commitment to the Institute.

During his 60-plus years with the Gemological Institute of America, Richard Liddicoat has brought practical gemology to hundreds of thousands of students and industry colleagues. Just as GIA has touched the lives of thousands in the industry, so has Liddicoat with the wisdom he graciously shares. When Liddicoat received the AGS Lifetime Achievement Award on July 31, 2001 (figure 13), more than 300 jewelry industry professionals stood in ovation. GIA president Bill Boyajian said, “Richard Liddicoat’s achievements and contributions to the world of gemology and jewelry have been monumental. The living title ‘Father of Modern Gemology’ pays tribute to his success, yet only begins to describe the extent to which his efforts on behalf of an entire industry and the consuming public have changed the course of history.”

Figure 13. Richard T. Liddicoat, the “Father of Modern Gemology,” was honored with the American Gem Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award on July 31, 2001. @topic:8


Publish Year: 1990 Title: Gemstone Enhancement and its Detection in the 1980s Abstract: The impact that enhancements had on the gem market in the 1980s may be unparalleled in the history of the industry. Heat treatment brought hundreds of thousands of carats of blue and fancy-color sapphires and rubies to the trade, irradiation turned literally millions of carats of white topaz into attractive blue stones, and the filling of surface-reaching separations introduced an entirely new variable to the evaluation of color and clarity in diamonds. One of the key challenges to the gemologist during this decade was the identification of these and other enhancements. This article reviews the enhancements that were introduced or played a major role during the 1980s, focusing on their detection by standard gemological techniques. @topic:8


Publish Year: - Title: Jadeite Market Update Abstract: Jeff MasonPresident, Mason-Kay, Inc.

Interview with Jeff Mason, President, Mason-Kay, Inc.
Jeff Mason’s company, Mason-Kay, has been in business for 36 years, selling only natural jadeite jade jewelry. The jade they use in their designs comes in a wide range of qualities, from a few dollars a carat up into the six figures for some finer pieces.

More than 95 percent of Mason-Kay’s market is in the US. Asian jade-quality preferences are somewhat different from those of American consumers. In general, Asians value translucency over color, while Americans value color over translucency. There’s also a difference in carving-design preferences. Mason-Kay accommodates this difference by “Americanizing” Asian designs.

Mr. Mason has seen an increase in demand for and prices of jade jewelry, especially in the past year or two. He declares that a key to encouraging this increase is education. People’s lack of knowledge leads to fear about prices, qualities, and treatment issues. Mason-Kay reduces those anxieties by educating their clients and ensuring the integrity of their product.

In a discussion about treatments, Mr. Mason states that treated jade is nothing new—jade has been dyed to enhance its color for many decades. A newer treatment, polymer impregnation, has been in use for about three decades, but requires expensive laboratory equipment for detection that the average gemologist can’t justify owning.

In one segment, Mr. Mason discusses the effects of the US embargo against Burmese jade, which started in 2008 and continues to this day. They’ve been forced to buy domestically ever since. Fortunately, the company had stockpiled jadeite supplies before that in anticipation of the ban. Also, in the same year the ban took effect, the world economy experienced a downturn. Despite its overall negative effect, this had two positive effects on Mason-Kay: They didn’t sell out their stockpiled inventories as quickly and they were often able to buy out other companies’ goods at distressed prices.

In these interviews, Jeff Mason provides us with a fascinating look into a sometimes-misunderstood gem and its often-unpredictable market. @topic:9


Publish Year: - Title: Dealing in Lapis Lazuli from Afghanistan Abstract: Sam NaseriGlobal Gems

Interview with Sam Naseri, Global Gems
Mr. Naseri grew up in the lapis trade, working in his father’s business as a young boy. Born in Afghanistan, he rightfully claims a deep knowledge of this gem of his native land.

He starts by showing off his company’s best-quality lapis lazuli samples and describing their various component minerals and grades. His company sells rough, but also makes spheres, carvings, beads, and other items from this lovely blue material.

The best royal blues come from only two mines in the world—in Chile and Afghanistan, with Afghanistan the preferred source. Mr. Naseri explains that older material—from a mine that’s no longer in operation—is of much higher quality than newer material. It’s now extremely rare, and in great demand among gem buyers and consumers.

Surrounded by his company’s product, he demonstrates the entire range of lapis quality. He sprays one of his high-quality samples with water, which brings out its desirable features, then holds two spheres of different grades side by side. He explains that lapis has good hardness, making it easy to polish with the right equipment. Buyers look for as much usable area as possible when buying rough.

When asked how lapis lazuli gets from mine to market, he says it’s carried by cars, horses, humans, mules—any transportation available at the moment. Global Gems sells in the US and internationally. Customers include designers, inlayers, and makers of jewelry and beads. Larger specimens are used for high-end patio and tiling projects.

This series of interview segments reveals a man with a true love for, and deep knowledge about, the beautiful and exotic gem he trades in. @topic:2


Publish Year: - Title: Bridges Family and Tsavorite Update Abstract: Bruce BridgesBridges Tsavorite

Interview with Bruce Bridges, Bridges Tsavorite
There are moments in GIA’s compelling interview with Bruce Bridges that the son of legendary gem pioneer Campbell Bridges speaks optimistically about finally getting some justice in the brutal killing of his father in August 2009.  Eight suspects, who were named, photographed and eye-witnessed at the time of the crime, were arrested almost immediately. Yet the case has dragged on for more than three years, not only leaving the Bridges family in torment, but the Kenyan mining economy in a state of suspended animation.

Bridges reflects on his father’s life and work, which led him from his native Scotland to Africa, where he made his mark in the gem world with the discovery of tsavorite. For all the fame the discovery brought him, it seemed cursed from the start. His first discovery in Tanzania in 1969 went nowhere when the country refused to grant him a mining permit. His second discovery in Kenya in 1971 demanded eternal vigilance from poachers, thus giving his mine the name Scorpion after the poisonous creatures he would leave to guard it. Ultimately tsavorite led to his death at the hands of thuggish competitors.

In the interview Bridges also talks about the finer points of tsavorite—its shape and color—and describes the grading system used. He also discusses their use of master stones in grading and gives insight into tsavorite quality.

A truly special treat in the following video is the first-time unveiling of a brilliant umbalite specimen with tremendous sentimental value. When they were cleaning out his father’s belongings, Bruce tells us, they came upon a camera film canister labeled “2 pcs rgh.”  When they opened it, they found the umbalite rough. They had it cut and polished and here it’s on full display before our GIA camera. @topic:2


Publish Year: - Title: Emerald Dealer Shares Risks and Rewards Abstract: Arthur GroomArthur Groom & Company

Interview with Arthur Groom, Arthur Groom & Company
International gem dealer Arthur Groom says that even when you’re learning about gemology, you’re thinking business. In this exclusive interview with GIA conducted at the 2013 Tucson Gem Show, Groom delivers a highly instructive tutorial on the critical nexus between gemology and business.

In the course of the interview, Groom holds up two different emeralds and talks with great detail and clarity about the aesthetic as well as economic decisions that must be made about cutting the rough. He demonstrates the ramifications of those decisions both in the ultimate beauty of the stone and its value. One side of a piece of rough he shows off, he says, will go for $300 a carat; the other side for $1000. The sawing is everything, Groom proclaims.

His focus in the interview is on emeralds, for which he expresses enormous affection. This affection is undiminished by the acknowledged difficulty emeralds present to dealers. Groom says that because they are the most complex of colored stones, bidding on them is equally complex. But he offers some of the expertise that has enabled him to show off beauties like two featured in this video, valued at $15,000 to $18,000 per carat.

