Knowledge: your first investment when buying gems
Dominique Dufermont has worked with gemstones for over a quarter of a century. After time spent at gemstone services for Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Dior Joaillerie, he founded Exelle Gems France. A specialist in sourcing, trading and cutting, Exelle Gems is based in Paris and Bangkok, where it employs more than 40 in-house cutters. He sat down with GEM-T to discuss the market, driven by demand from the leading jewelry houses as well as private buyers, and the impact of newly discovered stones.
How has the value of gemstones evolved over your 25 years in the business? A stone’s value is defined first and foremost by its beauty, although that beauty has to be matched by scarcity. Some colors are more sought-after than others. A Sri Lankan cornflower sapphire will always be in demand for its bright, saturated blue, without the other nuances inside the crystal that most sapphires have. Lagoon tourmalines have blue-green hues and while this isn’t a “pure” color it is particularly lovely, and that’s what gives them their value. Whereas previously color was the main criterion, over the past couple of years we’ve seen rising demand from the major jewelry houses for stones that display perfect clarity. The tiny imperfection that can give a stone its charm and character is no longer acceptable, except at certain Italian or American houses that put size and color first. This is because a lot of buyers come from the diamond trade, where clarity is fundamental. /public-objects/a07b74ba-8aff-40f6-9eb6-f80138cd6299-0958d889-3340-4ded-948b-40cce2c47016-Dominique%20Dufermont.webp Image sélectionnée /public-objects/2d3fe0f6-8920-4fc4-b3fc-1b97c35b1072-56e21792-34be-42bd-873c-7e8e6fd47301-Collier%20Aurore%20de%20rubis.%20Or%20blanc%2C%20or%20rose%2C%20or%20jaune%2C%20un%20rubis%20ovale%20de%205%2C11%20carats%20(Mozambique)%2C%20rubis%2C%20diamants.webp Image sélectionnée How is the market changing? Beautiful colored stones are rarer than diamond and produced in small quantities, and can therefore make good long-term investments. In all my 25 years in the business, I’ve never seen them go down in price. One of the most recent major discoveries was Mozambique rubies in the late 1990s. Now they’re becoming scarcer and their value has rocketed over the past decade. Mahenge spinels are another example. When they were first discovered, in Tanzania in 2007, they traded for a few hundred dollars a carat. Today you’re looking at tens of thousands of dollars, with repercussions for Burmese spinel, renowned for its vivid saturated red, and for Vietnamese spinel which is girly pink or cobalt blue, with a luminous quality. Interest in spessartite garnets and tsavorites is also growing among buyers and collectors, sparked by demand from the big-name jewelers who want variety, creativity and novelty. Van Cleef & Arpels started looking beyond ruby, sapphire and emerald in the 2000s. Now, Louis Vuitton high jewelry has put blue zircon back in the spotlight, a stone that was previously, and wrongly, put in the same bag as synthetic stones. Another stone we’re seeing more of is chrome tourmaline from Tanzania, which exhibits a distinctive and beautiful shade of green. Most people won’t be familiar with these stones. What’s your advice for someone wishing to buy? First of all, use social media to find out who you’ll be buying from. It’s important to spend time researching and comparing stones. Go to fairs such as GemGenève, which is open to the public on certain days. Trade associations won’t be able to advise, as they won’t want to favor one member over another. It’s the salesperson’s job to understand your motives. Is this speculative buying or is it a long-term investment, a legacy to pass on? Don’t fall into the trap of buying from someone who doesn’t take that time, and tries to “push” a particular stone. The other risk is paying over the odds, as there’s no pricing reference for gemstones. Next, find out about tax liability. If you aren’t purchasing as a business or as a family office, the tax rules won’t be the same. If you decide to resell, research the different channels to find the best one for you, again knowing what your tax liability will be. These are things we explain to our clients. Providing this information is part of our role. We have the good fortune to work with this most marvelous of materials. I think of us as connecting people with the beauty of gemstones. Clients who initially saw stones as an investment discover the joy of gems, because we were able to awaken this sense of beauty. Hence the importance of arming people with knowledge. The more informed you are, the more you understand, the more able you are to buy with confidence and trust your emotions. It’s no different to buying art. /public-objects/33d4d4e6-f33f-410a-8ba7-0009fe3404e8-19d2f870-2eae-46e7-8ec3-c6ea6629ecf1-Comprendre%20les%20pierres%20pour%20mieux%20acheter.webp Image sélectionnée