Welcome to Johnson's Olde Raleigh!
Helping people celebrate the hallmarks of their lives with fine jewelry is what we do best. And we've been providing the highest level of integrity and honesty as a family owned business since 1929.
As members of the American Gem Society, our staff of Certified Gemologists and Registered Jewelers will share their wealth of knowledge so your decision will be a more informed one.
Our exacting standards, technical expertise, and tradition of uncompromising service has earned us an untarnished reputation that's as good as gold.
In the late 1920s, at only 12 years old, Carroll Chatham began experimenting with crystal growth in his family’s garage due to his interest in chemistry. He endeavored to duplicate nature’s process in order to create a diamond. Chatham attempted to duplicate Henri Moissan’s earlier experiments to create laboratory-grown diamonds, but was unsuccessful. He then shifted his focus to growing emerald crystal, but his attempts were once again unsuccessful.
In 1931, Chatham enrolled at the California Institute of Technology, leaving behind his experiments and dreams in his family’s garage. However, as fate would have it, Chatham’s father turned off the power supply to Chatham’s makeshift laboratory in the garage and with this simple action, the emerald crystals began to grow. After three more years of experimenting, Chatham finally understood the process of emerald crystal growth and then started attempting to grow other stones. Rubies, alexandrites, and sapphires, followed and a few years after Chatham’s death in 1983, his son, Tom, successfully cultivated a diamond.
Chatham is still recognized today as the leader of laboratory created gemstones. The company’s unconquerable Lifetime Warranty and Certificate of Authenticity assure each stone’s long term value, as well as reliability.