Groom also discusses the Afghan market at length, having recently traveled there. He surmises that if peace and mechanization ever come to Afghanistan, it will finally realize its potential as the world’s richest color stone source. As it is, he reports, the material coming out under the crude current conditions is pretty outstanding. It has a higher than average yield of 33% crystal clear, deeply colored rough. For Groom, the risk for the colored stone dealer is in the rough, and all other factors being equal, Afghanistan is well worth the risk. @topic:11


Publish Year: - Title: New Treatments and Imitation Gems Abstract: Rajneesh BhandariRMC Gems Thai Co. Ltd.

	Interview with Rajneesh Bhandari, RMC Gems Thai Co. Ltd.
In an exclusive interview with GIA conducted at the 2013 Gem Show in Tucson, Rajneesh Bhandari pulls back the curtain on the too-often secretive world of gemstone treatments. Bhandari is with RMC Gems Thai Co. Ltd., which specializes in gem treatments, synthetic gemstone processes, and the creation of imitation gemstones.

In the interview Bhandari speaks professionally and proudly about this important aspect of the gem trade. He is a strong advocate for these products with the stipulation that they are fully disclosed to customers so they know exactly what they’re getting. Rather than view disclosure as a burden on his business, Bhandari sees it as a necessity that allows the gem trade to meet its necessity to treat in order to produce more pleasing products. He compares gem treatments to treatments that are done across a wide cross section of industries where new technologies increasingly make natural products better in numerous ways.

He explains in some detail what some of those technologies are that allow RMC to create imitation morganite beryl, bi-color tourmaline, unusual quartz triplets and thin film coatings for increased durability. People in the trade should find Bhandari’s disclosures both informative and reassuring as they struggle to deal with the always-tricky subject of treatments. As for customers--if you have no idea what electron vapor deposition has to do with the shimmering gold drusy you just purchased as a gift on the home shopping channel, this interview will prove to be a fascinating eye-opener. @topic:8


Publish Year: - Title: Developing Tanzania's Gem and Jewelry Industry Abstract: Susie KennedyICA Director and Jewelry Designer

	Interview with Susie Kennedy, ICA Director and Jewelry Designer
A native of Kenya, Susie Kennedy teamed up with her husband in the 1990s to establish their place in the gem industry. With Mrs. Kennedy specializing in tanzanite and her husband in tsavorite garnet, they started out dealing in rough, then moved to gem cutting. Their business expanded into jewelry manufacturing when clients started demanding more than just unset gemstones. They opened their first jewelry store, The Kennedy’s International, in Nairobi, Kenya, in 1997.

The pair eventually opened another jewelry store and a gallery. Their enterprises became popular stopping places for organized tours from all over the world.

Mrs. Kennedy happily relates a highlight of her career so far: creating a beautiful pair of tanzanite earrings for Hillary Clinton, then the U. S. Secretary of State. Mrs. Kennedy and her team created the earrings under a tight deadline—just in time for Secretary Clinton’s meeting with Tanzania’s President Jakaya Kikwete. Mrs. Kennedy says she was proud and happy to see her earrings take a prominent place in press coverage of the day’s events.

In a discussion of the growth of the mining industry in Tanzania, she cites the arrival of foreign investment in gold and gem mining as well as gem sorting and cutting. She also says that both Kenya and Tanzania are reviewing their mining legislation to maximize the benefits to the local population. She expresses concern as well as optimism about the developing benefits to her people and the environment.

While it’s in short supply at the moment, she predicts tsavorite supplies will rise as investment increases and local laws make tsavorite mining more beneficial to miners and landowners. And although tanzanite supply is generally low, she is able to keep up her supply by taking advantage of her good, long-term relationships with local sources and by buying gems when demand is low.

Mrs. Kennedy’s advice to students was simple: “This business is based on trust:” If people know you to be trustworthy and that you keep your word, they will pass on your good name to others. “Let the customer be the king:” Find a source that you can trust rather than a chain of middlemen, which will raise your costs (and prices) while cutting down your profit. She winds up by saying, “Buy good, you sell good. That’s my philosophy.” @topic:11


Publish Year: - Title: Dealing in Natural Spinel, Garnet, Tourmaline, and More Abstract: Menahem SevdermishCEO and President of GemeWizard, Ramat Gan, Israel

	Interview with Menahem Sevdermish, CEO and President of GemeWizard, Ramat Gan, Israel
The range of Tanzanian gems’ lovely colors — both natural and slightly treated — is Mr. Sevdermish’s particular passion. The intense bright orange of natural spessartite, the pink and pastel shades of spinel, and the falling-leaves colors of “autumn” tourmalines cause him to wax enthusiastic.  The latter shades coincide with the current fashion for earth tones in cosmetics and are hot sellers in today’s market.  These natural stones, plus some of the rarest natural-color tanzanite “on the planet,” have caused him to adopt the slogan, “You look your best when you’re natural.”

Mr. Sevdermish is excited about the recent discovery of a small number of tanzanites with unusual pleochroism from the Merelani Hills. These combine colors not normally seen together in one piece of rough, such as green, violet, and blue, or green, violet, and yellow. Green and violet, he points out, are not even near each other in the spectrum, making this rough tanzanite gemologically rare. When he cuts and polishes such a piece, it results in a beautiful finished product such as a heart shape with blue curves and a green interior.

Tanzania is producing fabulous gem colors in important quantities, including zircons that “open up their colors” with a little heating. He believes these gems will catch on because jewelers are looking for novelty without high expense. He also credits the Internet with encouraging buyers, sellers, and designers to seek out new styles.

Mr. Sevdermish talks about a phenomenon in the gem trade where having a small amount of a relatively new gem—say, spessartite—available for sale actually works against the usual theory that rarity equals high value. This is because a somewhat rare but inexpensive specimen might be overlooked by jewelers and not used in their designs.  When that stone begins to appear on the market in larger quantities, jewelers take note and incorporate it into designs and catalogues; the resulting interest translates into demand and pushes prices higher. @topic:2


Publish Year: - Title: Colored Gem Supply and Market Update Abstract: Dudley BlauwetDudley Blauwet Gems

Interview with Dudley Blauwet, Dudley Blauwet Gems
Dudley Blauwet, a colored gemstone dealer from Colorado, has been traveling throughout Asia and parts of Africa for three decades, hunting down good, saleable gem material. He has witnessed firsthand the dramatic constriction in availability as global market forces have made their impact. If Blauwet’s lengthy, wide-ranging exclusive interview with GIA at the 2013 Tucson Gem Show had to be reduced to one word, that word would be: China.

As the interview moves over the map from Thailand to Pakistan to Afghanistan to Sri Lanka to Kenya, it always comes back to China. As the interview touches on an array of gems from tourmaline to topaz to sapphire to spinel to morganite and zoisite, availability always comes back to China.  According to Blauwet, everywhere you go looking for gemstones you find the Chinese have either gotten there first or with more hard cash to corner the various markets.

Other factors do come in to play in creating scarcity in the world gem market for what Blauwet describes as “bread and butter” dealers like him who make their living off the stones rather than amass fortunes. Among them are energy costs to run the drilling equipment, tribal battles over digging sites, and reduction of source material to prohibitive depths and locations. @topic:11


Publish Year: 1986 Title: Some Unusual Sillimanite Cat's-Eyes Abstract: Brown-black sillimanite cat's-eyes from Sri Lanka present an unusually sharp band, which would make them extraordinary gems were it not for the rather unattractive body color of the stones. A study of six of these stones found that they contain 0.5 wt. % iron oxide. The principal inclusion mineral is ilmenite, which occurs in elongated, submicroscopically thin lamellae. Complex thicker lamellae consist of hercynite spinel grown together with a member of the pyroxene group. These thicker inclusions were not found in all of the specimens investigated. @topic:1


Publish Year: - Title: And Then Came the Fantasy Cut Abstract: View Gallery

	Once upon a time, gem cutting was a strict craft bound by centuries of tradition. The job of a lapidary was to cut a gemstone to ideal proportions while preserving as many carats as possible. Then Bernd Munsteiner (b. 1943) invented the fantasy cut (concave cuts made on the back of gemstones).

