Inside the Jewel Vault with Wim Vertriest

Wim Vertriest	Type 2 diamond rough (source:Petra Diamonds)	Wim's GIA field sample of Ethiopian emerald
Grandidierite from Madagascar	Kaleidoscope by Derek Katzenbach	Spinning Top by Derek Katzenbach
Mandalay Jade Market	Wim holds the breathtaking Pailin ruby

JC           

I am delighted to welcome Wim Vertriest to the Jewel Vault.  Wim is Manager of Field Gemology at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and Curator of the Institute's Colored Stone Research Collection. Originally from Belgium where he graduated as a geologist, Wim is now based in the global capital of gemstones, Bangkok. He has first-hand knowledge of gem mining and has travelled, lectured and written extensively on coloured gems. He says he can find his way around the world’s gemstone mining areas just as well as navigating the microscopic internal world of gemstones.

 

WV

Thanks for the introduction that sounded great1 You make me sound really competent here and I hope I can live up to those expectations!

JC

Absolutely yeah well Wim you’ve got to much to tell us, but let's travel back to your childhood to find out where it all started for you.  Can you explain is there anyone in your family with this knowledge and passion for gems and travel?

 

WV

Not really that I know of.  My parents - my father, works for the government. My mother is a teacher. Like I don't have a rock collection as a kid. I didn't collect crystals or anything. But I do think there's a little bit of the travel and exploration genes in the family.

JC

Oh right yeah

WV

my grandpas brother. He worked as a travelling salesman so he went around, mainly Europe and northern Africa. But also my grandmas father. He was apparently quite the adventurous man. I never met him but he when he retired in the 60s he decided to take a trip to Brazil by boat.

JC

No!

WV

So he just travelling to Brazil by boat. The only real memory that I've seen of it is he had a suit made for that trip and it was a white suit with a straw hat and that I mean that has been passed down through generations like I'm. I'm pretty tall, but like I think every other man in my family has worn it and obviously not on trips to Brazil. Most of it was to parties. It's a white suit that makes you look really badass!

And then when I was young my parents travelled a lot as well. I was fortunate to really ‘travel-travel’ not just go on holiday, like I've I basically backpacked through India, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam with my parents when I was like 12, 15 years old for like six weeks. Where we like roughed it in like hostels and everything really explored parts of Asia, so I think that came through  as well.

I think it went that far that I – my mum always said that when you grow up and you have a family are you going to take them travelling too?  And I think she was expecting me to go that far and not to say, at a certain point, 5 years ago, Mum I’ve got a job it’s in Bangkok I’m leaving in 6 weeks, I don’t know when I’ll be back!

JC

Yeah amazing! So you've got pioneers in your family  and now we can see where the adventurer in you comes from, Wim, so how did you come to discover the world of gems?

WV

In the last semester of secondary school during geography class, we had an introduction to geology by a teacher who was extremely passionate about it and I was like, Oh my God, this is amazing! because there are so many sciences being combined together to really tell that whole story of how the Earth is working, and I was really intrigued with it

So I studied at the Catholic University of Leuven, so I did both my Bachelors and my Masters degree over there.  That's why with a strong interest in science I started Engineering Studies with the aim of then continuing into like mining and geotechnics. But I very quickly I realised like this is not for me. So after one year I switched to geology studies. And that basically was like, the professors were like we'll talk about this today next week, 7:00 AM pack lunch, wear hiking boots be at the bus at 7:00 o'clock cause we're going to do some fieldwork and I was like: I found my tribe. These are my people!

That’s just an incredible interaction where everyone was really united by their passion for Earth Sciences. Whether that was like oil exploration or dating of archaeological artefacts, or like gold mineralisations or dinosaurs. It was a very small group, but extremely passionate about everything that they were doing and that was really fun.

So I really decided to focus more on like ore forming process, metamorphic processes of rocks, like I had the idea in my head like metal exploration. That's what I want to do, cos I wanted to travel. I wanted to do fieldwork. So basically looking for gold all around the world. That was the goal that I had in mind.

But there was a super small elective class that I spotted that was actually taught in Ghent but it's only taught every two years. It's only six days or something spread over six weeks. And it was taught by an external professor and that was a class on gemstones. It was taught by a professor from HRD in Antwerp. So the Hoge Raad voor Diamant, the High Diamond Council in Antwerp.

JC

I love it when it's pronounced properly, I couldn’t ever begin to say it like that!  So this is the first piece in your Vault isn’t it?

