Emerald has the privilege of being one of those gemstones everyone knows about, even if they know nothing about gemstones and jewelry.

For starters, everyone knows it’s green—the precious gem is practically synonymous with the word. You have the Emerald City of Oz, a luminous green scene depicted in the Wizard of Oz. The Emerald Isle is an island of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (notably, a very green country). And there’s the song Emerald Eyes from the 1973 album Mystery to Me by Fleetwood Mac, and if you don’t know the song, well, you at least know the color of the person’s eyes they’re referring to.

Because emerald, though it varies in shades, is reliably vivid green. If you’re looking for an emerald pendant, you know you’re in the market for one that’s green (unlike other gemstones, which may come in all colors of the rainbow, or at least a few other hues).

Emerald has a history as rich as the jewelry its featured in, and just as compelling, too. You could spend days or longer reading up on all of the stories—fact and folklore—surrounding emerald.

Cleopatra was famously fanatical for emerald, the Egyptian ruler laying claim to one of the earliest locations for emerald mining (and also one for peridot, which is quite possibly why much of her emerald collection was later found to be peridot).

Elizabeth Taylor, who famously played Cleopatra on the big screen in 1963, had a love for emeralds all her own, and hers were just as—if not more—infamous. Her famous Bulgari suite—an emerald brooch), emerald earrings, an emerald necklace, emerald pendant (which could also be worn as a brooch, or worn dangling from the aforementioned emerald necklace), an emerald bracelet, and an emerald ring—was gifted to her by lover and often even husband Richard Burton, and much of it purchased back by Bulgari for its permanent Heritage collection in 2011, when the emerald and diamond jewelry, among other pieces, was sold at auction by Christie’s New York.

Emerald has made voyeurs green with envy in recent years, too—Angelina Jolie’s Lorraine Schwartz emerald earrings from the 2009 Oscars are particularly memorable, as is the Cartier emerald and diamond suite worn by Amy Adams at the 2011 Academy Awards, featuring a whopper of an emerald necklace, and emerald bracelet that concealed a timepiece. As recently as the 2020 Oscars, actress Zazie Beetz wore a pair of emerald stud earrings, a pair of necklaces (one featuring an emerald), and complementing rings, all designed by Bulgari. Director Greta Gerwig also stunned in Bulgari, with a necklace comprising more then 96 carats of emeralds and diamonds.