	Munsteiner freely sliced away carats on the backs of gemstones to create spectacular lightshows on their fronts. The only ideal proportion he acknowledged was the one that freed the natural beauty he saw hiding in the stone.

	Many in the gem and jewelry trade didn’t know what to make of the fantasy cut. But the critics eventually became admirers, and Munsteiner’s pieces ended up in galleries and museums.

	Munsteiner’s most famous work may be the Dom Pedro – Ondas Maritimas, an exquisite 10,363 ct aquamarine gemstone. It is so breathtaking that the Smithsonian said it is “one of the few objects in the world that can hold its own in a display case just 30 feet from the Hope Diamond.”

	Munsteiner’s Dom Pedro – Ondas Maritimas, 1993, was a watershed creation: it signaled that the fantasy cut had become an accepted art form. Photo by Donald E. Hurlbert, courtesy of the Natural History Museum, the Smithsonian Institute

	Munsteiner’s innovative work inspired generations of award-winning lapidaries like Richard Homer, Michael Dyber, John Dyer, and Sherris Cottier Shank. The American Gem Trade Association even hosts the prestigious Cutting Edge Awards competitions where lapidaries submit fantasy cut gemstones.

	Richard P. Homer, GIA GG, won a 2013 AGTA Spectrum Award for his 36.74 ct Antique Cushion Concave Focus™ cut Imperial Topaz. Photo by Robert Weldon, courtesy of Gems By Design, Inc., Kent, OH

	Sherris Cottier Shank created the swirls in this spectacular 8.97 ct pink tourmaline by making curved grooves on the pavilion. Photo by Sherris Cottier Shank

	One of the most significant differences between fantasy cuts and traditional cuts are the types of cuts made on gemstones. Traditional gemstones are fashioned by placing them on a faceting machine with a flap lap tool, which grinds away and polishes the stone. Fantasy cut gemstones have grooves, optic dishes, and concave facets – all made possible by the development of tools to cut these design elements into gem materials.

	John Dyer’s 27.47 ct multicolor Oregon sunstone is an objet d’ art. Photo by David Dyer, gem courtesy of
	John Dyer & Co.

	Size of the gemstone is an important consideration to lapidaries: the larger the gem, the larger the “canvas.” Some cutters use diamonds and the Big Three (rubies, sapphires, and emeralds), but these materials are often difficult to obtain in large sizes. So many cutters chose gemstones that provide larger canvases, like quartz and aquamarine.

	“I trusted my intuition when I made Wind. I just started creating without any planning,” says Michael Dyber. The finished piece evokes a fierce storm frozen in time. Photo by Sena Dyber

	The world of fine jewelry and the fantasy cut may be far apart, yet a profound understanding of gemology is required by the craftspeople in each field. It is this love of gemstones that ultimately unites them.

	Dalan Hargrave used a variety of techniques on these three pieces of fantasy cut ametrine. Photo by Robert Weldon/GIA, courtesy of Minerales y Metales del Oriente, Bolivia, SA @topic:6


Publish Year: - Title: Conference Report: 21st General Meeting of the IMA Abstract: Dr. Gaston Giuliani presented on the oxygen isotope and trace-element chemistry of corundum at the General Meeting of the IMA in Johannesburg. Photo by Robert Weldon/GIA.

                      The 21st General Meeting of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) was held September 1–5 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Several oral and poster presentations were presented in a session on gem materials.

G. Agnosi (University of Bari, Italy) discussed preliminary results of an X-ray diffraction topography study of Colombian trapiche emeralds, which revealed a consistent crystallinity between the arms and the hexagonal core. She presented a model of trapiche formation in which the growth of the hexagonal core occurred first, followed by the six arm sections. Ulrika D’Haenens-Johansson (GIA, New York) outlined the status of synthetic diamond production. She reviewed the means of identification based on visual observations, structure-related ultraviolet fluorescence reactions, and distinctive spectroscopic features. In concluding, she noted that synthetic diamonds can be unequivocally recognized by major gem laboratories.

Andrew Fagan (University of British Columbia, Vancouver) presented the geologic setting and a model of formation of the Fiskenaesset corundum district in southwest Greenland. Estimates of ore reserves suggest that this could become a commercial ruby deposit. Gaston Giuliani (Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques, Nancy, France) studied the oxygen isotope and trace-element chemistry of sapphire xenocrysts in basalts from Changle, China, and of corundum from the Mbuyi-Mayi kimberlite in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to trace their primary sources. In both cases, the host basalt and kimberlite transported the corundum crystals from the lower crust and upper mantle.

Daniel Ichang'i (University of Nairobi) described efforts by the Kenyan government to document and better understand the geologic setting of the country’s numerous gem deposits. He discussed two main occurrence lithologies: the metamorphic rocks of the Neoproterozoic Mozambique Orogenic belt, and the Paleogene-Neogene basaltic volcanics in the Northern and Central Kenya Rift regions.

Stefanos Karampelas (Gübelin Gem Lab, Lucerne, Switzerland) detailed the gemological characteristics of emeralds from Itatitia in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The emeralds formed along the contact between phlogopite schists and highly evolved granitic pegmatites. Based on minor and trace-element chemistry, they can be distinguished from emeralds from other Brazilian and world deposits. Vincent Pardieu (GIA, Bangkok) gave a talk about Montepuez in northern Mozambique, which is currently the world's largest source of high-quality rubies. He also presented a short movie about GIA expeditions he has led to gem deposits in eastern Africa. Wuyi Wang (GIA, New York) presented a study of carbon isotopes of synthetic and natural diamonds. The latter displayed δ13C values from 0 to -20‰, while the former ranged from -25 to -75‰.

Dr. Wuyi Wang provided a look at the carbon isotopes of natural and synthetic diamonds. Photo by Robert Weldon/GIA.
Christopher M. Breeding (GIA, Carlsbad, California) described the interesting features of alluvial diamonds from the Marange deposit in eastern Zimbabwe. These type Ia diamonds display surface radiation staining, aggregated nitrogen impurities, and elevated hydrogen impurity contents, but these features do not provide a reliable indicator of geographic origin. Julien Feneyrol (Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques, Nancy) presented a model of the metamorphic formation of tsavorite nodules in primary deposits. The tsavorite nodules are always contained within graphitic gneiss and calc-silicates with intercalations of marble. Elena Sorokina (Fersman Mineralogical Museum, Moscow) described a model of ruby and sapphire formation in marbles at Snezhnoe in Tajikistan. @topic:2


Publish Year: 2013 Title: Green Kyanite Abstract: Figure 1. These yellowish green kyanite rough crystals range from 1.4 to 5.1 grams, while the cushion cabochon weighs 4.84 ct. Photo by Don Mengason.

              At the Riverpark Inn show in Tucson, gem dealer Tom Schneider (San Diego, California) exhibited a parcel of kyanite displaying an unusual saturated yellowish green color (figure 1). Mr. Schneider said he purchased several kilograms of the material in Arusha, Tanzania, its stated country of origin. While greenish blue, blue, and orange kyanite from Tanzania have been previously documented (Winter 2004 GNI, pp. 341–342; Summer 2009 GNI, pp. 146–147), this would be the first vibrantly colored yellowish green material from there. Yellowish green kyanite from Brazil has been previously reported (Winter 2001 GNI, pp. 337–338), but it had a light color and lacked the strong saturation of the material from Tanzania.

A cushion cabochon fashioned from one of the rough crystals was examined in the Carlsbad laboratory and exhibited the following properties: an RI of 1.719–1.731, a hydrostatic SG of 3.70, and no reaction to short- or long-wave UV radiation. These physical properties were consistent with those published for kyanite. This identification was confirmed by Raman spectroscopy.

Microscopic examination revealed several transparent crystals, fine particles, numerous fractures, and cleavages. Trapped in several cracks was an epigenetic reddish brown mineral residue. It is also notable that a small percentage of the rough crystals examined showed narrow blue color zones.

