2014 Jewelry Career Fair to feature rare Kunzite necklace

The Gemological Institute of America is hosting a new exhibit called the "Beauty of Science" that was on display during the Institute's annual open house on October 10, 2014. The exhibit includes a Paloma Picasso-designed necklace featuring a 394 carat Kunzite stone. The necklace is on loan from the Smithsonian Institution for the duration of the exhibit.

News Release: GIA Jewelry fair open to public from the San Diego Union-Tribune

GIA: Information on the "Beauty of Science" Exhibit

Kunz had rare photos of the Russian Crown Jewels

This week, the U.S. Geological Survey announced the discovery of a rare collection of photographs that had been a part of Mr. Kunz' personal library which is now a part of their collections. The album has a hand-painted frontpiece that is labeled as being from Moscow in 1922. The photographs document the Russian Crown Jewels and many of the images appeared in a 1925 official catalog of the Russian Crown Jewels. The USGS researchers identified 4 pieces of jewelry that are not included in the 1925 catalog and appear to have disappeared from the collection of jewels between their photography in 1922 and the publication of the official catalog in 1925.

The announcement includes a photo gallery as well as a 6:40 minute video podcast hosted on YouTube.

The librarians at the U.S. Geological Survey spent several months researching the album and its contents before making the announcement. They compared every one of the 81 photographs in Mr. Kunz' 1922 album to the published record about the Russian Crown Jewels. They found a record of one of the pieces in a publication from the year 2000 called "Selling Russia's Treasures" but the other 3 pieces have not been documented since this 1922 album.

This discovery supports the presumption that Dr. Kunz was an important figure in the scientific world of mineralogy and gemology.

Tiffany acknowledges Kunz role in cutting famous diamond

A recent notice about a famous diamond on display in Dubai highlights the role that George Frederick Kunz playing in having the diamond cut:

"The rough stone was brought to Paris, where Tiffany’s chief gemmologist, Dr George Frederick Kunz, supervised the cutting of the diamond into a cushion-shape brilliant with an unprecedented 82 facets – 24 more facets than the traditional 58-facet brilliant cut."

Kunz and the Saturday Evening Post

The following is a list of articles written by Dr. Kunz over a 20 year span from 1908-1928:

• June 13, 1908, The Care of Gems p. 5, 32  (featured on the cover of the magazine)  
• June 27, 1908, The Etiquette of Gems p. 5-6, 29 
• September 26, 1908, Frauds and Deceptions in Precious Stones, Part 1, p. 10-11  
• October 17, 1908, Frauds and Deceptions in Precious Stones, Part 2, p. 18-19, 42-43 
• October 31, 1908, Frauds and Deceptions in Precious Stones, Part 3, p. 18-19, 53 
• November 21, 1908, Gems in Glass, p. 47 
• August 28, 1909, The Meaning of Colors (page number unknown)  
• August 28, 1909, Black Opals, p. 34  
• September 4, 1909, Strange Fortunes of Precious Stones, p. 32-34  
• September 10, 1909, What Colors Typify, p. 50 
• November 26, 1927, American Travels of a Gem Collector, Part 1, p. 6-7, 85-86, 91
• December 10, 1927, American Travels of a Gem Collector, Part 2, p. 22-23, 172-174, 176 
• January 21, 1928, The Gem Collector in Europe, p. 33-34, 36, 38 
• March 10, 1928, Trailing Gems in Europe, p. 44, 46, 188-190, 194 
•  March 31, 1928, Discoveries of a Gem Expert, p. 30, 32, 96, 99-100  
• May 5, 1928, The Indestructible Value, p. 20-21, 153-154, 156, 161

* This list was taken from a photocopied memo from the Editors of the Saturday Evening post dated May 9, 1952. The photocopy was found in the library of the U.S. Geological Survey in Reston, Virginia. The library has a binder containing facsimiles of all of these articles.