Cat''s eye--chrysoberyl?

[glitterata]

OH MY GOODNESSS!!!

My little pin is a chrysoberyl cat''s eye--and I''m not insane!!!!

I can hardly believe the suspense is over!!!

 

[Arcadian]

WOW!!!!

Thats such AWESOME NEWS!!!



-A

 

[Kismet]

Wow, excellent bargain hunting skills there, glitterata!

 

[Lula]

How wonderful for you, Glitterata! I can''t wait to hear what else Rich has to say about it.

 

[glitterata]

Me too!

Thanks for sharing my excitement, jewelry friends.

 

[Lovinggems]

A great find!

 

[Richard Sherwood]

Yeah, chrysoberyl catseye, how cool is that.

A nice one, too. The stone looks much better in person than in the photographs. A semi-translucent stone with a lovely yellowish green hue of medium dark tone. The eye is white of high contrast, nice and crisp and only very slightly wavy in one slight stretch. It rolls easily across the stone as you move it, and is visible under all lighting conditions, going from fine and crisp under direct incandescent lighting to wider and diffused (but still very strong) under fluorescent lighting.

It's got the famed "milk & honey" effect as well as the "wink" phenomenan under some lighting (eye opens and closes as you rotate the stone).

It's of Sri Lankan origin, with a very nice texture to the naked eye. No glaring inclusions that disturb the visual presentation.

The difference in color noticed was not a true color change, but was due to the different lighting conditions.

With measurements of 6.57 x 6.20 x 5.00 mm the estimated weight is approximately 1.50 carats. The stickpin it is in is 18 karat yellow gold, turn-of-the-century.

On a scale of:

[ Low Medium High commercial ] Good Fine Extra Fine
1-2 2-3 3-4 4-5-6 6-7-8 8-9-10

I would rank it a "6", good to fine quality. Bear in mind that you almost never see 9's & 10's, so a "6" ain't half bad. The things that would make it rank higher would be more translucency and a slightly straighter, crisper eye.

The (slightly greenish) honey colors and the (slightly yellowish) green colors are the most popular in chrysoberyl catseye, with the honey usually outranking the green. It's all about the eye and the translucency though, with Mr Z's catseye being an example of an extra fine quality.

For a century fine quality chrysoberyl catseye has been a very rare and pricey stone, but recent finds (particularly in Madagascar) have put quite a few more stones on the market and the prices have become more reasonable. You can find lots of commercial quality goods out there for reasonable prices, with the fine and extra fine qualities costing quite a bit more.

With it's Sri Lankan origin and (very) pleasant visual presentation, I would appraise this chrysoberyl for $1,000 retail replacement value. The 18 karat stickpin would bump it up another $150, for a total of $1,150.

Not bad for eleven bucks, Glitterata. Not bad at all.

 

[Kismet]

Wow, how cool is that! Excellent find, glitterata.

 

[glitterata]

Wow, what a deliciously satisfying amount of information! Thank you SO much, Rich!

Just a few more questions (but didn''t I just say it was a deliciously satisfying amount of info? What can I say--I''m greedy!)

-How can you tell it''s from Sri Lanka? Is it something about the stone itself, or is that where cat''s eye chrysoberyls came from in that period?
-What tests were necessary to ID it?

And do you (or does anyone else) want to talk me out of having the nice folks at the laser jewelry repair shop clip off the pin stem, bend it in a circle, and reattach it to the head to turn the pin into a ring? Harriet was horrified when I said I wanted to do that, but I would really like to wear it as a ring--I don''t wear stick pins very often, and this way I could actually see the eye move around. And I love the way the stone is set in the head, so I would like to preserve that.

My husband likes this stone because he says it''s just like my eyes--green in most lights, with some honey-tones or gray depending on the weather and what I''m wearing. Only of course my pupil is usually round. It only turns into a straight line when I''m really evil.

 

[Richard Sherwood]

Date: 10/29/2009 8:42:54 PM
Author: glitterata
Wow, what a deliciously satisfying amount of information! Thank you SO much, Rich!

Just a few more questions (but didn''t I just say it was a deliciously satisfying amount of info? What can I say--I''m greedy!)

-How can you tell it''s from Sri Lanka? Is it something about the stone itself, or is that where cat''s eye chrysoberyls came from in that period?
-What tests were necessary to ID it?

And do you (or does anyone else) want to talk me out of having the nice folks at the laser jewelry repair shop clip off the pin stem, bend it in a circle, and reattach it to the head to turn the pin into a ring? Harriet was horrified when I said I wanted to do that, but I would really like to wear it as a ring--I don''t wear stick pins very often, and this way I could actually see the eye move around. And I love the way the stone is set in the head, so I would like to preserve that.

My husband likes this stone because he says it''s just like my eyes--green in most lights, with some honey-tones or gray depending on the weather and what I''m wearing. Only of course my pupil is usually round. It only turns into a straight line when I''m really evil.

