Reading a Stone

Colour, cut, and the two things a certificate will never tell you.

A certificate describes a stone the way a passport describes a person: accurately, and without saying anything useful. It will tell you carat, clarity and colour grade. It will not tell you how the stone behaves at four in the afternoon.

Our buyer looks for two things paper cannot record. The first is life — the speed at which a stone returns light when it moves. The second is temperament: whether the colour holds under candlelight, daylight and the fluorescent strip of an office.

We reject far more than we buy. It is the least glamorous part of the house and the one that decides everything.