Other Stones — styles you will see at the showroom.

What to look at

Topaz, garnet, amethyst, spinel, zircon, tourmaline and jade sit here at a fraction of what the four famous names cost. Spinel is the one to ask about: for a century it was sold as ruby, it needs no treatment, and a fine red spinel still costs a fraction of the ruby it was mistaken for.

Jade is priced differently from everything else on this floor — by translucency and the evenness of colour rather than by carat weight, and the difference between grades is worth having explained at the counter. For any coloured stone, the practical questions stay the same: what treatment, what hardness, and will it survive the way you intend to wear it.