	Figure 2. Visible spectroscopy revealed dominant absorption features at 432 and 445 nm, attributed to Fe3+ and consistent with the very high levels of iron measured in this yellowish green kyanite.
To determine the cause of the yellowish green color, we collected a visible spectrum using a UV-Vis-NIR scanning spectrophotometer (figure 2). This revealed prominent features located in the visible region at 432 and 445 nm. These features have been attributed to Fe3+ in kyanite (R.G. Burns, Mineralogical Applications of Crystal Field Theory, 2nd ed., 1993, Cambridge University Press). LA-ICP-MS measurements collected on the cushion cabochon confirmed a high concentration of iron—more than 20,400 ppmw, consistent with the saturated yellowish green color.

This new supply of vibrant yellowish green material from Tanzania presents an inexpensive option for unusual ornamental gem materials. @topic:2


Publish Year: 2013 Title: Gemstones and Minerals Abstract: Nestled within this huge textbook on analytical archaeometry—an interdisciplinary field representing the interface between the natural and physical sciences and professions such as archaeology, art history, and museum curatorship that uses state-of-the-art technologies to extract structural and compositional information from ancient materials—is a useful chapter for today’s gem professional.

The modern gem trade’s embrace of science, technology, and the information sciences is perhaps best reflected in laboratory testing. Advanced laboratory services are often necessary to detect increasingly sophisticated treatments, and new manmade materials such as CVD-grown synthetic diamonds. Lab testing is also used to detect nanotechnology films for hardness and color enhancement, some sophisticated diffusion processes, and geographic origin, to name a few.

Chapter 10, “Gemstones and Minerals,” is a broad overview of several advanced spectroscopic and imaging techniques used in gemological and university laboratories to meet these modern needs. This 26-page chapter provides the gemologist, jeweler, and appraiser with succinct practical information, using numerous field examples, about advanced testing that can easily be communicated with clients.

The authors recognize that the foundational gemological methods (such as trained observation using magnification/microscopy, refractive index, specific gravity, ultraviolet indications, and optic character) often need to be augmented with advanced lab techniques, especially for conclusive determinations.

UV-visible near-infrared (UV-Vis-NIR) spectroscopy helps identify diamond treatments and determine the geographic origin of certain stones such as tourmaline and emerald. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy  helps in the detect of heat treatment in corundum and organic substances used for clarity enhancement, as well as the determination of diamond type. Other applications of FTIR include the separation of natural from synthetic origin in inclusion-free stones and the determination of jade type and treatments. Raman spectroscopy is an important tool in the study of inclusions, the detection of diamond and emerald treatments, and the identification of organic pigments in gems. Energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) and laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) are used in trace-element analyses, determining geographic origin, detecting beryllium treatments, and identify unknown or synthetic materials. Photoluminescence (PL) is applied to the study of natural and treated diamonds as well as pearls, spinel, rubies, and coral. X-ray imaging and radiography are widely used to evaluate cultured and natural pearls, including their treatments.

Abstracted by Edward R. Blomgren @topic:8


Publish Year: 2008 Title: Fall 2008 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: A Citrine with Eye-Visible Brazil-Law Twinning
Composite of Coral and Plastic
Black Diamonds Colored by Hydrogen Clouds
Irradiated Diamond: An Easy Call
Natural Type Ib Diamond with Unusual Reddish Orange Color
Observed Oddities in Diamond
“Party” Cloud Formation in Diamond
Pinkish Brown Diamond with Mantle-Mineral Inclusions
Large Emerald-in-Quartz Specimen
Calcite “Melt” in Grossular Garnet
A Rare Yellow Trapiche Sapphire

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 2008 Title: Summer 2008 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Diamond with Color Contributed by the 594 nm Center (?)
Subtle Flash-Effect Colors in a Filled Diamond
“Unidentified Clarity Characteristic” in Diamond
Gem-quality CVD Synthetic Diamond with Traces of Boron
Bleached Pinctada Margaritifera Cultured Pearls in Non-“Chocolate” Colors
Blue-Green Plagioclase Feldspar Possibly Colored by Copper
Unusual Green Fluid Inclusions in Quartz
Inclusions within Inclusions in Ruby
Blue Sapphire with Unusually High Concentration of Rare-Earth Elements

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 2008 Title: Spring 2008 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Aquamarine with Kelp-Like Inclusions
Diamond with Repeating Growth/Dissolution Features
First CVD Synthetic Diamond Submitted for Dossier Grading
Interesting Filled Voids in Emerald and Ruby
Glass with Devitrified Inclusions
White Clam Pearl with Original Shell
Large Baroque Multicolored Conch Pearl
Green Synthetic Sapphire with Vibrant Blue Inclusions
High-Temperature Heat-Treated Zircon

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 2007 Title: Winter 2007 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Apatite in Spessartine
Atypical Photoluminescence Feature in a Colorless Type IIa Diamond
Diamond Inclusions Fit for a Holiday Season
Diamond With Large Etch Channels Filled with Iron Sulfides
Natural Black Diamond with Oriented Etch Channel
The Pareidolia of Diamonds
A Notable Emerald Carving
Gold Coated Onyx
Sapphire with a Double Star
Impregnated Glass Imitation of Turquoise

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 2006 Title: Faceting Transparent Rhodonite from Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia Abstract: Transparent rhodonite is considered one of the most difficult of all gems to facet because of its perfect cleavage and brittle, uneven fracture. This article describes a technique for successfully faceting gem rhodonite that was developed through experiments on eight crystals from the North mine at Broken Hill, New South Wales. This was accomplished through a systematic structural, crystallographic, and optical analysis and the use of a nonconventional faceting approach—the “greasy lap” technique. This method uses a mixture of petroleum jelly and diamond grit to charge a non-embedded lap, allowing the diamond grit to “roll free” during the lapping process. @topic:2


Publish Year: 2007 Title: Summer 2007 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Diamond with Bimineralic Inclusions
HPHT-Treated Type Ia Diamond with a Green Component Caused by the H2 Defect
Diamond with Intense “Rainbow Graining”
Natural Color Hydrogen-Rich Blue-Gray Diamond
Type IIa Diamond with Intense Green Color Introduced by Ni-Related Defects
Diamond with Zigzag Cleavage
HPHT-Grown Synthetic Diamond Crystal with Unusual Morphology and Negative Trigons
Idocrase in Jadeite: A Heavenly Home
Opal with Unusual Structure

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 2007 Title: Spring 2007 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Blue Diamonds Showing Multiple Colors of Phosphorescence
Diamond with “Etched Dislocation Loops”
HPHT-Annealed Yellow-Orange Diamond with a Strong 480 nm Absorption Band
Translucent Greenish Yellow Diamonds
Unusual Natural-Color Black Diamond
Synthetic Diamond, Possibly Grown at Higher Temperatures
Heat-Treated Blue Sapphire with Unusual Dendrites
Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (YAG) with a Dislocation Spiral

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 2005 Title: Winter 2005 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Yellow Cubic Zirconia Imitating Cape Diamonds
Orange Diamond Treated by Multiple Processes
Pink Diamonds with a Temporary Color Change
Unusually Large Novelty Cut Diamond
Small Synthetic Diamonds
Diaspore “Vein” in Sapphire
Unusual Pearl from South America
Unusually Small Natural-Color Black Cultured Pearls
Identification of Turquoise with Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Spectroscopy

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 2005 Title: Summer 2005 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Fracture Filled Diamond with Varying Results
Large Diamond with Micro inclusions of Carbonates
Light Blue Diamond with Type IIb and IIa Zones
Natural Type Ib Diamond with Unusually High Nitrogen Content
Diamond with Unusual Laser Drill Holes
Yellowish Orange Magnesioaxinite
Cultured Pearl with Cultured-Pearl Nucleus
Dyed “Golden” Freshwater Cultured Pearls
More on Copper-Bearing Color-Change Tourmaline from Mozambique

