Gemstone Encyclopedia
Laurelle Antique Jewellery

Agate is the most widely carved gemstone in the world. It can be found in a myriad of different forms and colours on almost every continent on Earth.

Agate comes in such a variety of different colours and
patterns that it is also known as the “Earth Rainbow”. Most agate used in
jewellery is finely polished to highlight the bands of different colours and shapes that run through it.

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Fossilised tree sap that has hardened over centuries, Amber is a rich golden colour that has been valued in jewellery since Neolithic times.

As an organic material Amber often contains fragments of plant or animal material within it, with some specimens containing entire fossilised insects, perfectly preserved from prehistoric times.

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The violet variety of quartz is known as Amethyst, a stone which was once considered one of the five “cardinal gemstones” which were the most valuable on the face of the earth.

Relatively recent discovery of large deposits in Brazil have somewhat diminished its value, but not the beauty of the pieces which were crafted from it when it was much less abundant.

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Named after the waters of the ocean, Aquamarine has a pale blue colouration that resembles clear waters.

A form of beryl, the same material which gives us emeralds, Aquamarine lacks the ubiquitous inclusions that are common in most natural emeralds.

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Varying in colour from brown through to a pale golden hue, Citrine is a variety of quartz which was a favourite of Queen Victoria, and can be found in many Victorian pieces of jewellery.

Chemically similar to amethyst, the two stones are often found together. amethyst which is heat treated takes on the colour of citrine, and most commercial stones are treated amethyst owing to citrine’s greater scarcity.

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Buyer's Guide

Coral are species of marine invertebrates which build reefs from calcium carbonate. These reef structures have been valued since ancient times.

Bright red variants are the most highly valued, and this material has been built into jewellery since ancient times.

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The hardest naturally occurring material on earth, diamonds are pieces of transparent carbon that form under intense pressure and heat over thousands of years.

Diamonds are widely viewed as the most valuable of gemstones, and are highly regarded as indicators of wealth, taste or commitment.

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The green variant of beryl is one of the most valuable materials on earth, made more so by the fact that it is more fragile than other variants.

Almost all natural emeralds have some manner of inclusion or flaw which mark them as genuine next to the flawless artificial variants which can now be lab grown.

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Buyer's Guide

Although completely colourless diamonds are considered the most desirable it is possible for diamonds to take on colourations which are valued in their own right.

“Champagne” diamonds have a yellowish colouration similar to the drink, but there are examples of bright blue, pink or yellow diamonds which command extremely high prices.

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The most commonly used garnets in jewellery are a deep red, although green, yellow and orange varieties also exist

Garnet was extremely popular in the late Victorian period as Queen Victorian mourned the death of her consort Prince Albert. The stone’s deep red colouration was used to represent the young queen’s broken heart.

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Jade is best known as an opaque green stone, although it can be found in many other colours as well

It has an extremely fine crystalline structure which makes it well suited to intricate carvings, and was most valued in China, where it was once considered the exclusive property of the Imperial family.

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Marcasite is the name given to gemstones cut from pyrite, iron based crystalline metallic gemstones that is also known as “fool’s gold”.

The gemstone has nothing in common with gold, and is somewhat confusingly not carved from the pyritic mineral “marcasite” as the jewellery term predates the scientific term.

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Moonstone exhibits a pearly, opalescent effect similar to the schiller shown by opals or the chatoyancy of tigers eye.

Moonstones have been valued as precious gemstones since ancient times, finding particular favour with the Roman empire, who believed that the stone was literally solidified moonlight.

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Paste stones are a form of heavy glass which has been created since ancient times to mimic the characteristics of a wide variety of gemstones.

Paste jewellery has been created since ancient times, and comes in a staggering variety of forms. Originally designed to imitate true gemstones, paste stone jewellery has such a strong historic presence that items bearing them are antiques in their own right.

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Onyx is a black and white stone which forms with stark bands throughout its surface. Black portions are occasionally used in jewellery in the same manner as jet, but banded variants offer their own particular character.

A closely related gemstone is sardonyx, which also has red colouration. Whilst black and white onyx is more famous sardonyx is much more common.

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A group of iridescent gemstones, opals come in a variety of different hues, each with a completely unique play of colour which flows beneath the surface when the stone is moved.

Although there are a number of gemstones which exhibit some manner of iridescence the flares of inner fire within an opal can be radically different, with multiple different hues existing in the same stone.

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Pearls are created within the shells of marine molluscs such as oysters.

When material irritates a pearl oyster it covers it in layers of nacre, an iridescent natural material which also gives the inner surface of the mollusc’s shell its unique sheen. Pearls vary tremendously in shape and colour, although the most highly prized are spherical and bright white.

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A bright green transparent stone, peridot is the gem-quality variant of the matt green mineral olivine.

Peridot was historically confused with other green gemstones such as emerald, and is occasionally known as “the evening emerald”. Peridot exists in deposits deep beneath the earth, but has also been found in meteorites.

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Ruby is a pink or red variety of the mineral corundum, and has been one of the most consistently desirable gemstones for many thousands of years.

Ruby is just below diamond on the Moh’s hardness scale, making it extremely resilient and ideally suited to use in jewellery. Along with its close cousin sapphire it adorns the crown jewels of many nations’ royalty.

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Although blue sapphires are the most recognisable, this precious mineral comes in a wide variety of colours.

Sapphires are typically known as the blue variant of the mineral corundum, which also gives us the ruby, but it can be found in many different colours. Green, yellow and pink sapphires have been found, and it was once thought that pink sapphires were young rubies which would redden as they aged.

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Tanzanite exhibits a phenomenon called trichroism which means that it can be blue, violet or burgundy depending on lighting.

A relatively recently discovered mineral, Tanzanite was named after the country where it was first found, Tanzania, and no substantial deposits have been found outside of this nation to date.

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Topaz is one of the most varied of gemstones, and can be found in yellow, pink, red, green and blue, as well as many colours in between.

Topaz has been worked into jewellery since ancient times, and talented jewellers have created an astonishing array of different pieces which contain it.

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Tourmaline comes in a wide variety of colours, including blue, green and pink.

Whilst green tourmaline is the most commonly used in jewellery there are a wide variety of different types, including the two-tone "Watermelon" tourmaline.

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Turquoise is most often a bright, opaque blue, and can often occur with formations of its host rock embedded into it, forming what is known as “turquoise matrix”.

One of the first gemstones to be mined, Turquoise has given its name to the blue-green colour it exhibits, although it was named for the country of Turkey, where the first specimens recorded originated.

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Zircon is the heaviest of any gemstone, giving any piece of jewellery it dwells within a pleasing weight.

It occurs in a wide variety of colours, with the colourless variant being used as an alternative to diamond in ages past. Pale blue zircons are extremely valued in jewellery.

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