Born deep within our planet millions of years ago, rubies, sapphires, emeralds and coloured diamonds are products of particular minerals coming under enormous heat and pressure. Mined in sometimes remote locations, the rough stone is carefully cut and polished to bring out its best features, the most prized being the purity of colour.
Interwoven with the lives of royalty and high society, the story of coloured gemstones dates back to ancient times, when the Persians believed sapphires were a chip from the pedestal that supported the earth, and that its reflections gave the sky its colours.
Time marches on however, and, these days, nowhere are gems more appreciated than in the hushed luxury of Hong Kong's finest jewellers. This is where you find well-heeled buyers from the mainland and Southeast Asia making a big impact on gemstone sales, to the extent that the rarer the stone is, the easier it will be sold.
Under-appreciated by local consumers who favour the easier to understand and well-marketed white diamonds, coloured gemstones may offer good investment potential. Such is the case when the gem is rare or important. Primarily ornamental, gemstones hold no intrinsic value as other commodities such as gold.
'Exceptional coloured gemstones are undervalued. They are much rarer than diamonds yet diamonds have a higher value,' says JJ Abram of Ronald Abram, a Hong Kong jeweller specialising in rare, coloured gemstones and diamonds.
The good news is if you are in the market for rubies,sapphires or emeralds, you are in the right place. Hong Kong is a major market for fine gemstones. In December last year, Christie's Hong Kong auctioned a rare, virtually-flawless 5-carat, vivid pink diamond. It sold for a whopping US$10.8 million, well above its presale estimate. The final bidding came down to two Chinese buyers. The end result was the highest per-carat price ever paid for any diamond at auction - US$2.2 million.