In 1907 the famous Steamboat Tourmaline was unearthed by Frank Barlow Schuyler in San Diego County in a rich tourmaline-bearing pocket zone in the mine which was named the Tourmaline King. It was then sold by Schuyler to Washington A. Roebling and it is now housed at the Smithsonian Institution. Although the Steamboat Tourmaline is […]
Tag Archives: Smithsonian
Smithsonian’s 75-Carat Hooker Emerald Was Once Mounted Into a Sultan’s Belt Buckle
One of the world’s most spectacular examples of May’s official birthstone is the 75.47-carat Hooker Emerald, an historic gem that was once mounted into the belt buckle of an Ottoman sultan. Today, it is beautifully displayed in a platinum brooch adorned with 109 brilliant-cut diamonds weighing approximately 13 carats. When Janet Annenberg Hooker donated the piece […]
The 37.8-Carat ‘Chalk Emerald’ Will Take Your Breath Away
Exhibiting the most highly prized velvety deep green color, the 37.82-carat Chalk Emerald is displayed near the Hope Diamond in the National Gem and Mineral Collection at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The gem was sourced in the famous emerald-mining area near Muzo, Colombia — a destination widely known as the world […]
The History of One of the World’s Rarest Diamonds
How the DeYoung Red was acquired as part of an estate jewelry collection in which it was wrongly identified as a garnet, but subsequently identified to be a rare red diamond? The DeYoung Red diamond was in the possession of Sidney DeYoung, a jeweler from Boston for quite a long time. The stone had been […]
The Mystery Behind The Creation of The Margarita on Margarita Day!
The margarita is often hailed as the quintessential “Mexican” cocktail, but just like cervesa, the origins of the drink are not definitively Mexican. Simply put, no one knows who dreamed up this delicious cocktail – but the stories behind the invention of the margarita are pretty colorful, even though only some of them actually take […]