Newsletter November 2021

November is the month to celebrate Thanksgiving in America so I have been racking my brain for some sort of gemstone link for this newsletter.

We do have our article on gemstones that would make ideal Thanksgiving gifts and that can be read here:

Thanksgiving Gemstones

But how about something new for this year?

I went through the usual Thanksgiving traditions, turkey, corn, pumpkins, Native Americans, autumn, pilgrims, harvest, pie, football but nothing was leaping out until I saw some of the new gemstone arrivals. Bear with me, it is a little tenuous, but the name Turquoise can be translated into ‘Stone from Turkey’ – and what could be more appropriate than that?

It is also a gemstone revered by native Americans who made the early colonists’ survival possible, gives protection from harm which is very symbolic of thanksgiving and is a stone of communication which could be very handy when visiting folks and feasting around the dinner table during the holidays.

The Mughal era was a spectacular time for jewelry and gemstones. The empire which covered most of modern day India and Pakistan reached its peak in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Art and architecture flourished under several emperors and the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort of Delhi are just two fine examples of many, as is The Peacock Throne which took seven years to make. It included over a ton of gold and, literally, kilos of emeralds, diamonds and rubies including the Koh-i-Noor and the Timur Ruby. It is estimated it would be worth a billion dollars in current prices!

A small piece of Mughal treasure goes on sale this month at Sotheby’s in London where a pair of diamond and emerald glasses are available for between $2m and $4m. The diamond lenses are from the legendary mines of Golconda – the principal source of diamonds to the world for 2000 years and the emeralds are from Colombia.

White Sapphire as Diamond Substitute

If anyone out there is thinking about buying diamonds for any jewelry design may I suggest checking out the white sapphires beforehand? Sapphires have as much prestige as diamonds, are almost as durable and have excellent clarity. They do not have as much fire and brilliance as a diamond but then again they do not have their price tag either.

The sapphires are not huge in size but we have a fine selection of singles as well as pairs and lots that are very convenient for matching jewelry sets and side stones or accents stones.

Lost and Found Department

A lilac colored amethyst gemstone engraved with a bird and a balsam branch has been unearthed in Jerusalem after being dropped into a drain nearly 2000 years ago! At the time, amethysts were as valuable as sapphires and rubies so we can assume the owner was a rich merchant of some kind. I guess plumbers were just as hard to find back then as they are now.

Amethysts are still a popular choice for gemstone carvings to this day, indeed we have many in stock right now along with hundreds of other examples in a variety of gem types.

November Birthstones

The main birthstone for November is Citrine, a very close cousin of amethyst – separated only by color. The golden yellow and orange colors of Citrine are an ideal match for the autumnal colors found in the northern hemisphere at this time of year and their uplifting and optimistic spiritual powers are just what we need as the winter draws in.

Read more about citrine gemstones here

The other gemstone for November is Topaz. This historic gemstone can be found in similar golden orange colors to citrine but also comes in bright pink and blue colors if you are looking for something completely different.

Spectrolite

Just time to mention our new arrivals. As I was taking a sneak peak at the newly arrived gemstones before they are photographed and put up on our product pages, one gemstone leapt off the page more than any others this month – the amazing Spectrolite from Finland. No need to spend millions on going up in Jeff Bezos’ rocket - looking at these stunning beauties is like looking at an earth-like planet from outer space.

Spectrolite is a very high quality variety of Labradorite. Labradorite has been described as the Northern lights or Aurora Borealis trapped in a stone but Spectrolite seems to have encapsulate this astronomical phenomena on a night when the lights are at their brightest and most colorful and the sky behind could not be darker.

Spectrolite can only come from Finland where it was discovered during the Second World War by soldiers digging up large rocks to block tanks near the border with Russia.

Let's finish with a couple of your questions:

That will do for this month,

Have a great November

From all the team at GemSelect