Cat''s eye--chrysoberyl?

[glitterata]

I bought a group of four stickpins on ebay (for $11). Two were junk, but two were nice old Victorian pins. One of them was this cat''s eye:

 

[glitterata]

I''m confident the pin is from the 19th or very early 20th century probably from the 1880s-90s. So that should make this a natural stone.

Probably a chrysoberyl, right?

 

[glitterata]

The back is all gunked up. Is it safe to soak a chrysoberyl in ammonia and water, or should I stick to dish soap?

 

[Indylady]

Wow, that is beautiful! It does look like a chrysoberyl. Does it have any color change? Any chance it might be an alex?

 

[glitterata]

It''s small, in the 7 mm range. I''m thinking of making it into a ring.

Any idea how many carats (very approximately) it might be? I imagine the value is over $11--any guesses to the range?

Thanks in advance!

 

[glitterata]

Date: 10/17/2009 3:11:52 PM
Author: szh07
Wow, that is beautiful! It does look like a chrysoberyl. Does it have any color change? Any chance it might be an alex?

Ooo, that would be exciting! But alas, I just had my husband (laughing his head off) shut me in the closet and turn on the incandescent light, and it stayed green. So no, not an alex.

 

[Richard Sherwood]

Hi Glitt. It does have the look of chrysoberyl catseye. If so, the 7mm diameter means that it probably weighs in the ~ 1.75 carat neighborhood.

Tough to tell from the photo, but it looks to be high commercial to good quality, maybe a 4 on a 1 to 10 scale, which would put the retail value somewhere in the $500 to $700 range (for the stone only).

Not bad for eleven bucks.

Oh, and it's a fairly hardy stone. No problem cleaning it in an ultrasonic with a detergent cleaner.

 

[glitterata]

Zowie!! Thanks, Richard!!

I''m paging you on the Jewelry board, by the way--I started a thread about a pair of mysterious earrings.

 

[Richard Sherwood]

I''m curious if the stone will look any more translucent when the gunk is cleaned out.

You can dig a lot of that gunk out with a needle, and then finish it off with a toothbrush (after soaking it for a while).

Be sure and give us an "after" photo.

 

[glitterata]

I will, I promise! It looks pretty opaque from the side, though.

I can''t test for gold, but the pin stem is gold-plated brass (the brass is showing through). Is the head probably gold?

Is most of the value in the stone, or is does a pin like this have some value as an antique too? I won''t be spoiling the value if I reset the stone, right?

 

[Richard Sherwood]

No, I think you're fine with resetting the stone, especially if the pin portion is gold-filled.

Seems a touch unusual though for a chrysoberyl catseye to be in a gold-filled piece, even back then.

Always the possibility that it's a quartz catseye, although my gut says its a dark chryosberyl.

 

[mochi]

Oh, I love it! Very classy!

 

[Arcadian]

can''t wait to see what it looks like!

-A

 

[glitterata]

It wasn''t brass after all, just dirt. It went away when I soaked the pin in ammonia.

Here''s the back, nice and clean.

 

[glitterata]

Still opaque, though.

It''s a rainy, cloudy day. That might be why the eye doesn''t appear very sharp in these photos.

 

[glitterata]

Front view, now that it''s clean.

 

[glitterata]

I closed the shades and took some pictures under an incandescent desk light.

It turns greenish brown. I''m trying to convince myself that means it''s an alexandrite, but although it''s definitely less greeny-green, it''s still greenish, not purple.

The eye is sharper, though.

 

[glitterata]

Another.

(Thanks for the kind words, Arcadian & Mochi!)

 

[zeolite]

I don''t want to rain on your parade, but taking the risk of judging only by a picture, I think it is a catseye enstatite. The eye is not sharp enough, and it doesn''t show the milk and honey effect I show in my tutorial, first link below, to be a chrysoberyl.

It would show your catseye gem at its best, to take it out on a sunny day, no clouds, and photograph it in full sun. The long distance and small emitting angle of the sun shows a much sharper eye than using a light bulb very close to the gem, indoors. See the other links discussing catseye enstatites.


https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/chrysoberyl-cat%E2%80%99s-eye-milk-and-honey-tutorial.111189/

[url=http://www.gemtradenet.com/Education/enstatite_catseye.aspx]http://www.gemtradenet.com/Education/enstatite_catseye.aspx

http://www.gemhut.com/censtite.htm

http://cgi.ebay.com/1.85-CTS-NATURAL-ENSTATITE-CATS-EYE-GEMSTONE-(BG152%2F22)_W0QQitemZ310174662171QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20091014?IMSfp=TL091014165005r12892

[/URL]

 

[glitterata]

Thanks, Mr. Z! As soon as the sun decides to peep out, I''ll take some photos.

Did Victorians know about and use enstatite?

 

[zeolite]

I don''t know an accurate answer, but I would speculate that since India was visited before the days of Marco Polo, that gems, including enstatites, were being traded that far back.

 

[Lovinggems]

It's an interesting pin, and I always enjoyed reading your old jewellery threads. Talking about cleaning old jewellery I bought an old gold filigree chain, horrible condition cleaniness wise, I spent several hours cleaning all the sticky stuff between each link.

 

[LD]

I thought you might like to compare your stick pin to my husbands cat''s eye Alexandrite. The colour change is moderate but it does go from a dark green to a grey/purple (although definitely not as much colour change as my other Alex - non cat''s eyes).

This is it, trying to capture the green:

 

[glitterata]

Hmm... no sign of milk & honey so far, but then, no sign of sunshine either. If it''s enstatite, sounds like I shouldn''t wear it as a ring.

It''s definitely green. Might it be tourmaline?

 

[LD]

This is it under incandescent lighting. I can see similarities with yours.

 

[zeolite]

Date: 10/17/2009 7:32:26 PM
Author: glitterata
Hmm... no sign of milk & honey so far, but then, no sign of sunshine either. If it''s enstatite, sounds like I shouldn''t wear it as a ring.

It''s definitely green. Might it be tourmaline?

Where are you located? Could be, but I have 3 green tourmalines in my tutorial. They have coarser inclusions (growth tubes) than your gem, judging only by the pictures.

 

[brandy_z28]

Very cool find glitterata!

 

[glitterata]

Mr. Z, I'm in NYC.

LovingDiamonds, my stone does look similar to your husband's alex in those photos. Does his alex do milk & honey?

I just held it sideways under a bright incandescent bulb in an otherwise dark room. I didn't see opaque/transparent, but I did see dark/light. The dark part is purplish gray, and the light part is greenish gray.

In daylight & fluorescent light, it's distinctly green.

It's also really unscratched up for a 100+ year-old soft stone.

Now I'm officially dying of curiosity. How can I have it tested?

 

[glitterata]

A (terrible) picture of the dark/light effect, holding it sideways with the light hitting the top (dark) section.

 

[glitterata]

Another (terrible) dark/light picture.