Emerald Wedding Anniversary: 40 Years of Marriage

The green of the emerald has always been that of spring and vegetation coming back to life. From this stem its three traditional meanings: hope, renewal, protection for lovers.

What makes the connection meaningful at forty years is that it celebrates not the time that has passed, but what begins again. After four decades, offering a stone of renewal rather than yet another symbol of solidity says something more alive.

A word on this gemstone’s other distinctive feature, one unique among the great stones: one accepts, and indeed expects, it to be imperfect. Its natural inclusions — what the trade calls the jardin — are part of its identity. An emerald without flaws is a suspicious emerald.

To place this fortieth year among the anniversaries associated with a gemstone.

If the anniversary you are planning is sooner, the sapphire wedding anniversary follow exactly the same logic at sixteen years of age — with ten colours available where the emerald offers only one.

Three directions, depending on what she already wears and what you want to say.

The centre stone. A emerald engagement ring — it is from this collection that we draw, with settings that do not change according to the occasion — built around a gemstone of one to two carats. It is the most classic gesture, and the most legible.

The Toi&Moi. Two stones that answer each other, often an emerald and a diamond. The design is asymmetrical, very personal, and it tells of two paths rather than just one — which, at forty, feels rather fitting.

Reassembly. After forty years of daily wear, the underside of the band has flattened and the prongs have become loose, while the stone has not shifted by a millimetre. Restoring the original ring costs the price of the setting alone.

A green variety of beryl — another mineral species than corundum — coloured by chromium and sometimes vanadium. The same family produces aquamarine, in blue.

Two characteristics distinguish it from sapphire, and both work in its favour when purchasing. It is less dense : at equal weight, it offers a larger visible surface area. And it starts at a lower price — our set creations start from €1,700, compared with €2,500 for sapphire.

All our natural emeralds are published online with their characteristics, degree of oiling and price. Oiling deserves a word: almost all emeralds receive a colourless oil that fills surface fissures. It is a traditional and accepted practice, declared on the certificate — these are not coloured resins, which we refuse.

Three countries dominate global production, and each has its own character.

Colombia Colombia retains its historic prestige: the Muzo and Chivor deposits have supplied the market for five centuries, with greens that are often purer, sometimes slightly yellowish. Brazil completes the offering with lighter shades.

Our selection, meanwhile, is Zambian. Our Zambian emeralds are purchased in Jaipur, where they are cut, and selected for their evenness of colour and transparency — a more bluish green, generally cleaner than the Colombian average. A Colombian emerald is sourced by us through a dedicated search.

As always: origin explains a character, never a quality. A beautiful Zambian stone surpasses an average Colombian stone, and the reverse is also true.

One point of precision that changes the way you search: there is no grading scale for emeralds. Within our own stock, the difference in price per carat within the same weight range reaches a factor of three — and it is not the weight that accounts for this difference, but the vibrancy of the green. The numerical details, range by range, can be found in our article on how much an emerald costs.

Our consistent advice: colour before weight. At €8,000, between 1.5 ct of vibrant green and 2 ct of a duller green, the difference in surface area on the finger is measured in tenths of a millimetre; the difference in colour can be seen from three metres away.

To illustrate the design we mentioned above — two stones answering one another rather than a single one at the centre.

Caroline entrusted us with this project for a birth, not for a wedding anniversary — but the design suits both, which is precisely why we are showing it here. A 0.61-carat Zambian emerald and a one-carat diamond face one another, surrounded by small round diamonds.

The Toi&Moi has one specific advantage over a central stone, after forty years of marriage: it does not compete with the engagement ring. The design is different, the reading is different, and the two rings can be worn together or separately. Allow six to eight weeks between the first appointment and the presentation of the piece.