The house
A Dubai trading house with people at both ends of the chain — in the valleys where the stones come out, and at the desks where they are sold.
The name
Ariana is the old name for these lands — the name the classical geographers gave to the wide country between the Indus and the Persian plateau, long before any modern border was drawn across it.
We took it deliberately. The stones we sell were formed here tens of millions of years before there was anyone to name the place, and they have been carried out of these mountains and traded westward for a very long time. Lapis from Badakhshan reached Egypt four thousand years before it reached Amsterdam.
What is new is not the trade. What is new is the possibility of doing it transparently: naming the valley a stone came from, stating what was done to it, and standing behind both in writing.
Structure
Most dealers sit at one end of the chain or the other. Being at both is the whole of our advantage, and it is not easily copied.
Our people are present in Panjshir, Nuristan and Kunar during the working season — assessing rough on site, buying directly from the operations that produce it, and recording origin before a stone leaves the province. This is a matter of relationships built over years, and it is why we can say where a stone came from and mean it.
Ariana Precious Stones is registered in Dubai. Contracts and invoices are issued by the Dubai company whatever route the goods take, and our clients' compliance teams get the documentation they need without a special request. We also keep an office in Amsterdam, which is where clients in Europe are usually met.
Emerald from Panjshir; indicolite, lagoon, rubellite, verdelite and bicolour tourmaline from Nuristan and Kunar. Rough and cut in equal measure. Wholesale lots by weight and exceptional single stones.
Five benches: Antwerp for precision and single high-value stones, Kabul for work at the source, Wuzhou, Guangzhou and Shenzhen for calibrated and volume goods, Chanthaburi for corundum, and Jaipur for calibrated goods at depth. The finest single stones are cut by hand. Each stone is routed to whichever suits it.
Mining houses, wholesalers, manufacturers, auction houses, institutions and established dealers — and private buyers operating at that level. Large organisations and large deals; what matters is the size of the transaction, not the letterhead.
One price, quoted per carat, per stone and per lot, in the currency you settle in, with delivery and insurance itemised. No commission is taken further down the chain, because there is no further down the chain.
Principles
The province, not just the country, guaranteed in writing on the invoice. If we cannot establish origin to our own satisfaction we say so instead of guessing, and we price the stone accordingly rather than charging for a provenance we cannot support. A guarantee you can test is worth something; one you cannot is worth nothing.
No heat, no oil, no resin, no diffusion, on anything. Emerald is conventionally enhanced across the trade, which is exactly why we do not: an untreated stone is worth more, tests clean at any laboratory, and does not lose a buyer’s trust three years later.
Independent laboratories, buyer's choice, before payment where that matters to you. A house that resists verification is telling you something.
Including the inclusions, the zoning, and the stone's weaknesses under certain light. You will find out eventually; better it comes from us, before you buy.
Working with us
You will deal with a person, not a portal. Enquiries are answered by someone who has handled the stone.
Expect a straight answer about availability, including when the answer is no. Expect to be told if a stone you are asking about is better bought at a different size, or from a different province, or in three months when the season reopens. Expect the price to be the price.
We are a small house by design. It means we cannot serve everyone, and it means the clients we do serve get our actual attention.
Enquiries
The register goes out by email with photography, video, measurements and documentation — usually the same working day you ask for it.
