About Us

More than 80 years ago, George T. Manning left Europe for Australia. His job as an international grain merchant was to build trade between his European firm and Australia's agricultural industry — an assignment that fell apart as war loomed in Europe.

While in Sydney weighing his next move, Manning was introduced, through a friend of a friend, to a rough opal broker. That chance meeting in a Sydney pub set his course. He would go on to be known throughout the industry as "The Opal King" — an unofficial title, but one that reflected the deep respect he earned from Australia's mining and dealing communities.

At the time, opal was still a largely unknown commodity. Distance, cost, and long transport times had kept any real trade from developing with the United States, and a lingering European superstition — that opal brought bad luck — didn't help. The idea traced back to Sir Walter Scott's 1829 novel Anne of Geierstein, whose depiction of opal's strange radiance left the gem out of favor for decades. It took public figures like Queen Victoria and Sarah Bernhardt, who collected Queensland opal despite the superstition, to help turn the tide.

Manning bought his first parcel of rough opal, resold it in Sydney within days for a fair profit, and kept going. As his interest grew, he partnered with experienced miners and made his first trek to the opal fields — a trip he considered the adventure of a lifetime. Years of field-buying across Andamooka, Coober Pedy, and Lightning Ridge followed, and the experience convinced him to devote his career to establishing Australian opal as one of the world's premier gemstones.

In 1940, Manning immigrated to the United States and started the business in New York City's jewelry district, near Maiden Lane and Canal Street — selling door to door and building interest one relationship at a time. Because his stones were sold free-sized, growth was limited. Solving that problem became his next challenge.

Manning saw what no one else in the trade had yet recognized: opal's potential as a high-volume, calibrated product for manufacturers. Through broker relationships with Australia's Pogany family, and later the Collins and Keady organizations, he secured a steady supply of rough opal. He had also done the foundational work of the trade itself — establishing color and quality grades, calculating yields, and defining standard sizes and shapes, work that became the industry benchmark.

To keep up with demand, Manning searched the world for a cutting operation capable of true volume production. Idar-Oberstein, Germany offered skilled opal cutters but couldn't scale affordably as post-war labor costs rose. A search across Hawaii, Samoa, Indonesia, Fiji, the Philippines, and Thailand followed before Manning found his answer in Hong Kong.

There, he partnered with Mr. Ngai and Mr. Chan of Wan Kow Gems, a tiger's-eye and jade cutting factory. Manning taught them to cut opal himself — how to clean the matrix to reveal the stone's best color, and how to avoid cracks and imperfections — adapting techniques from tiger's-eye cutting to this new material. For the next decade, Manning and Wan Kow led Hong Kong's opal trade, built on direct field shipments, fair pricing, and consistent quality. His main competitor for rough opal was Mr. Yamamoto in Japan, where post-war demand for opal was also strong.

George T. Manning passed away in April 1977, after 40 years building a business and a reputation unmatched in the opal trade — but the story he started continues today.