Neon of Mahenge
High-saturation pink and red spinels from the alluvial gravels of Mahenge, Tanzania. The 2007 find forced the trade to relearn red; the hills still produce, in small parcels, for the buyers who make the drive.
You finally reached the perfect place to find your one‑of‑a‑kind gem.
Gem Sourcing at Origin · Lapidary & Design · Custom 1/1 Jewelry
“Beauty is the only value that survives daylight. Most people buy the story. The few who buy the stone find their way to me.”
Lambert Vissot — The Gem Hunter
The Way In
01 — THE BRIEF
Variety, carats, color, certificate, budget. Nothing optional. A vague brief finds a vague stone.
02 — THE HUNT
Mahenge, Mogok, Muzo, Ratnapura. You see only what passes the standard — usually two or three stones, never twenty.
03 — THE KEY
Your first acquisition makes you a verified collector. The key is issued with the stone.
With Whom You Work
Lambert Vissot, gemmologist — trained at EIG Monaco, formed in the Bangkok trade. Every stone is bought at origin, in person, and offered with its flaws in writing. By the time a stone reaches a boutique window, four margins stand between you and the ground. Here there are none.
What You Obtain
Bought at origin against your brief. Certified by Gübelin, SSEF, AGL or GIA. Untreated only — no heat, no oil, no exceptions.
Lapidary and design under one roof — recut when the material deserves it, set in platinum in Geneva. The design is never repeated.
Certificates, provenance, photographs, the hunter’s written assessment — the file your insurer and your heirs will want.
The Vault
Behind the key: the active portfolio, the bespoke atelier, a direct line to the hunter. Keys are never sold and cannot simply be requested — they are earned with a first acquisition. Serious collectors only.
Archive Index
High-saturation pink and red spinels from the alluvial gravels of Mahenge, Tanzania. The 2007 find forced the trade to relearn red; the hills still produce, in small parcels, for the buyers who make the drive.
Step-cut emeralds from Muzo, Colombia, their organic inclusion networks — the “jardins” — left intact. No oil, no resin: an untreated Muzo emerald is among the rarest papers a laboratory ever writes.
In the Vault — Key Holders onlyUnheated ruby from Mogok, Burma — where the name pigeon’s blood is granted at midday or not at all. Acquired when Burma opens, and only then.
In the Vault — Key Holders onlyChapter IV — In the field. Undisclosed.
The next chapter is hunted against a brief. Begin yours.
The Standard
The diploma is from EIG Monaco; the schooling was the Bangkok trade. The stones are bought where they surface; he goes himself.
“The work is saying no several hundred times a year, in daylight, against master stones, until the one stone that deserves a yes appears. Then moving fast.”
From the Field
Field Notes
Notes from the buying trips and the laboratory literature. Written from Bangkok, between flights.
Back rooms have bad lamps for a reason. Notes on judging color when the seller controls the light.
The word carries a premium of thirty to fifty percent. Where that premium comes from, and when it is worth paying.
Eighteen years since the great spinel find. What the hills produce now, and what the first wave got wrong.
The next note follows the next trip.
The First Step
There is no application for a key; there is a brief. Describe the stone you are looking for, precisely — the hunt runs on what you write here.
When your stone is found and the acquisition is complete, you become a verified collector — and your key to the vault is issued with the stone.
Prefer to write? lambert@thegemhunter.com
Your mail app has opened with the brief addressed to the hunter — press send to file it. He replies personally, usually within two working days.
The vault comes later. First, the stone.
Nothing opened? Open the brief again or write to lambert@thegemhunter.com
Access by Key Only
INVALID OR REVOKED ACCESS KEY.
A key comes with a first stone, never before. .
The Rough — As Found
“The Mahenge Flame”
“Bought eleven kilometres from the pit. Recut in Bangkok for light return, at a cost of half a carat. Worth it.”
Active Build
Platinum Setting — Geneva VS-CS-214