Humans have always ascribed special powers to precious stones....

Humans have always ascribed special powers to precious stones. Pharaohs were buried with amulets and jewels to safeguard their journeys to the afterlife. Warriors since ancient times have worn rare gems for protection in battle (not always successfully, truth be told).
According to the 19th-century mineralogist and vice-president of Tiffany & Co., George Frederick Kunz, people of every class – “princes and peasants … the learned as well as the ignorant” – have credited jewels with “talismanic virtues”.
In the Middle Ages, and quite possibly since, gemstones were commonly believed to have senses and feelings – even magical gifts. “Success in love, together with the power to read the thoughts of others, was said to belong to the possessor of precious stones,” gemologist and historian Glenn Klein writes in Faceting History: Cutting Diamonds and Colored Stones.
http://www.copyright link/content/dam/images/g/y/c/q/o/m/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1504767457145.jpg
Bulgari Piazza navona ring.
At heart, however, the wearing of jewels has always been about status; displaying one’s wealth, success and refined taste.

The ancient Roman Republic frowned on such ostentatious displays, but the elites of the Roman Empire were notorious for flaunting their jewelled riches. In imperial China, mandarins signalled their status with dazzling stones; ruby and rubellite tourmaline for the highest-ranking officials, coral or garnet for second-tier bureaucrats, and lesser stones down the scale of social standing.
The mandarin customs are interesting because they codify colour, recognising it as a primary human emotional response to precious stones, and because they put red stones at the top of the pile.
Red rules the spectrum of jewels because it embodies so much of what defines us. It is linked variously with love – the romantic kind, as in Emerson’s The Amulet, but also divine love – as well as majesty, blood and fire.
The 16th-century Italian goldsmith and artist Benvenuto Cellini matched precious rocks to the elements – emerald to earth, sapphire to air, diamond to water and ruby, inevitably, to fire.
Bulgari and the colours of Rome

Red is a colour of “very strong emotions”, agrees Lucia Silvestri, creative director at the famed Italian jewellery house Bulgari. For her it is predominantly a symbol of passion.
“It is important for us because we are a brand with great passion.
“But when we talk about red we don’t talk only about rubies, which are the most important, rarest-coloured gems. We are talking also about rubellite, coral.”


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