Boodles Coloured Stones

Revered throughout history, the emerald was regarded as a holy gemstone by the Aztecs and Incas of South America. The incredible, radiant green of a top quality emerald is incomparable in the natural world.

The peridot is one of the only gemstones in the world to come in just one colour. Its long and distinguished history – peridots have been mined for more than 4,000 years – can be traced back to St John’s Island in the Red Sea, and the best stones are still referred to as St John’s Island peridots. Our peridots are among the best of their kind, hand-picked for their vibrancy and a lovely golden shade of green.

Renowned for their clarity of colour, aquamarines are easy to wear and fascinating to look at, making them one of our most popular coloured stones. The more intense the colour, the more valuable is the rule of thumb. We only use prized aquamarines of an especially vivid blue in our jewellery.

The sapphire comes in many different hues but blue is the best-known colour. Their deep, dark colour adds instant drama to a piece of jewellery. Ours come from Sri Lanka and, when we can find them, Burma, home to the very best sapphires. Pink is an unabashedly pretty alternative, while fine yellow sapphires ignite a piece of jewellery with flashes of fire.

Passion, love, power, royalty – the ruby is a majestic stone. Most of ours come from Thailand, Mozambique and Madagascar and are distinguishable by their shades of red – vivid claret from Thailand; slightly pinker from Africa. We also have some exceptional examples of the finest, rarest Burmese rubies, whose colours are so intense they are often referred to as pigeon’s blood rubies.

Otherwise known as the demantoid garnet, our brilliant-green tsavorites come from mines in the Tsavo National Park in Kenya. Every few years, our gemstone buyer will visit the mines and hand-pick juicy tsavorites to transform into Boodles jewels. Tsavorites look stunning contrasted with tanzanites and aquamarines.

Tanzanites come from just one place, the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, and the best stones have already been mined. It is our challenge to find the perfect Boodles tanzanite is a rich, distinctive shade of blue, shot through with a hint of purple. Only discovered in 1967, tanzanite’s incredible colour and scarcity has made it one of the most desirable stones of the 20th century.

One of the newest precious stones in the jewellery world, we have only been using mandarin garnets for 10 years. It didn’t take us long to fall for this stunning gemstone, though. Its high refractive factor gives it a particularly juicy colour and, cut properly, it can light up a room with its fire-orange hue. The best mandarin garnets are the colour of sunset just before the light fades: a deep, bright orange.

Hot pink, mint green, deep red, sea blue – it’s little wonder that tourmalines are known as the “gemstone of the rainbow”. Found all over the world, they are one of the most commonly used precious stones in jewellery. However, stones of a pure, untainted colour – Boodles tourmalines – are difficult to find, particularly the Paraiba tourmaline, which is so rare it commands almost as much money as a diamond. No two tourmalines are the same, which means yours will be completely unique.

The opal is one of a kind. You can lose yourself in their fantastical colours, which spark and glow like vivid flecks of glitter. We source all of our opals from Lightning Ridge in eastern Australia, where the world’s best opals are found. Particularly covetable are black opals, the rarest and most mysterious.

Most sought after of all naturally coloured topaz varieties is the Imperial, a grand gemstone with a grand name. Highly prized in Imperial Russia, its rich golden colour is unique among precious stones. Like a ruby, it’s a stone that is fit for a queen, and we will source only the most impressive to set into spectacular necklaces.