WV

We were learning about diamond types, so Type 1A, Type 1B, Type 2A, Type 2 B. and there's a slide on the on the board there, that says, that was discussing Type 2 diamonds, so there's one of the other staff from HRD walks, past the door and he pops his head inside and he sees ‘Oh. You guys are learning about Type 2B diamonds. Wait a second.’ He goes out and comes back after two minutes and he starts handing out Type 2B be flawless diamond crystals,

 

JC

Yeah!

WV

But I mean. Like centimetre sized chunks like not like half carat, rough diamonds with the most incredible rough etching patterns and trigons on them. And he was like ‘Oh yeah, we just had these come through the lab and I thought you guys might be - like it might be educational for you to look at these.’ so I'm just sitting there. On a Friday afternoon. While I’m at University, and Thursday night is party night usually, so I, I mean I wasn't super clear, but like I'm sitting in this room on a Friday afternoon and somebody just says ‘hold up’ comes back a minute later and pops this like I dunno 25 carat rough piece of Type 2A, like perfectly colourless diamond with the most incredible figures and I'm just sitting there with this piece in my hand like. Well, I have no idea what this is worth, but I don't want to drop it.

And this guy is just casually handing this out, but also sharing an incredible passion for this material.

JC

Wow so this is the first item in your vault, a rough diamond of the most perfect crystallisation of carbon atoms there is, Type 2 – very rare indeed because  98-99% of diamonds are Type 1 with gaps or vacancies in the atomic structure, the crystal lattice, where nitrogen is present which is why they have a tint of colour, mainly yellowy browny colours.  But the finest, hardest, largest diamonds, and the great historic diamonds like the Koh I Noor, are Type 2 diamonds with no nitrogen.  That’s a great first item in your vault.  So Wim, we have you the early adventurer and now the evolving gemmologist, how did you find your way into field gemmology?

WV

Yea, so it's actually during those same classes. Those same gemmology classes that we took in Antwerp. There was one of the teachers there who asked us like ‘You guys well graduating next year, what do you? What are you gonna do next year?’ Like I remember one girl who was also in the classes like yeah I'm going to continue studying Petroleum Geology in Paris. One guy was like going to continue in geophysics. And then the teacher asked, like is somebody interested in doing something with gemstones and a lot of fieldwork. So I raised my hand and she's like, ‘yeah okay. I know this guy is looking for an assistant with a geology background reach out to him.’ So that was Vincent Pardieu who was at the time the manager of the Field Gemology department In Bangkok,

JC

Yeah, leading light.

WV

So I basically reached yeah. So I basically reached out to him and indeed he was looking for someone with a background in geology to join the department.

JC

As an assistant?

WV

So I decided basically in one week that I'm like OK gonna move to the other side of the world and I have no idea what's going to happen, but I'm gonna do it anyway.

JC

My goodness. That’s a major undertaking gosh what a commitment.

WV

Yeah, so it was like it was a bit a bit of a difficult one. We said we're gonna try this for one year and will see if it works out. And now we've it's been over six years now. So I think we can call that a raging success.

JC

That's fantastic, and it obviously has.

Absolutely. And what was it like then to your first year or so, working with Vincent?

WV

Like I joined him on a lot of expeditions in those first two years. So yeah, we travelled a lot of places in South East Asia and South Asia, but also East Africa to learn the ropes there. But also most of the time is actually spent working in the lab. How it works on goes here.  Cos, also, sure I got this job at GIA, but I knew nothing about gemstones. I had those six days of classes at HRD in Antwerp under my belt, but that was very diamond focused I mean.

JC

Yeah. okay. Yeah of course. I mean, looking at the suffixes after your name. You got GG. You got FGA, so you've done all - you made up for it haven’t you? How did you manage to squeeze all of these in?

WV

Yeah, exactly. That first year was very intense.  I was also doing my GG class the Graduate Gemologist of the GIA in distance education, doing that in my own time, but I raced through that. I think I completed the whole thing in 9 months or something.   The same thing with FGA I did that fast track and Diploma the year after. So basically 18 months, I got a massive crash course in let’s call it formal gemmological education. But at the same time I was picking up so much knowledge from just working in the lab, being surrounded with stones. Also just being in Bangkok. Meeting a lot of people here, being in the capital of the colour stone trade.

JC

So tell us, what is field gemmology then? Because it sounds like you spend a lot of time in the lab so it's as outdoorsy as we'd imagined, then.

