Italian Natural Coral (Mix)

Buying this parcel

Where it came from, what its weight band is for, and what to check before any money changes hands.

The deposit

Italian coral is Corallium rubrum, the Mediterranean species, and it is the traditional Moonga material with the longest history in the Indian trade. It grows in smaller branches than the Pacific species, so the pieces cut from it are generally more modest in size, and its red is an even oxblood rather than the brighter, bluer red of Japanese Aka. Torre del Greco near Naples has been the working centre for it since the eighteenth century, which is why so much Mediterranean coral reaches other markets already cut and polished.

This parcel

Five to twenty five carats across mixed branches and beads is a range that reflects how coral is actually used rather than how minerals are sold. Branch pieces keep the natural form and go into mala strands, temple work and the pieces where the material’s organic shape is the point. Beads are for stringing to a repeat. The two are not interchangeable and are usually bought for different commissions, so tell us which you are after: a parcel selected for branch will look nothing like one selected for bead, at the same weight and price.

Treatment

Unheated and untreated across the parcel. Mediterranean coral is dyed as routinely as Pacific coral, and because Italian material is the traditional Moonga the incentive to fake it is high. In a mixed parcel dye is easier to catch than in a single piece, because you can compare many pieces at once and dyed goods are suspiciously consistent: natural coral varies from branch to branch, and a lot in which every piece is exactly the same red has usually been made that way.

The report

No report is held for this 5 to 25 cts red coral parcel yet, and we would rather say that than name a laboratory that has not seen it. We will submit whatever you select to IGI or IIGJ before purchase on request.

Before you pay

• Compare pieces against each other. Natural variation across a parcel is reassuring; perfect uniformity is not.
• Look into the cut ends of branch pieces for the concentric growth structure, which reconstituted material cannot reproduce.
• Decide branch or bead before you select. Weight alone will not tell us which parcel to pull.

Read next

Moonga, the red coral covers the material itself and what gets sold in its place. How to buy a coloured stone covers pricing, treatment and reports.

Written by Kamal Kishore Agarwal, founder and gemmologist, Gem-A qualified, buying in Johari Bazaar since 2008.