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:8


Publish Year: 2004 Title: Winter 2004 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Faceted Apophyllite with “Crop Circles”
Diamond Luminescent “Hopper” Diamond
“Magnetic” Natural Pink Diamond
Diamond with Many Microscopic Carbonate Inclusions
Unusual Near-Colorless Synthetic Diamond
Orangy Brown Iolite from Madagascar
Flashing Labradorite
Natural Saltwater Mussel Pearls
Treated-Color “Golden” South Sea Cultured Pearls
Quartz in Three Colors
Erratum

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 2004 Title: Fall 2004 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Large Coral Bead Necklace
Four Blue Diamonds From A Historic Necklace
Irradiated Blue Diamond Crystal
Irradiated Type IIb Diamond
Unusual Cause Of Blue Color In A Diamond
Nephrite That Mimics Serpentine
Pink Opal
Rubies, Clarity Enhanced With A Lead Glass Filler
Unusual Synthetic Ruby Triplet Displaying Asterism
Copper-Bearing Color-Change Tourmaline From Mozambique

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 2004 Title: Summer 2004 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Notable Cat’s-Eye Alexandrite
Fracture Filled Diamond: To Alter Color and Enhance Clarity
Moon-Like Surface on a Crystal
Cat’s-Eye Demantoid Garnets
High R.I. Glass Sold as Peridot
Dyed Jadeite Resembling Nephrite
Green Quartz with Brazil-Law Twinning
Synthetic Sapphire with Unusual Yellowish Green Bodycolor
Spinel with Interesting Etch Tubes
Natural Spinel Identified with Photoluminescence

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: - Title: John Koivula Abstract: In 2009, GIA bestowed its highest honor, the Richard T. Liddicoat Award for Distinguished Achievement, on longtime chief research gemologist John I. Koivula. The award was based on his contributions to gemology as a photomicrographer, researcher, author, and speaker. Koivula’s impact on the field, particularly in the microworld of gemstones, cannot be overstated.

Koivula spent his childhood in eastern Washington State collecting minerals, amassing a large collection of specimens with inclusions. As a teenager, he wrote to Dr. Edward Gübelin, sending along his first photomicrographs and beginning a collaboration that would culminate in the three-volume Photoatlas of Inclusions in Gemstones. After earning degrees in mineralogy-geology and inorganic chemistry, he worked for Cominco American as an exploration geologist before joining GIA in 1976.

Through his work in photomicrography, Koivula revolutionized the world of gemology. He introduced cutting-edge techniques into his research, including the use of fiber-optic illumination, a technique that has become commonplace in gem labs around the world. During the late 1980s and early ’90s, he and colleague Robert C. Kammerling conducted groundbreaking research into glass-filled diamonds, helping the diamond industry understand this unstable clarity enhancement.

During his time at the Institute, Koivula has lectured extensively at trade and scientific conferences around the world. A prolific writer, Koivula is the author or co-author of over 800 articles on inclusions, microscopy, and gem identification. Sixty-four of his articles have been published in Gems & Gemology; of those, 16 received the journal’s Most Valuable Article award. He also served on the G&G editorial team for over 25 years. Koivula’s photomicrographs have placed in the Nikon Small World photography competition several times, including first place in 1984. A special exhibit of his photomicrography was held at the Rome Civic Zoological Museum in October 2004. In addition to his work on the Photoatlas series, he has contributed to numerous other books. His own MicroWorld of Diamonds, discussing natural and synthetic diamonds, simulants, and enhancements, was published in 2000.

The gemological industry has recognized Koivula’s contributions to the field by awarding him the AGS’s Robert M. Shipley Award (1996) and the AGA’s Antonio Bonnano Award for Excellence in Gemology (2001). He was also the first recipient of AGS’s Richard T. Liddicoat Journalism Award in 2003. He is an Honorary Lifetime Member of both the Gemmological Association of Great Britain and the Finnish Gemological Society. In 1999, JCK named Koivula to its list of the “64 Most Influential People in the Jewelry Industry in the 20th Century.”

In accepting the Institute’s Liddicoat Award, Koivula said, “Gemology is a great profession. I would be doing this anyway even if I was not paid, because this is what I love to do.” John Koivula’s passion opened the doors for researchers and enthusiasts alike to appreciate the relevance of inclusions and the importance of photomicrography to modern gemology.

View Gallery

	Photomicrography Gallery @topic:8


Publish Year: 2003 Title: Summer 2003 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Non-Phenomenal Vanadium-Bearing Chrysoberyl
Brown-Yellow Diamonds with an “Amber Center” and Pink Lamellae
Color-Change Grossular-Andradite Garnet from Mali
Glass Imitation of Tsavorite Garnet
“Planetarium”
Guatemalan Jade with Lawsonite Inclusions
Chatoyant Opal with Eye that “Opens and Closes”
Variously Colored Imitation Pearls with Iridescent Appearance
Synthetic Sapphire Color-Change Doublets
Unusual “Red” Spinel
Diffusion-Treated Tanzanite?

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 2002 Title: Fall 2002 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Bromellite
Charoite Inclusions in a Quartz-Feldspar Rock
Altered Vs. Natural Inclusions in Fancy-Color Diamonds
Diamond with “Compact Disc” Inclusion
Hemimorphite, a Rarely Encountered Gem Material
Bulk Diffusion or Lattice Diffusion Treated Sapphire
Bulk Diffusion–Treated Sapphire with Synthetic Overgrowth
Synthetic Sapphire Treated by “Traditional” Bulk Diffusion with Transition Elements
Sapphire with Surface Evidence of Heat Treatment

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:8


Publish Year: 2002 Title: Summer 2002 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Aurichalcite
Another Commercial U.S. Facility Offers HPHT Annealing for Diamonds
Challenges in Recognizing a Color Attribute’s Effect on Color Grading Fancy Colors
Diamond “Pearl” Necklace
Internal Laser Drilling Update
Unusual “Pink” Diamond
High-Quality Synthetic Jadeite from General Electric
Cobalt-“Diffused” Sapphire
Yellow-Green Schlossmacherite Beads

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 2001 Title: Summer 2001 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Diamond “Banded” Twinned Crystal
Diamond with a Carbonate Inclusion
Diamond with Unusual Mineral Inclusions
Feldspar with Chrome Diopside Inclusions
Gibbsite Dyed to Imitate Nephrite
Devitrified Glass Resembling Jade
Early Japanese Assembled Cultured Blister Pearls
Dyed Black Faceted Cultured Pearls
A New Imitation: “Shell Pearls” with a Calcite Bead

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 1999 Title: Russian Synthetic Ametrine Abstract: Gem-quality synthetic ametrine has been produced commercially in Russia since 1994, by hydrothermal growth from alkaline solutions. Faceted synthetic ametrine has many similarities to its natural counterpart from Bolivia. For the most part, however, the synthetic ametrine obtained for this study could be identified by a combination of characteristics, including growth features such as twinning and color zoning. EDXRF chemical analyses revealed higher concentrations of K, Mn, Fe, and Zn than in natural ametrine. IR spectra of the synthetic citrine portions showed more intense absorption in the 3700–2500 cm−1 range compared to natural ametrine; the synthetic amethyst zones showed a weak diagnostic peak at 3543 cm−1. @topic:1


Publish Year: 1997 Title: Summer 1997 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Etched Chalcedony
Diamond with “Additional” Color
Rough Diamond with Contrasting Colors
Treated-Color Yellow Diamonds with Green Graining
An Unusual Assembled Imitation Emerald
Star Feldspar
Jadeite Jade Beads of an Unusual Color
Jadeite Cavity Impregnated with a Colored Filler
Dyed Impregnated Jadeite Bangle without a “Dye Band” Spectrum
Assembled Imitation Ruby
Sapphire with Evidence of Heat Treatment
Serendibite, a Rare Gemstone
Zircon with “Play-of-Color”

