A gemstone business from Jaipur
Nagina is a small, owner-run gemstone business in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Jaipur has been a centre of the coloured stone trade since the city was founded in the eighteenth century, when the rulers of Amber invited gem cutters and jewellers to settle around the new bazaars. Today a large share of the world’s emeralds, rubies, sapphires and semi-precious stones still pass through the city’s cutting workshops at some point.
We grew up around that trade. The lanes off Johari Bazaar, where dealers sit on white cotton mattresses and turn stones over on folded paper, are where we learned to judge colour, spot a filled fissure and argue over a parcel. Nagina is our way of offering those stones directly to jewellers, designers and collectors around the world, with the information a dealer would expect.
How we source our stones
We buy in three ways. Some stones come from long-standing dealers in Johari Bazaar and the Gopalji ka Rasta market, people whose families have traded with ours for years. Some we buy as rough, from importers who bring material from Mozambique, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Brazil and elsewhere, and have cut by craftsmen we know in Jaipur. A few come from estate lots and older collections.
We are selective. For every parcel we list, we pass on many more that have poor colour, undisclosed treatments or cutting we are not happy with. We would rather have a smaller catalogue we can stand behind.
What we tell you about every stone
- Origin, where we know it with confidence, and whether it is confirmed by a laboratory.
- Treatment, stated plainly on every listing: unheated, heated, oiled, irradiated or untreated.
- Measurements and weight, taken on calibrated scales and gauges in our office.
- Clarity, described in plain terms, including inclusions we think you should know about.
Photography as it is
We photograph every single stone and lot ourselves, on the same neutral background under the same daylight-balanced lighting. We do not edit colour to make stones look better than they are, and we do not use stock images for single stones. Parcels are shown with a representative sample from the parcel. Screens differ, so if colour is important to your decision, ask us for a video in daylight before you buy.
Lab reports
Our more important stones are sold with reports from independent laboratories such as GIA, GRS, SSEF or IGI, and the report number is listed on the product page. For other stones we provide an in-house report stating weight, measurements, identification and treatment. If you want a third-party report on any stone, we can send it to a laboratory of your choice before shipping; the lab fee is added at cost.
Who we work with
Our customers include independent jewellers, bench setters, jewellery students, designers building a collection and private buyers looking for a centre stone. Whether you are buying a single 3 mm ruby or a certified sapphire, you deal with the same small team, and we answer questions ourselves.