WV

Yeah exactly. Field gemmology is this a very loosely defined term and I don't think there's a strict definition for it.  For me, field gemmology really covers basically everything related to gems before it is cut. I think that's where we can draw the line more or less. So I think that includes gem formation, geology, mining, exploration. But I think also the rough trading, so it's not that a stone comes out of the ground and it ends up in a jewellery store, like there's a whole pipeline in between and a lot of that pipeline is not really known.

I think traditionally, we've known very well what happens to stones once they’re cut.

JC

Yes

WV

The process of cutting stones, the process of jewellery making. That's all very well documented. But there's very few people that know how a stone goes from an artisanal mine in Africa to a trade centre here in Bangkok and who and how it is valued and handled along the way. How does it cross borders, how is it valued by the people in the Bush, by the people in the local trade centres, by the people in the international trade centres, then of course the whole treatment aspect comes in there as well, which is incredibly important to get an understanding of what goes on there and why these people are treating, how they are treating, what the impact of that is.  So I think for me all of that is a bit of field gemmology. Really, that whole view of what happened to a gem before it is cut.

JC

Yes.

WV

There's a huge demand for that information. Because 15 years ago, nobody cared about what was going on at the mines. Or where a stone actually came from, but now everybody wants to know that information. So I’m super happy to share it.

Like what is - What do the Burmese mines actually look like? Why does a Tanzanian garnet miner mine garnets over there? And he doesn't do anything else. What is, under what conditions does he work?

That is only part of the job, but actually most of the time I spend working in the lab. So field gemmology sounds extremely romantic, but even on a good year I spend about 75% of my time just working in the lab where’s it’s bit more technical gemmology - that goes from sample description, treatment experiments.  There are a lot more questions that can be asked on top of the questions that are already answered. And is of course that leads you into the realm of more geology and

deposit formation.

Yeah.  So tell us what the second item in your vault is. This is a very pretty little thing.

WV

It’s really pretty, it’s really tiny and it really ties in with the GIA coloured stone reference collection.  And the way that that works.  So I think on paper my biggest responsibility is taking care of the GIA reference collection and that means expanding it, maintaining it but also making sure it get used. So expanding. It means adding material to it and the one stone I chose now is a tiny emerald crystal from Ethiopia.

So Ethiopian emeralds, they’re fairly new to the markets but they are close to my heart because they’re, in my short career, they have been a deposit that I've been to track basically from the start to where it is now. I was among the first people to pick up rumours like there’s emeralds in East Africa and they're not coming from Zambia - something's going on.  But again, these are stones that we've seen in the trade, they are not really reliable - like we didn't even know they were from Ethiopia. We couldn't confirm they were from Ethiopia.

JC

So this is why you have to travel.

WV

Of course you try to go to that place and really collect stones by yourself.

JC

Yeah

WV

But that whole process took us like a year and a half to actually get into Ethiopia to visit the mines. By the time we got to the mines, we had the permission, we were able to go. It was a was a pretty bad journey to go there, because the seasons weren't right, it was raining. Basically, the dirt road was converted into one slip and slide, it was slipping and sliding for over 5 hours to cover less than 70 kilometres.

JC

Oh my God

WV

Once we arrived, the mine wasn't actually working cos it was I think it was a holiday or something. But we were able to go inside and collect our own samples and all we found was this one little, tiny emerald crystal.

So it's a super tiny stone. I think it's like 0.2 carats, but it's a nice hexagonal emerald crystal. But it's extremely valuable in terms of research, because with the analysis that we've been able to do on that little stone that I took out of the rock in Ethiopia myself that completely matched all the previous observations that we made with material that was ‘presumed’ to be Ethiopian so that really confirmed all that. The unknown provenance of these older samples was all confirmed with that one little piece.

JC

And this is what so essential about actually visiting and collecting the material yourselves, because you can verify it

WV

Exactly, like the reliability of your research samples is the most important of all,

JC

Yeah.. so you actually went to - this is an open pit was it?

WV

Correct, yeah

JC

And you and you chipped this out using your own geological hammer?

WV

Exactly.

JC

I love it!

So that's it. That's the second piece in your vault so have you, could tell us what is in the third piece here? What's this third gem?

WV

So, the 3rd piece is a piece that taught me some valuable lessons on trusting your own observations and trusting your own instincts, and that was a piece that was, we didn't really know what it was it was given to a GIA Field Team Gemology team by a contact in Madagascar. He said, I basically don't know what this is. I've got a gut feeling, but I don't want to say it out loud. But I’ve got like 30 Kilos of this, like a couple of buckets full, can you check what it is? That was one of my first projects at GIA in like in my training cos it's I mean it was an unknown piece. It was good training like to get used to some of the workflow using simple gemmological techniques but also going more into advanced gemmological techniques to really figure it out, cos we all we all had a feeling that was going to be something special and like we were all quite surprised that that sample was a perfect match for the mineral grandidierite!

