I’m a jeweler, a Maine jeweler. I, we, Cross are the leading marketer of Maine tourmaline in the world. I remember the day at lunch in 1973 reading a DownEast magazine about a new discovery of tourmaline found in the western mountains of Maine. Several months later I visited the Plumbago Mining Company in Rumford, Maine for the first time. I’ll skip ahead to opening the first stone paper (stone papers are folded sheets of paper gems are kept in). The stone paper was huge, almost half the size of a sheet of typing paper. The first stone paper I looked at held 9x7mm oval pink Maine tourmaline, in an “A” grade. I folded the sides back and opened to see 40, 50, 100 pink Maine tourmaline. It took my breath away. I sat astonished. I’d never seen so many large natural gems in one place. My heart started racing.
I’ll skip ahead again. By the end of the day I had seen thousands of gems, nothing in my 24 years of life or my three years as a jeweler had compared. I bought two dozen gem tourmaline – pinks and greens. I brought them back to Cross, put the loose gems in our safe, and they stayed there for two years and nothing happened.
I’ll skip ahead again. We finally realized gems in our safe were not working. Five of us stayed late one night, we had a pizza party. Everyone had pads of paper. We had a tall flip chart with blank paper and magic markers. We had an audio tape by a Walt Disney Imagineer, talking about creativity and how to develop new ideas. Key to this was suspending all judgement, all ideas are good, all ideas hold validity. We talked, we sketched, then we edited, and came up with a plan. We worked until close to midnight. We are still making, today, some of the designs we came up with that evening.
I’ll skip ahead again. I saw this ring earlier this week, pizza night flashed through my memory. This three-gem ring is not rocket science. It’s basic, traditional. It was one of our sketches from pizza night nearly a half century ago. The three-gem ring is a classic. Today, over 50 years after the big discovery of tourmaline on Plumbago mountain, we still have 2 gem cutters who occasionally will cut another gem from the 1972 find. At the 50th year mark, it’s a single gem in a single stone paper purchased carefully, set with scientifically-cut diamonds and because these gems are all precious and rare we’ve set them into our Essex design, which is the finest three-stone gem mounting made in the world today.
This ring is breath-takingly beautiful. It’s finely engineered. It’s solidly built and it’s a classic. Our definition of a classic is show the ring 300 years ago or 300 years from now and 90% of all women would love it. Right now it’s one of the prettiest pink tourmaline rings in our entire collection.
Essex
Three-stone Ring
I’ve been doing fine jewelry since 1972, 53 years. I’ve owned Cross Jewelers since 1975, 50 years in the jewelry business. A three-gem ring is a classic. Every jeweler in America sells three-stone rings. There are 18,000 jewelers in America. We, Cross, make many nice three-gem classics. In my nearly half-century, the Essex ring is our finest, and even more strongly, the finest three-stone ring ever made. In the jeweler’s art there is good, better, and best. Essex is even better than best…it’s exquisite. So fine, that every time one is completed we stop, we marvel, we pass it around, we talk, we discuss, and we delight in the beauty. I’m a guy, we guys honor the excellence, women look and want to try it on.
Quite simply, our Essex is exquisite. It’s the best three-gem ring ever made. We supply the gems for every Essex we offer.
Pink Maine Tourmaline
Rarity. Could we make another? Pink Maine tourmaline is rare, found on Plumbago Mountain in Newry, Maine in 1972. We bought all the really beautiful gems from the 1972 discovery of tourmaline and have slowly been releasing them over the years. Pink Maine Tourmaline is almost impossible to find from that find over 50 years in the past.
Royal Ideal Diamonds in the Essex
The diamonds quite simply, are the best. They are real, natural, earth-mined diamonds cut to the highest standards of strict Tolkowsky Ideal 53-57% tables. Which means the diamond catches and captures natural light, reflects and refracts light into a brilliant, dazzling array of white flashes creating a magical array of precise rainbow colors. The diamonds are precisely matched. The overall effect when really nice gems are set into our Essex design, is awesome excellence. You get the sense we genuinely love this ring…we really do. A ring with Royal Ideal Diamonds worn on your hand will thrill you every day for the rest of your life.
More about the Essex Ring Design
The Essex ring is the finest three-gem ring ever made. This is a strong statement. And it’s true. We don’t make the Essex in our Cross shop, we do make many very fine three-stone rings. The Essex is the very best ring of its kind ever made. I’ve seen hundreds of rings from all over the world. No one has ever made a ring as good or as fine as the Essex. The 3 center gems are always set in Platinum, the finger ring surrounding may be Platinum or 18K Yellow Gold. I’ve studied this ring under a 10x power jeweler’s microscope. Its detail, every detail is exquisite. The crafting is done by master platinum craftsmen. It shows. We select all the gems that will go into an Essex, we choose only the very best color for the center and the finest cut Royal Ideal diamonds for the sides.
The finished ring has a balance and flow to delight the mind, heart, and soul. It’s too easy to say that it’s a classic, anyone can say it. A classic to us means we showed the ring to a woman 300 years ago or 300 years from now, 90% would say “I love it!”. It’s an eternal design.
Maine Tourmaline, A Maine Story
An American Gem
First discovered in 1820 and in subsequent finds over the years, these early discoveries put Maine on the world map as a source for high-quality tourmaline gems. A major discovery in 1972 on Plumbago Mountain in Newry, Maine established Maine as a significant world source of fine tourmaline gemstones.
Cross recognized the historical significance of this find and began working closely with the miners of these magnificent gems. The close partnership continues today with the ongoing discoveries in Maine’s western mountains.
100% Natural
We go to Maine’s gem mines. We know the miners. We know the gem cutters. We guarantee our tourmaline to be from Maine and is 100% natural. Cross maintains the largest collection of fine Maine tourmaline jewelry in the world.
Window of Opportunity
Fifty years have passed since the major 1972 tourmaline find in Newry, Maine where they found 3.5 million carats of tourmaline crystals. Over the years we bought more than we sold knowing that gem finds don’t last forever. There are now colors, sizes, and shapes that are extremely rare and, in some cases, no longer available. If you see something you love it’s best to act quickly. There’s no guarantee another gem like this one exists.
Case in point: In 2007 there was a find of tourmaline in Newry, Maine called Eureka Blue. People loved the color. The gems sold quickly, but the find was small and the mining only lasted a few seasons. Within three years of the discovery, all the large Eureka gems had sold. We still get calls from people who are now ready to buy. What they want, however, simply no longer exists from that find in 2007.
Gem finds are rare, especially in North America. Maine tourmaline is a piece of Maine and American history, it’s a connection to a place we all love, an exquisite creation of nature. Today, there is a rare opportunity to own a bit of Maine/American pride and heritage, and history in choosing a piece of Maine tourmaline jewelry.
