Santa Maria Aquamarine — A Stone Returns to Idar-Oberstein

Some gemstones pass through an atelier once. Others find their way back.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Otto Leyser travelled from Idar-Oberstein to Brazil in search of gemstones. He would spend six years there, following the stones from their source and building relationships that connected the cutting workshops of Idar-Oberstein with the mines of Brazil.

Among the material associated with this period was an exceptional deep-blue aquamarine from Santa Maria de Itabira.

The crystal eventually made its way to Idar-Oberstein, where it was cut and polished in the Leyser workshop. In 1937, the finished aquamarine was exhibited at the Paris World Exhibition — the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne — where it was awarded a gold medal.

Decades later, the stone returned to the family atelier.

A stone with a history

What makes this aquamarine remarkable is not simply its colour.

Its story connects several chapters of the gemstone trade: Brazil and Idar-Oberstein, the mine and the cutting wheel, one generation of craftsmen and another.

When the aquamarine returned to us for a bespoke redesign, the task was therefore not simply to create something new. It was to work with something that already carried its own history.

The setting could change. The stone remained.

More than a century after its journey began, it was once again on the workbench in Idar-Oberstein.

From mines to masterpieces.