So until that time I think that was in like October or November 2015, grandidierite, was considered one of the rarest gems on Earth, only a few faceted pieces were rumoured to exist. Only one piece was really confirmed to exist, so basically one faceted stone. I think it was like 0.17 carats, that facetted stone. That was the only one that was known.

JC

Gosh, that’s tiny.

WV

And I had this chunk of unknown material and it was a couple of grammes, and it completely matched it.

The months after we saw a lot of grandidierite coming into the markets. Six years ago, it was extremely rare. That is not the case right now, and that just taught me a lot like trust your own observations, but also be aware of how dynamic and how ever changing this market is, cos something that was extremely rare yesterday could be very common today, something that was not desired yesterday, could be extremely desired tomorrow, so that just kept it really interesting. Cos although gemmology can be considered as a rather conservative field in some regards, there's a lot of dynamics going on, and there's always things changing, especially in the coloured stone world where there's so much opening up right now.  

JC

So you were you were right at the front end of a new shift in gem material. I love that.  

So Wim I imagine you have a bag packed with your field gemmology kit, and your boots, your hammer all ready by your front door, so where would be your next gem rush location, which region do you think would be the next hot-spot?

WV

It's very hard to say. I mean it's, I think a point I touched upon is, it's so dynamic and so variable and there are so many factors that come into play that is extremely hard to predict. But if you would have asked me five months ago then I would have said Afghanistan. But then all of a sudden the Taliban took over so I don't think anything really sustainable is gonna happen there in terms of gem production in the next decade.

But as always, East Africa is - we've only seen the beginning there. The variety of stones that is present there and the resources that are still untapped. That is gonna blow everyone's minds still, cos if you look at a place like Sri Lanka where they've been mining sapphires for 2,000 years, they’re still pulling stones out of the ground there. And East Africa, they've only been mining there for - there's a few places almost 100 years - but most places 30-40 years max. So, there's going to be huge amounts of stones.

Also, varieties that we that we don't typically associate with those countries, or countries that we don't even, that are not even on our radar as typical gem producers. Places like Malawi starting to produce incredible - they have produced under the radar, but are not going on the radar, incredible garnets.

But like Congo is an extremely mineral rich country but has never really produced any gemstones, apart from the diamonds. But the potential for gemstones in Congo is starting to reveal itself, with incredible green and pink tourmalines that have been mined over the last 3-4 years, but that is just showing up on the radar - like all these places, like Mozambican ruby for example. For everyone who is familiar with the ruby trade, imagine a world without Mozambican ruby nowadays, that's the world we were living in 10 years ago – cos 10 years ago there was no Mozambican ruby discovered. And now half of the rubies in the Trade Centres are Mozambican rubies.

So it's going to be extremely exciting for sure. But predicting what's happening where is almost impossible.

JC

So that's the that's the first three pieces in your vault. We've got a Type 2 Diamond in the rough, beautiful collectors’ piece that you were shown by a very passionate and enthusiastic HRD staffer, and you've got this tiny little piece of hand-hewn emerald from this southern Ethiopian mine. The first piece of material that you verified had come from southern Ethiopia. And then you've got this piece of grandidierite. And what is number 4?

WV

Yeah. Number 4 is also not the most impressive or the biggest piece, but it's again it’s a piece that that's very close to me and that I will treasure.

I will mainly treasure the memories around it, and it's a piece of jade. Jade is one of my favourite gems and it’s probably the gem that I understand least of all but that makes me love it even more. Because sometimes people divide gemstones in three big groups where you've got diamonds, coloured stones and pearls. But I think jade is definitely its own category as well.

When I talk to jade connoisseurs, people that work with Jade, I just see every time I see glimpses of a world that makes it even more exotic and more foreign, more complex to me, and I'm so intrigued by everything to do with jade. And that’s why one of my favourite places in the whole world is the jade market in Mandalay in Myanmar.