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 2004 Title: Amethyst from Four Peaks, Arizona Abstract: For more than a century, the Four Peaks mine in Maricopa County, Arizona, has produced gem-quality amethyst from crystal-lined or crystal-filled cavities and fractures in a brecciated quartzite host rock. Crystals from the deposit exhibit a range of purple colors, uneven color zoning, and variable transparency, which present challenges for obtaining a steady supply of material suitable for faceting. Faceted material may display fluid inclusions and tiny reddish brown hematite flakes, growth zoning, and Brazil-law twinning, all of which provide visual clues to separating the Four Peaks material from synthetic amethyst. Recovery of amethyst at this deposit continues at this time on a limited basis. @topic:1


Publish Year: 2003 Title: Red Beryl from Utah: A Review and Update Abstract: There is only one known commercial occurrence of gem-quality red beryl in the world: the Ruby Violet (or Red Beryl) mine in the Wah Wah Mountains of Beaver County, Utah. The beryl is found mostly along fractures (often clay-filled) in a topaz rhyolite. It crystallized as a vapor-phase mineral from the reaction between rhyolite-derived gases, vapors originating from heated ground waters, and preexisting minerals and volcanic glass in the rhyolite. Production of red beryl over the past 25 years is estimated to be more than 60,000 carats, of which about 10% was facetable. Exploration and evaluation programs undertaken by two mining companies from 1994 to 2001, combined with field studies by some of the authors and others, have resulted in a greater understanding of the geology of the Ruby Violet deposit and the potential for productive areas beyond the current mine site. @topic:3


Publish Year: 2002 Title: Serendibite from Sri Lanka Abstract: Two samples of faceted serendibite, a boron-bearing mineral that is only rarely found in gem quality, are described. These samples reportedly were cut from rough discovered in secondary deposits of the Ratnapura area in Sri Lanka. The bluish green to green-blue gems are similar in color, physical and optical properties, and chemical composition to low-iron-bearing non-gem-quality serendibite from various occurrences. These gems may be confused with sapphirine and zoisite, but can be identified as serendibite on the basis of refractive indices, twinning, and spectroscopic features. @topic:9


Publish Year: 2001 Title: Pyrope from the Dora Maira Massif, Italy Abstract: Large pyrope crystals containing gem-quality portions have been collected since the early 1990s from the Dora Maira Massif, Western Alps, Italy. These crystals have yielded pale purple to purplish pink gemstones typically up to 1 ct. The chemical composition and physical properties compare favorably to those reported for near-end-member pyrope. Absorption spectra suggest that the color is related to Fe2+ and Mn2+. The pyrope formed in a mica schist-quartzite layer within Paleozoic basement rocks that underwent an Alpine high-pressure/low-temperature metamorphic event. The deposit appears extensive, but future production undoubtedly will be limited due to environmental restraints. Currently about 100 carats per year enter the marketplace. @topic:1


Publish Year: 2001 Title: A New Method for Imitating Asterism Abstract: Several gems were recently examined that showed stars with an unnatural appearance or an unusual number of rays. Asterism in some of these gem materials is very rare, or has not been seen previously by the authors. Microscopic examination revealed that these “stars” were produced by using what appeared to be a rough polish to scratch lines in an oriented fashion onto the upper surface of the cabochons. @topic:3


Publish Year: 2000 Title: Technological Development in the 1990s: Their Impact on Gemology Abstract: In the last decade, technology has improved how we synthesize, process, identify, and otherwise study gem materials. Significant trends include: the widespread availability of computerized communication; the application of synthesis techniques to gem treatments; the increased prominence of treated synthetics; the greater need for expensive instrumentation to solve gem problems in general, and the broader availability of small dedicated instruments to solve specific problems; and the adaptation of techniques from other sciences. Potentially applicable technology must be evaluated critically to assess its usefulness and appropriateness to solve a particular gemological problem. @topic:8


Publish Year: - Title: Winter 2009 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: A New Chalcedony Treatment
DiamondView Indicates Treatment in Irradiated Brown-Orange Diamond
Fancy Intense Blue Type IIb Synthetic Diamond
Diamond with Flower-Shaped Cloud
Unusual Trigon-Shaped Clouds Indicate Two Diamonds Cut from the Same Piece of Rough
Colorless Cat’s-Eye Phenakite
Blue Sapphires Diffusion Treated with both Titanium and Beryllium
Interesting Inclusion Aggregate in Tsavorite
Uranium Mineral as Inclusion in Turquoise

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 2009 Title: Chrysoprase and Prase Opal from Haneti, Central Tanzania Abstract: Commercial quantities of gem-quality chrysoprase and green prase opal (nickel-bearing chalcedony and common opal, respectively) have been recovered from altered serpentinite deposits near Haneti, Tanzania. Material studied for this report came from the largest mine, located on top of Iyobo Mountain, which has been actively exploited for two decades. Although somewhat similar in color and appearance, chrysoprase and prase opal can easily be distinguished from one another by differences in refractive index (~1.55 vs. ~1.45) and specific gravity (~2.60 vs. ~2.11). Chrysoprase makes up the vast majority of the output, and the mine shows good potential for continued production. @topic:13


Publish Year: 1999 Title: Sapphire and Garnet from Kalalani, Tanga Province, Tanzania Abstract: Located just 3 km south of the famous Umba locality, the geologically similar Kalalani area hosts deposits of gem-quality sapphire (reddish orange, yellow-brown, and other colors), pyrope-almandine, and tsavorite. The gems are mined principally from primary and eluvial sources associated with a serpentinite body and surrounding metacalcareous rocks. The gemological properties of sapphires from Kalalani are very similar or identical to those from Umba. The garnets, however, are different: Tsavorite is not known from the Umba area, and the dark red to brownish red pyrope-almandine from Kalalani is distinct from the pink-purple rhodolite more commonly found at Umba. @topic:1


Publish Year: 1996 Title: Fall 1996 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Aragonite
Different Colors from the Same Rough Diamond
Imitation Diamond Crystals: Cubic Zirconia
Natural Rough Diamond with Unseen "Flaws"
Fancy Intense Pinkish Orange Diamond
A Suite of Treated-Color Pink-to-Purple Diamonds
Herderite
Jadeite
Opal: an Assemblage
Assembled Cultured Blister Pearls with Thread-Like Inclusions
Single-Crystal Green Quartz
Unusual Treated Natural Sapphire
Flame-Fusion Synthetic Sapphire

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 1996 Title: Spring 1996 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: A Notable Yellow Synthetic Diamond from Russia
One Natural and One Imitation Emerald Earring
Grossular Garnet-Bearing Rock, Resembling Impregnated Jadeite
Jadeite Jade with Copper Inclusions
Jadeite Jade with "Reconstructed" Area
Abalone Pearls
Pearls Partially Coated to Conceal Old Drill Holes
Periclase Possibly Confused with Grossular Garnet
Dyed Quartz as Imitation Ruby
Ruby/Ruby Doublet
Synthetic Ruby with Fanciful Polishing Marks
Sapphire with Rounded Facet Junctions
Green Synthetic Sapphire

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:2


Publish Year: 1995 Title: Fall 1995 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Fracture Filled Alexandrite with High R.I. Values
Flux Grown Synthetic Alexandrite without Diagnostic Inclusions
Diffusion Treated Corundum
Diamond Inclusions Affect Body Color
Diamond with Iridescence in an Incompletely Filled Fracture
Imitation Emerald Plastic-Coated Beryl
Jadeite Jade Assemblages
Finely Detailed Glass Imitation
Imitation Lapis Lazuli
Glass Imitation "Mexican" Opal
Black Pearl Imitations
Large Synthetic Ruby