Hi Glitterata. I can tell it''s from Sri Lanka by the inclusions and the absorption spectrum.

I identified it through the refractive index (1.75 spot reading), the SAS2000 spectrum graph (classic chrysoberyl), and microscopic examination.

I personally would make a ring out of it. Then you can enjoy looking at it. There''s not much antique value tied up in the stickpin, so you''re not harming it in that way.

 

[trishy]

that is freakin AWESOME!!! congrats!! shoot, i have just the opposite luck in purchasing, i find stuff and its WAAAAY over priced instead of the opposite. you lucky girl... enjoy it

 

[glitterata]

Thank you again, Rich. I think I'm finally sated with info...

Trishy, believe me, I've bought my share of glass I was hoping would turn out to be garnet and silverplate I was hoping would turn out to be coin silver. But oh, how smug I feel when I guess right!

By the way, if anybody is dying for their own eBay antique chrysoberyl cat's eye, there are currently a few plausible ones on offer, though of course it would take a Rich to say for sure whether they live up to their claims:

Cat's eye comet. This one was tempting me before I found my $11 version. I love the moon-and-stars motif. It looks like the best of the three, but way more money than I was willing to risk. I wouldn't count on it curing asthma, either.

Stick pin. Similar to mine, but smaller. The eye doesn't look so great in the photos, but maybe it's better in person.

Bar pin. I don't know why they think this is from the 1850s--I would have guessed a few decades years later.

 

[T L]

Congratulations Glitterata. What a great find!

 

[Catmom]

Oh glitterata, how cool is that!!! What an awesome find and all for $11 yet.

 

[miraclesrule]

Shut the front door!! $11????

High five Glitterata

 

[glitterata]

I went back and checked. It was actually $11.75--plus $5.94 shipping.

On the whole, still worth it.

 

[chrono]

Amazing purchase. I would prefer to have it remain as a stick pin, but since it will hardly get worn that way and there’s not much value in the pin itself, why not?

 

[Lula]

Oh, I just loved reading what Rich had to say about the stone. And I''m glad he said you wouldn''t be compromising the value much by having it reset into a ring. I think it will be so beautiful and rich-looking in a ring.

Plus, setting it in a ring will allow it to catch the light as your hand moves and show off the stone''s beauty -- it is such a dynamic, "active" stone!

Can''t wait to see how you set it.

 

[glitterata]

Well, I took it to the laser repair shop and had them snip off the pin stem and turn it into a band. It came out great EXCEPT they didn't get the eye straight--it's a few degrees off vertical. I'm going to see if I can live with it and if not, I'll take it back to have it straightened. It's a little loose now. I decided to size it so it would fit in the summer, when the sun's out and my hands tend to swell.

I'll take a better photo during daylight. This one's with the flash.

 

[stepcutnut]

Looks great! What a lucky find

 

[Fly Girl]

Thanks for the update, glitterata. What a neat piece.

 

[Lovinggems]

Cool ring, what''s a laser repair shop?

 

[Lenamama]

wow.... so lucky, such a beautiful stone!

 

[glitterata]

Thank you guys. It''s great to have it as a ring, but the crookedness is driving me crazy, so I''m going to take it back and see if they can make it more vertical.

LG, the Laser Repair Booth is a shop in the NYC jewelry district (a booth upstairs in one of the storefronts) where they use a laser to repair jewelry. They do a decent, inexpensive job, they take a day or less, and they are super nice.

 

[jstarfireb]

Oooh, looks fabulous as a ring! I think the crooked eye would drive me crazy too. Glad you''re getting it fixed!

 

[cushioncutnut]

What a lovely hidden treasure you have found! So glad that you trusted your instinct and sent it to Rich! I too would have turned it into a ring as it is meant to be seen!! Congratulations on such a wonderful find!!!

 

[chrono]

Glitterata,
It''s so pretty! I love it as a ring.

 

[Richard Sherwood]

Looks great as a ring Gliitterata. !

That crookedness would drive me crazy as well though. They blew it on that, in my opinion.

See if they can make it straight, for no cost, because they blew it in the first place.

If not, see if they can do it for a minimal amont of cost.

If not, tell theim to f**k off, and send it down for my friend Charlie (a master custom jeweler) to fix.

 

[chrono]

Date: 11/23/2009 12:39:24 AM
Author: Richard Sherwood
Looks great as a ring Gliitterata. !

That crookedness would drive me crazy as well though. They blew it on that, in my opinion.

See if they can make it straight, for no cost, because they blew it in the first place.

If not, see if they can do it for a minimal amont of cost.

If not, tell theim to f**k off, and send it down for my friend Charlie (a master custom jeweler) to fix.

Rich,
What a great way to start my morning. I love your sense of humour.

 

[glitterata]

Update: they straightened it out for a minimal fee. At least, it''s pretty straight now--straight enough for a natural stone that had a slightly wonky eye to begin with.

Thanks for the kind offer, Rich!