Kalistan

[Doc]

Princess Consort leads Virtual tour of Gem Vault
Public tours top 45 this year
Eveari, Grand Duchy of Ananto
November 15, 5732


Princess Consort discusses sheer volume of precious stones in Hall 8 of Gem Vault

Her Highness, the Princess Consort Casey Leigh-Campbell offered a televised virtual tour of the Ananto Gem Vault this week. The Tour was aired on KRTVN Channel 11 and was part of a documentary filmed about the history of the Ananto Gem Collection. "We are seeing an increase in demand for tours in the Gem Vault this year," said Her Highness. "Tourism to Eveari has increased over the last few years as more people from across Northern Seleya, Western Dovani and Southern Keris are discovering Ananto's best kept secret. This last year we have done 45 tours of the Gem Vault, which is almost one a week, due to such increased demand, so we figured that we could take you all on a virtual tour, in case you can't make it to Eveari yourself."

The documentary, narrated by Carla Martinez, of KRTVN 11, was called "The Glittering Empire: The Wealth of the Anantos." It covered the history of wealth acquisition by the Royal Family in Ananto and Kalistan, beginning with the very large endowment founded by the first Emperor, Fredrick I Ananto whose sizeable personal fortune was believed to be over 60 Million Rubles (or more than 110 Billion Imperial Pesos in today's money) became the seed money for a wealth generation machine unparalleled in many countries. Over time, conservative investment schemes have yielded far more than that and the family is currently believed to be worth close to 2 Trillion Imperial Pesos.

The Gem Vault itself first came to public attention more than 100 years ago, but had long served as a store house for gem acquisition. The first public tours of the Gem Vault happened under the early reign of Empress Mary I Ananto, when the Anantos became suddenly interested in showing off the wealth accumulated over the centuries. "The first tours were essentially the inauguration of Mary's Glittering Empire, said the Princess Consort. "During the Empress' reign, Kalistan was beautified, and nothing was more beautiful that her Opium Throne, which still stands in the Formal Audience Room of the Imperial Seat. Every gem set into solid polished silver came from this vault, and as we can see, it did not even dent the supply of rubies, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds, and the most important stone of all to the Anantos, Amethyst, which is mined right here on Ananto on our igneous rock formations." According to the Princess Consort, Ananto has one of the world's greatest concentrations of amethyst geodes due to its volcanic past and unique mineral principles. Amethyst is currently the only stone protected by law: possession of amethyst by Kalistani Citizens is prohibited by law, and is reserved for the Royal Family.

"This Gem vault is not only a storehouse for precious stones sourced from all over the world over nearly six centuries," said the Princess Consort, "but the sheer stockpile of gold, silver, platinum and palladium stored here boggles the mind. On these shelves, you will see tons of the precious metals--The value of this collection is in the hundreds of millions. Its hard to believe that the stacks and stacks of ingots we can see lining the interior of the vault are the least valuable categories of materials are in here." The Princess Consort said it is breathtaking to be surrounded by such immeasurable wealth. "When I first visited the Gem Vault, I too was rather overcome by the sheer volume of precious stones and precious metals... I mean... How does one even get their head around the value of these stones."

She said that most of the stones in the Vault remain uncut and ungraded. "There are a lot of very raw stones in here," she said. "We buy gems by the kilo from foreign suppliers. If we need stones for something decorative, we just have Reed go through, pick out the stone or stones that will do the job, and they proceed to cut the gems out of the larger rough stone." Many of the rough stones yield dozens of gems. "Of course, when you cut gems the value of the cut, set and polished gems becomes much higher in sum than the singular stone it originally came from. With that in mind, we can calculate what these stones are worth in rough numbers only. If for some reason they would all be cut into gems for jewelry, the value would be several orders of magnitude higher."

She said that Ananto prefer square, rectangular, or oval cuts to brilliant cuts, and prefers flat stones to deeper ones. "Flat stones tend to sit against the body when worn, are, I think easier to set, and make mosaics, like the poppies on the Opium Throne far easier." The flatter the cut, the less the gems will sparkle, but the preferences of the Royal Family are set against sparkle. "Much of the light reflected from the Reed cuts the Royal Family tends to request come from reflection off highly polished faces, rather than from the internal refraction of light, creating a high contrast that is both aesthetically subtle, but also allows for larger cuts to be made of larger stones while not sacrificing smaller cut options." But the gems we see on the Gem Vault tour are almost all uncut and rough. "A lot of people are let down because they think we just have piles and piles of cut and polished gems stored in here. They think a glittering half carat diamond is more impressive than a raw uncut ruby the size of a cow's heart."

But the Princess Consort said the tour makes up for it as the visitors also tour the Crown Jewels collection, also located in the Gem Vault. "Retired crowns, necklaces, and coronation attire are located there, as well as a history of gem cutting," said the Princess Consort. "You can see Mary's famous Peacock Dress, a dress she famously had commissioned and then allowed model Kelsey Ryan to wear, but never wore herself, and Carolina's famous ruby and diamond coronation dress which was made entirely out of horizontally striped stones connected in a type of scalemail. You can also see all the amazing pieces worn by our Emperors and Empresses throughout the year. And you will definitely see cut and polished stones here." She said each tour ends with a gift by the Royal Family to each visitor: A small cut and polished ruby from the collection. "We've given away thousands of these little rubies to visitors over the last century," said the Princess Consort. "They are each worth about one hundred Imperial Pesos, being only about an eighth of a carat each, but they are a fun souvenir for our visitors, who often take them to their local jeweler to have them set in a gold or silver chain or little stud earrings. Its a nice way to say thank you for the visit and to share the wealth a little bit."

The Documentary about the Gem Vault was reportedly viewed by more than 3 million Kalistanis when it aired, and streamed by more than 350,000 since it aired. "I think they are expecting more visitors next week, but I think they are planning on running four tours a month, so before making the trip to Eveari, plan ahead and make reservations, because each tour is limited to about 10 people," said the Princess Consort. "The best months to travel to Eveari are in the summer months, due to the nearly persistent rain on the Northern Coast from November to April."

@LaModa