So Burmese Jade is regarded as the finest in the world and in the city of Mandalay,l there's a very lively market completely dedicated to the trade of jade. But they have a section of the market dedicated to the trade of rough jade, but that starts extremely early in the morning. Around 3 am, when it’s still pitch black. Atmosphere because the only light in that market comes from the torches, so the flashlights that the buyers are using to inspect the quality of the jade.  They do that night because there's no interference from any daylight, so they have complete control over their light. And they can see how deep does my light penetrate? What’s the glow throughout the material? Where are the fractures? Everywhere you look, you see these strong beams of lights, almost like a light sabre’s flashing around, but also this glow of green when people put the torch through the rough and it makes the green glow.

JC

I can imagine. That’s a great description

WV

But also, all the other senses - there's a lot of smell, everyone who's been to Asia and who's been to markets in Asia, knows that there's a lot of smells going on that you're not used to in the West! Markets in Belgium, the town where I grew up do not smell the same as markets in Asia! So you've got this mix of smells and flavours from the traditional Burmese fish soup that they eat for breakfast, the mohinga. You also have like the super strong smoke from the cheroots, the hand rolled cigars that are typical for Burma  that usually old ladies are smoking there, so you’ve got the mix of all these smells combined with like a little bit of that chilly atmosphere, with those, that soft green light coming from the stones, like illuminating the traders’ faces but also the super strong flashlights, but then the most special for me of that market is - the sound of it.

Because there's piles of small jade pieces, like when people have trimmed the pieces, there's like these left-over bits and they offer that for sale, so there’s like piles of these little cut offs and when people move through it and those small Jade pieces touch each other it makes the most amazing pure sound. It is unbelievable.

And so I think that whole combination – when I think of that market, there is so much going on and it is really a total experience.  But especially that sound.  Like all these little pieces of jade touching each other and that amazing pure clinking sound.

And it’s at that market, that I met, after sunrise, when that rough trade is over and they move more into the faceted stones, so cabochons, that I met a trader who spoke some English and he was very kind to explain to me how they were valued. 

Cos for me, it was literally 50 Shades of Green.

So I was like there's so much going on here, such complexity. And then at the end, he actually took out one fine cabochon, and it was about 8mm long, and I remember like he took it out of his pocket from under the table and the moment it just came into my eye sight, like it that he wasn't even on the table yet, I realised that this is what people describe as Imperial green.  That is like the finest, freshest green, the purest green I've ever seen.  It was electric glowing from the inside. A tiny cabochon under a centimetre long, maybe 2mm high. But that was the finest quality jade that existed. Like we were in a dark hall, and it glowed and it was incredible, so that's one of the pieces that really made me realise jade is such a special stone and that is the stone I really wanna keep.

JC

Yeah. And this is why it's here in the in your vault. Thank you so much for sharing that cause that is just so evocative. I mean, I, I was just there for a second smelling all the smells of the cheroots and listening to the chink of the jade being handled. It's just glorious. Thank you so much.

So that's four fabulous pieces now. What's piece number 5?

WV

I think piece number 5 is, I think it's actually two pieces, if that's alright!

JC

OK!

WV

This is actually a piece of jewellery I think up till now they’ve all been gemstones. Objectively speaking pretty insignificant gemstones, but with very strong personal story attached to it, which is probably the most important thing for any piece of jewellery and gemstone.

JC

Yeah

WV

But I've chosen to a few pieces of jewellery because. I have no clue about jewellery. But there's one guy that I met that made some pieces that really blew my mind just for the story and the thought process behind it.  

I met this this jeweller. A guy called Derek Katzenbach, who had a bit of the same feeling, I mean he’s an excellent jeweller, an excellent metalsmith, an excellent stone setter, but he had that same feeling like when you saw fine jewellery, high jewellery, it was designed to look: at it is not something to pick up. It is something to be appreciated from afar. He wanted to create pieces that were begging to be picked up, begging to be inspected, begging to be - I think he said seen from all angles – but he literally said made to be played with, so he brought all of his skills in designing, lapidary work, metal work, jewellery techniques, stone setting. He brought that all together in an amazing piece that was like reflection, gemstones, it’s all very visual – ‘What’s the craziest visual experience I could probably make myself?’

And he build a kaleidoscope from scratch in gold and stones that he cut himself.  I think it’s 18 carat yellow gold, over 70 carats of tourmalines that he cut himself, quartz lenses that he polished himself - like he made that whole design from scratch. It was I eventually donated to GIA, it’s now on display in the museum in Carlsbad for students to look at.

But he also made another piece that I absolutely love.  He wanted to make some - a piece of jewellery that nobody could resist picking up and start playing with it. So, he made a spinning top set with all kinds of sapphires, garnets, alexandrites, tourmalines. So he took a very simple children’s toy that he turn into the most spectacular whorl of coloured gem stones and reflections.

