[Jewelry making - Article 00174] - Re: [Orchid] Synthetic & Simulant Gem Nomenclature

[richard hart]

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Daniel,

>     I don't usually take issue with your stands on this forum but this
>     is crossing a line. If a customer comes in and asks for an
>     alexandrite it is your MORAL DUTY as a jeweler to show them a
>     natural alexandrite first, as this is what they are asking for.

    I understand what you are saying. And I ask you how many natural
    alexandrites have you sold and how many have come in for repair. 

    I called someone today who does wholesale repair for the trade, and
    I asked the take-in person, who happens to own the business and asked
    how long she had been there, 1991, and how many natural alexandrites
    had she seen, 4 or 5. In14 years only 4 or 5 ! I believe few of the
    members of this forum have seen an alexandrite, and probably not a
    good quality one at that. 

    What I said in my post is that when someone comes in asking for an
    alexandrite and I tell them what a natural costs, show them color
    change garnet, and syn corundum, and they want the syn corundum as
    that is what they can afford, like the looks of, whatever. This
    amounts to 600-1000 stones a year. When some one comes in for an
    identification of an alexandrite, they have all been synthetic. For
    years and years and years. I could close my eyes and id it and the
    chances of me being wrong are about 1 in a thousand of greater. If
    any of you buy and sell Bali jewelry, you know those big peridot
    stones? Think they are real? 

    They usually are glass. The people who sell them tell you they are
    peridot. It defies logic and reason that they can sell as large of a
    stone for so cheap. Some people don't know, some don't care. If you
    want to be honest and ethical, you better have some damn good
    education backing you up if you are buying and selling, or
    identifying what others bought somewhere else, like Hans's story. I
    ahve done that so many times. And I don't tell the whole truth, it
    generates animosity that I do not deserve, they do not what to pay me
    for my expertise, they want it free. 

    Natural alexandrite is so rare that the public believes that syn
    corundum is alexandrite. When they are asking for alexandrite, they
    want what they have seen. It is not my fault. All my educating my
    customers has resulted in not one sale of a natural alexandrite in 12
    1/2 years. 

    When someone comes in and asks for a diamond, I do not show them a
    cz and ask them if that is what they want. But in the case of
    alexandrite, when the public as a whole believes that the simulant is
    alexandrite, yes I can educate them, but in 18 years of retail I have
    sold hundreds of simulants, after explaining and explaining and
    explaining.... 

    I absolutely qualify as to if they want a natural stone, when I
    understand what they want, it does not make much difference what the
    simulant is, it matters what it costs. As I said, they take the syn
    corundum over color change garnet and syn alexandrite. 

    And I will keep saying, as a practical matter, as there are so few
    real alexandrite out there, this is one stone where the public wants
    something that has nothing to do with reality of what alexandrie is.
    My experience is that they want the simulant. I am not in some
    esoteric rarified stratosphere, I am on the street with the average
    middle class consumer. And on the subject of synthetics and
    simulants, I have the customers who come in wearing all their 2 or
    three carat diamonds, and what do they buy, gobs of lab quartz,
    mystic topaz, simulated alexandrite. They love it, it is fashion
    oriented, it is fun for them, and it is disposable. 

    So thank all of you who do not sell synthetics or simulants,. It
    leads to repair and custom work in gold and diamonds for me. 

    Smart people only believe half of what they hear, wise people know
    which half. 

Richard Hart



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