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:8


Publish Year: 1995 Title: Summer 1995 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Azurite and Antlerite Rock
Diamond with Strain Phantom
Treated-Color Pink Diamond
Unusual Diamond Crystal
Synthetic Diamond Suite
Jadeite Jade with Misleading Inclusions
Omphacite Rock Carving
Cultured Pearl with a Damaged Nucleus
Dyed Quartzite Imitating Jade
Synthetic Ruby with Diffusion-Induced "Fingerprint" Inclusions and Asterism
Cat's-Eye Sapphire
Color-Change Synthetic Sapphire with Twin Lamellae

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 1995 Title: Spring 1995 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Alexandrite with Pleochroic Twinned Growth Zones
Untreated or Fracture-Filled Diamond
Treated Old-Mine Cut Diamond
Triangular Inclusions in Diamond
Treated-Color Red Synthetic Diamond
Emerald with Unusual Flash-Effect Colors
Bleached and Impregnated Jadeite with Distinctive Surface Texture
Treated and Untreated Jadeite Beads in One Necklace
Dyed Green Nephrite
Blister Pearl Attached to Shell
Sapphire with Diffusion-Induced Color and Star
Synthetic Star Sapphire with an Unusual Color
Natural Spinel with a Dendritic Inclusion

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 1997 Title: Tairus Hydrothermal Synthetic Sapphires Doped with Nickel and Chromium Abstract: Researchers of the Tairus joint venture have developed the technology for the hydrothermal growth of gem-quality crystals of synthetic sapphire. They have achieved a broad spectrum of attractive colors by varying the concentrations of Ni2+, Ni3+, and Cr3+. Comprehensive testing of 18 faceted synthetic sapphires and 10 synthetic crystals, representing the range of colors, revealed a typical set of internal features that are specific to hydrothermally grown crystals (microscopy), as well as the presence of OH– and various carbon-oxygen groups in the sapphire structure (infrared spectroscopy). The reactions of the test samples to ultraviolet radiation and visible light were also found to be useful in distinguishing the Tairus synthetic sapphires from their natural counterparts and other synthetics. @topic:3


Publish Year: 1997 Title: Rubies and Fancy-Color Sapphires from Nepal Abstract: Gem-quality rubies and fancy-color sapphires have been recovered from dolomite marble lenses located high in the Himalayan mountains of east-central Nepal (Ganesh Himal). First discovered in the early 1980s, these deposits have had only limited and sporadic production because of their isolated locations, high altitudes, and harsh seasonal weather conditions. The precise locations and geology of the two best-known deposits are described. In addition, 27 polished samples and 19 rough crystals and mineral specimens were thoroughly investigated to document their gemological characteristics and crystal morphology. The most distinctive internal features are their color-zoning characteristics, various cloudlike and other patterns, as well as a wide variety of mineral inclusions, some of which have not been seen in rubies from other sources. @topic:2


Publish Year: 1994 Title: Winter 1994 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Light Yellow Color-Treated Diamond
Carved Emerald Fetish
Feldspar: Separating Alkali from Plagioclase Species
Grossular-Andradite Garnet from Mali, West Africa
Bleached and Impregnated Jadeite Jade with Distinctive Surface Features
Imitation and Natural Spotted Malachite
Abalone "Mabe" Pearl
Non-Nacreous Cultured "Pearl"
Sapphire of Unusual Color
Synthetic Sapphire: Striae Resolution Technique

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 1994 Title: Fall 1994 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Ceramic Statue
Large "Knot" in Citrine
Americium-Treated Green Diamond
Unusual Triangular Inclusion in a Diamond
Grossular-Diopside Rock
Iron-Rich Hornblende
Exceptionally Translucent Jadeite Jade Necklace
Jadeite Jade with Impregnating Substance in Drill Hole
"Banded" Natural-Colored Natural Pearl
Color-Treated Cultured Pearl
Natural-Color Sapphire with Unusual Fluorescence
Color-Zoned Synthetic Sapphire
Serpentine and Forsterite Rock
Detecting Impregnated Turquoise

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 1994 Title: Summer 1994 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Diamond Laser Drill Holes or Natural Inclusions?
Diamond with Unusual Color Zoning
Trapiche Emerald from a New Locality
Jadeite with Metallic Inclusions
Round and Near-Round Freshwater Tissue-Nucleated Cultured Pearls
Glass-Coated Quartz
Synthetic Sapphire with a Small Star
Sapphires from Yogo Gulch, Montana
Dyed and Impregnated Turquoise
Faceted Vayrynenite

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 1994 Title: Spring 1994 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Centenary Diamond Graded
"Unnamed Brown" Diamond
Fancy-Colored Rough Diamond
Characteristic Inclusions in Fancy-Color Diamonds
Feldspar and Garnet Snuff Bottle
Magnetic Hercynite
Impregnated Lavender Jadeite
Translucent Greenish Blue Opal
Early Japanese Assembled Cultured Blister Pearls
Experimental Nucleus in a Cultured Pearl
Star Sapphire with a Buff-Top Cut
Color-Change Synthetic Sapphire with Unusual Backing

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 1993 Title: Winter 1993 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Cubic Zirconia Carved to Imitate an Ancient Buddha
Cyclotron-Treated Diamond
Fancy-Color Diamond with Unusual Radiation Stains
Unusual "Melted" Cavity in a Diamond
Faceted Yellow Synthetic Diamond
Emerald with Large Filled Etch Channels
Fracture Filled Garnets
Iridescent Orthoamphibole, "Nuummite"
Orthopyroxene, a Carved Mask
Some Pearl Observations
Synthetic Ruby: Striae Resolution Technique
Sapphire: A Difficult Identification
Diffusion Treatment in Sapphire Obscured by Mounting
Yag with Unusual Inclusions

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 1996 Title: Enstatite, Cordierite, Kornerupine, and Scapolite with Unusual Properties from Embilipitiya, Sri Lanka Abstract: Gem-quality enstatite, cordierite, kornerupine, and scapolite with unusual properties have been recovered from alluvial deposits in the region of Embilipitiya, Sri Lanka. The occurrence of almost pure, completely colorless, enstatite appears to be unique in the world. The cordierites are also usually colorless and nonpleochroic. The diversity in the properties of kornerupine is mainly due to variations in the ratio of magnesium to iron. The strong “canary" yellow fluorescence of scapolites from this locality has not been observed in scapolites from other sources in Sri Lanka. @topic:1


Publish Year: 1995 Title: Winter 1995 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Fancy Black Diamond with Iron
Fracture-Filled Diamond with Unusual Material
Extremely Thin Jadeite Jade Carving
A Testing Precaution for Jadeite Jade
Impregnated Synthetic Opal
Green and Yellow Bicolor Synthetic Quartz
Rock Resembling Jadeite
Ruby with Atypically High R.I.'s
Two Rubies with Unusual Features
Sapphire with Zoned Transmission Luminescence
Synthetic Sapphire with Color Changed by UV Radiation
Magnetic Serpentine
Spinel with Hogbomite Inclusions (?)
A Topaz Assemblage
Zircon with Phantom Planes

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:8


Publish Year: 1995 Title: Sapphires from Southern Vietnam Abstract: Gem-quality blue to bluish green sapphires from basaltic terrains in southern provinces of Vietnam have been entering the gemstone market since the late 1980s.Visits to two of the sapphire-producing areas—Phan Thiet and Di Linh—confirmed that the sapphires occur in association with alkali basalts. Mining was done by hand at the Phan Thiet localities and with relatively sophisticated equipment at Di Linh. Investigation of 250 faceted samples revealed gemological, spectroscopic, and chemical properties similar to those of other basaltic sapphires. Notable internal features are prominent growth structures, distinctive color zoning, various crosshatch to lath-like "cloud" patterns, and several mineral inclusions. @topic:2