So I was, I’ve seen that piece during the Tucson show I think three years ago. I went to Derek every day to see - like can I see it again, make it spin again! I've gotta slo-mo video of it on my phone and occasionally I just stare at it coz it's incredible, coz when it spins you see this entire rainbow of coloured stones going through it and it's beautiful in gold and everything, and…

JC

So I can see why you’ve chosen these two beautiful pieces to go into your vault. Now you've got one final piece in here. Please tell us the story behind this and tell us what it is. 

WV

Yes, so this was a difficult one.  For me this is also a stone that I learnt a lot of lessons from.  Cos even though I’ve worked with gems now for the last six years almost on a daily basis, I can still be amazed by the value that people attribute to gemstones.  I mean, obviously I can be amazed by a superfine stone, but then I hear what the price of these stones, and I'm just I have to sit down because my mind is sometimes just completely blown by it, when somebody tells me like this is this is $200,000 a carat, I’m like that's a lot of money, but I have I almost have no idea how much money.  So, I didn't really get like why would people put down that much money for a piece of rock?

But I got it when I first when I saw my first Gem – Gem with a capital G. Cos there's a big difference there for me. And that was in Pailin Cambodia, so it's right across the border with Thailand, the areas really known for its sapphires, but it also has ruby deposits.  So the ruby deposits from Thailand, stretch into Cambodia, so it's the same type of material, but GIA’s Field Gemology Department has visited the area multiple times over the last decade, has built some very good relationships there.  And one of those guys is a miner who's been mining there for rubies and sapphires for decades. So, he's an older gentleman.

He only speaks Khymer, so Cambodian, but he’s extremely friendly and good-hearted man. Always happy to see us.  So he invited us to his house. He shared some mangosteen, like some tropical fruits from his garden and his wife brought a tray of some rough stones that they recently mined that we can look at while we were enjoying some fruits and some water in his living room.  I mean, it was obviously fine material and it's always exciting to look at it at a tray of rough stones, especially ruby and sapphires. And it was fine material when there's nothing really that that would blow anyone's minds.

But then he spoke to his wife, and his wife was, she was questioning what he was saying and then he was replying back, but this was all in Cambodian, like we had no idea what's going on.  We could just see that interaction.  And then his wife closed the safe again where she had taken the rough out.  She went upstairs and came back with one single stone and that was an incredible ruby, intense red, 16 carats, almost clean.  And she just put it in the middle of the table. But this is a massive table and this is a huge piece of tropical wood like the size of a conference table.  She put it in the middle of the table and everything just went silent.

It was like time stopped and everyone just stared at the stone coz it's a 16 carat ruby of fine colour,

JC

Amazing

WV

Although Thai-Cambodian rubies are classically not considered the finest rubies but it is when I saw that stone... The miner was just sitting there with a grin on his face cos it was exactly the reaction he knew he was gonna get!  

And I love to believe that he doesn't keep it in his safe. He actually keeps it under his pillow in his bedroom. That's why she had to go upstairs as the safe is for the common gems, not for the Gems with a capital G.  

But it is when I held that stone that I realised what a gemstone really was.  Like that was true beauty, a blend of the most fine crystallisation you see in nature, a deep colour but also combined with the craftsmanship to turn that rough stone into a fine gem, the human endurance for mining for all that time to finally get that one single stone. Because he’d been mining for more than 40 years and he only had one stone like that.  The history of that whole area, all combined in that single stone, like I'm talking about it right now I've literally got goose bumps again, just thinking about that stone.

When I saw that stone, I was like “Now I get it!” This is why people pay huge amounts of money for a stone. This is why people pursue gemstones and fine jewellery all over the world for a passion, because this is as beautiful as beauty gets.

JC

Yeah I love it Wim. This is just the most fantastic story so out of these six amazing objects in your vault. I think I have an inkling of which one you will choose – are you going to tell us which one you would keep safe forever if you had them all to choose from?

WV

No doubt the ruby!  100%.  Like at that point, I understood why rubies are considered the King of Gemstones.

JC

Oh Wim, thank you so much for sharing your six beautiful objects - well seven! -  beautiful objects in the Vault and for the stories that you've just shared, I think we could talk for hours, really.

WV

Yeah, I mean this has been a pleasure for me as well. I always get happy when I can when I get the opportunity to talk about gemstones and especially the gemstones that I really love. This was really fun.

JC

Well, thank you from the bottom of my heart it’s just been magic.

 

 

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