A newly mined 14-carat deep pink, emerald-cut imperial topaz, being
sold for $140,000, is the latest addition to H. Stern’s New York collection.
“When a stone of that caliber comes to New York, we have about a dozen clients
who are likely to be interested,” says Hansen. “Only a few appreciate the beauty
and realize that there is just one Brazilian mine still producing imperial
topaz, and it could dry up any day.”
 Rock Solid Investment
Collectors willing to purchase little known stones,
however, could reap the benefits of a wise investment in the future. Designer
James Taffin de Givenchy, who attracts an international flock of clients to his
by-appointment New York salon, recalls that while working in the jewelry
department at Christie’s in the early 1990s, he met a pioneering collector from
Montana who had purchased a red diamond 25 years earlier in Brazil simply
because he believed it was an unusual collectible. He paid $6,000 for the
diamond, which was slightly less than a carat, and he kept it as part of his
personal gem collection. Ten years ago Givenchy brought it to a Christie’s
auction, where it sold for a record-breaking $1 million.
“As a collector
myself, I look for unique and captivating stones that most people have never
heard about,” Givenchy says. Among his recently finished treasures are 7-carat
demantoid garnet floral ear clips surrounded by pavé yellow diamonds, retailing
for $160,000. First discovered in Russia’s Ural Mountains in 1868, the deep
green demantoid garnet was coveted for its inherent sparkle, which gives it the
appearance of a green diamond. While Russian mines have long since been
exhausted, in the mid-1990s, a farmer in Namibia came upon a crystalline rock
structure that struck his interest and was later identified as a new vein of the
exotic garnet.
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