ABOUT US

Two generations.
One obsession.

In the early 1970s, André Assaf was posted to Kenya by the French embassy, to teach French literature. The mineral tsavorite had only recently been identified, in the rough country east of the park whose name it would take. Few outside the region yet understood what these stones were. He did, and began trading them. The business that grew from this work, expanding through offices in Israel and Canada before settling its principal operations in New York in the 1980s, became Tsavorite Factory.

Today his son, Daniel Assaf, leads the House. He oversees the New York showroom, the cutting workshop in Bangkok, and the buying relationships in East Africa and Sri Lanka. He also holds direct interests in several mines.

The work is conducted along two lines. The first is taste: stones that fail to move the House are not bought, regardless of margin. The second is patience: each rough is studied at length before a wheel touches it, and decisions are made in conversation rather than in a hurry. A stone that has been hurried looks hurried.

STANDARDS

Tsavorite Factory is a member of the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA), whose Code of Ethics and disclosure standards govern every memo and invoice the House issues; the International Colored Gemstone Association (ICA), the principal global body for the colored stone trade; and the Bangkok Gem & Jewelry Traders Association, reflecting the location of the cutting workshop.

FOR INDEPENDENT VERIFICATION

The House works with the principal gemological laboratories the trade relies upon: GIA, Gübelin, SSEF, GRS, and Bellerophon. Each is used according to what a given stone requires.

Mining regions

Where the House has been involved in mining, its first commitment has been to the people whose land it works on. Their safety, their welfare, and their willingness to host the work are not separate from the work itself. They precede it.