Publish Year: 1983 Title: Fall 1993 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Clarified Amber Beads
Brown-Pink Diamond with "Green Graining"
Light Violet-Gray Diamond
Strain Phantom in Diamond
Synthetic Yellow Diamond Crystal
Treated Green Diamond with a Blue Color Zone
Devitrified Glass, Resembling Actinolite
Bleached/Polymerized Jadeite Update
Unusual "Twin" Cultured Pearl
Eroded Cultured Pearls
Color-Zoned Pink Quartz
Synthetic Ruby: Another lmitation Ruby "Crystal"
Ruby in "Invisible" Mountings
Ruby as the Top Stone in an Asteriated Doublet

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 1993 Title: Spring 1993 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Synthetic Alexandrite with Needle-Like Inclusions
"Coated" Beryl
Irradiated Beryl of a Rare Color
Blue Diamond with Unusual Inclusions
Laser-Drilled Diamond for Mounting
Laser-Assisted Filling in Diamond
Radioactive Diamond
Cabochon Cut Synthetic Emerald
Imitation Lapis Lazuli
Large Faceted Lazulite
Cat's-Eye Orthoclase
Abalone Pearls from North America

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:8


Publish Year: 1992 Title: Winter 1992 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Diamond with Etched Dislocation Channels
Colored Diamond Crystal Set in a "Renaissance Ring"
Synthetic Emerald Overgrowth on Faceted Beryls Used in Jewelry
Pink Hydrogrossular Garnet
Black Opal
Freshwater Natural Pearl from Alabama
Synthetic Green Quartz
Color-Zoned Sapphire
Durability of Diffusion-Treated Sapphire
Yellow Sapphire with Unusual Fluorescence
Synthetic Star Sapphire of Unusual Color
Unusual Bicolor Zoisite

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 1991 Title: Fall 1991 G&G Book Reviews Abstract: “Gemology, 2nd Edition”
By Cornelius S. Hurlbut and Robert C. Kammerling, 337 pp., illus., publ. by John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1991. US$58.00

“Gemstones of Pakistan: Geology and Gemmology”
By Ali H. Kazmi and Michael O'Donoghue, 146 pp., illus., publ. by Gemstone Corporation of Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan, 1990. US$24.95

“Gems, Granites, and Gravels, Knowing and Using Rocks and Minerals”
By Richard V. Dietrich and Brian J. Skinner, 173 pp., illus., publ. by Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, 1990. US$24.95

“Crystals”
By Ian F. Mercer, 60 pp., illus., publ. by the Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1990. US$9.95

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:2


Publish Year: 1991 Title: Summer 1991 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Amber Damaged in Cleaning
Large Electron-Treated Diamond
Electron Treated Diamond in Period Jewelry
Fracture Filled Diamond
Green Surface-Colored Rough Diamond Fashioned to a Fancy Light Yellow
Green Diamond with Radiation Stains in Etch Channels
Pearl Cultured "Demi-Pearl"
Freshwater "Rosebud" Pearls
Rare Assembled Cultured Blister Pearls
An Early (?) Flux-Grown Synthetic Ruby
Spinel with Unusual Green Fluorescence
Cobalt-Colored Synthetic Spinel with Unusual Inclusions
Dark Blue Topaz Damaged by Treatment
Radioactive Zircon

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 1993 Title: Emeralds and Green Beryls of Upper Egypt Abstract: Egypt is the most ancient of sources for emerald. More than 2,000 years ago, emerald deposits in upper Egypt were supplying gems throughout the Graeco-Roman Empire. A recent visit to this emerald province revealed that the emeralds occur within a northwest-southeast trending belt of schistose rocks in the Red Sea Hills, near the port town of Marsa Alam. At the time of the visit, there was no official commercial mining of emerald in the region, although there was evidence of sporadic activity by Bedouin tribespeople. Gemological examination of 14 cut emeralds and green beryls revealed properties consistent with those of material from similar geologic environments. @topic:1


Publish Year: 1991 Title: Fall 1991 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Diamond with Hexagonal Indented Natural
Type IIb Diamond with Natural Irradiation Stains
Accidentally Tissue-Nucleated Cultured Pearl
Green-Dyed Natural Pearls
Natural- and Treated-Color Black Cultured Pearls in the Same Necklace
Remarkable Cultured Pearl
A  Pearl "Teething" Problem
“Treated” Mabe Pearls
Two Different Mabe Pearls
Diffusion-Treated Sapphires in Fine Jewelry
Early Synthetic Rubies

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 1991 Title: Rubies and Fancy Sapphires from Vietnam Abstract: Gem-quality rubies and pink to purple sapphires are being recovered from the Luc Yen and Quy Chau mining regions of Vietnam. This article briefly reviews the history and geology of these areas, as well as the mining methods used. The gemological characteristics of more than 100 of these stones are described in detail. The most notable internal features are blue color zones, swirl-like and angular growth features, bluish "clouds," and inclusions of rod-like calcite and pyrrhotite as well as the rare mineral nordstrandite. @topic:9


Publish Year: 1990 Title: "Emeraldolite": A New Synthetic Emerald Overgrowth on Natural Beryl Abstract: This article describes a new manufactured gem material marketed under the trade name "Emeraldolite," which is an epitaxial growth of flux synthetic emerald on opaque white beryl. The material has a distinctive visual appearance, and is commonly used for jewelry in its "rough" form. The gemological properties of "Emeraldolite" are very similar to those normally shown by flux-grown synthetic emeralds. @topic:3


Publish Year: 1990 Title: Fall 1990 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Dyed Natural Beryl
Carved Chrysoberyl
Electron Irradiated Diamond
Fancy Black Diamond
Included Diamond Crystal
Opal with an Unusual Inclusion
Cultured Pearls with Colored Bead Nuclei
Freshwater Natural Pearls
Gray Baroque Cultured Pearls
Diffusion-Treated Montana Rough Sapphire
Large Colorless Sapphire
Cobalt Colored Color-Change Spinel
Synthetics and Simulants in Period Jewelry

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 1989 Title: Winter 1989 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Plastic Imitation Amber
Diamond with an Almandine-Pyrope Garnet Inclusion
Bicolored Diamond
Diamond with a Color-Change Garnet Inclusion
Radium Treated Diamond
Treated Diamond Crystal
Impregnated Jadeite Jade
Assembled Pearl
Treated Black Cultured Pearl
Damaged "Burma" Ruby
Large Purple Scapolite
Blue Tourmaline from Brazil
Imitation Cubic Zirconia

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 1989 Title: Zircon from the Harts Range, Northern Territory, Australia Abstract: Gem-quality zircon from a relatively underdeveloped locality in the Harts Range of central Australia is described. While exhibiting many properties of other gem zircons, this material is unusual in its almost total lack of radioactive trace elements. Thus, there is little or no radiation-related structural damage as is the case with some other gem zircons. The Harts Range material occurs in a size, quality, and color range suitable for faceting. @topic:8


Publish Year: 1989 Title: Spring 1989 G&G Lab Notes Abstract: Transparent Green Augite
Covellite
Coated Diamonds Again Seen in the Trade
Unusual Inclusions in Diamond
American Freshwater Natural Pearls
Cultured Black Pearl Mystery
A Large Phosphophyllite Crystal
Verneuil Synthetic Ruby with Needle-Like Inclusions
A Large Fine-Color Star Sapphire
An Unusual Green Star Sapphire
Pink Spinel from the USSR
Synthetics and other "Modern" Substitutions in Period Jewelry and Reproductions

To view the full section, download the PDF above. @topic:10


Publish Year: 1989 Title: "Opalite": Plastic Imitation Opal with True Play-Of-Color Abstract: A plastic imitation opal that shows true play-of-color was advertised as "new" and offered for sale under the trade name "Opalite" at the Gem and Lapidary Dealers Association (GLDA) Tucson show in February 1988. Subsequent gemological testing proved that this material was virtually identical to the plastic imitation opal previously described in the literature that was known to be manufactured in Japan. It is now being marketed worldwide under a new name. @topic:13