How to Commission a Bespoke Gemstone Search

Every search I run begins with a document, and the quality of the document decides most of what follows. A vague mandate sends me to the wrong market with the wrong master stone and brings back candidates the client cannot recognise. A precise one lets me refuse quickly, which is the whole art. This is how to write the brief for a bespoke gemstone search, and what to leave out.

Species and origin, in that order

Say what the stone is. Ruby, sapphire, spinel, tsavorite, emerald. Then say whether origin matters to you. For ruby and sapphire it usually should, because the market prices it: a Burmese ruby and a Mozambican ruby of the same face are different assets, and a Kashmir sapphire is a category of its own. For spinel and tsavorite origin is closer to a footnote. If you do not care about origin, say so; it widens the search considerably and lowers the price for the same colour. If you do care, name the one you want and accept that the laboratory will have the last word on it.

Weight as a range

Clients often write a single number. Three carats. I ask them to write a range, because a 2.8-carat stone of superb colour is better than a 3.05-carat stone of good colour, and a brief that says three will make me pass the first one. Price per carat also steps at round weights the market cares about; the curve is not linear, and a client who understands where it steps can decide whether the step is worth paying for. Two and a half to three and a half. Four to six. Ranges find stones; numbers find excuses.

Colour against something real

This is where most mandates fail. “Deep red,” “royal blue,” “vivid green” are not instructions, they are moods. The trade grades colour on three axes, hue, tone and saturation, and I judge stones against a row of master stones in daylight. Give me something I can carry to the table. A photograph of a stone you have handled and loved. An auction lot number. A laboratory report of a stone that was nearly right. Even “the ring my grandmother wore, which was slightly pinker than a ruby usually is” is more useful than an adjective, because it tells me where on the axes you live.

Be honest about tone. Many clients ask for dark and mean saturated. A dark stone looks rich on the tray and dies at dinner. Say whether the stone will be seen mostly in daylight or in the evening, because that decides how much tone I will accept.

Treatment, decided before the search

My office buys unheated ruby and sapphire only, and emerald only at insignificant or minor oil on a Swiss report. Some clients arrive wanting a heated stone because the money goes further, and I refer them elsewhere without judgement. What I will not do is search for unheated and quietly accept heated when the unheated stone proves hard. The treatment line is the line that moves the money, and it has to be fixed before the first parcel opens.

Purpose changes the stone

A stone to be worn every day needs a cut that holds colour through the tilt, a size that suits the hand, and a hardness that survives a life. A stone to be held as an asset needs paper before beauty, origin before size, and a weight above the threshold where the market starts paying attention. A stone to be set into a specific piece needs a shape, and the shape can rule out ninety percent of what is trading. Tell me which of the three you are buying, and if it is two of them, tell me which wins when they conflict.

The budget band

The form asks for a band, not a figure, and the band decides which rooms I walk into. Below a certain level a mandate for unheated Burmese ruby is not a search but a lottery, and I will say so. Above it, the question becomes how much of the money goes to size, how much to origin, and how much to the paper. I would rather have a client who tells me the true band and lets me place the money than one who names a low figure hoping for a bargain. Bargains in this trade are usually treated.

What makes a mandate fail

Three things, in my experience. A brief so narrow that the stone does not exist this decade. A brief so wide that every candidate is arguable and the client cannot decide. And a brief that changes each time a stone is shown, because the client is really asking to be shown everything, which is what a shop does and what a hunt cannot. The fix for all three is the same conversation, early: what is the one thing this stone must be, and what are you willing to give up for it.

Write that down. Then write the rest. The search starts when the first line is true.

Questions collectors ask

How much detail should a gemstone mandate contain?

Enough to recognise the stone when it is on the paper in front of me, and no more. Species, origin preference, a weight range, a colour reference I can carry to the table, the treatment you will accept, the purpose of the stone, and a budget band. Adjectives are not detail. A photograph of a stone you have seen and loved is.

Can I change my mandate once the search has started?

Yes, and clients often do once they see the first candidates. What cannot change is the standard. If a brief is widened to make a stone fit, the stone was not the one, and I will say so rather than sell it.

What happens if nothing is found?

Then nothing is bought. A search that ends without a stone has cost you a conversation and some patience. A search that ends with the wrong stone has cost you the stone. I would rather report that the market has not produced the right one this season than lower the brief.