Intense color aquamarine

[zeolite]

Date: 4/13/2009 1:09:33 PM
Author: part gypsy
zeolite. Thanks so much for showing us the before after of an amazing crystal and gorgeous cut stone. It's not often one can see the before-after of cuts. I definitely do not have the cojones to buy very expensive crystals for making into cut gems, if I ever buy crystals, just for the enjoyment in their uncut state.
I know that there are some color intensity gradings as well as verbal nomenclature for the various intensities of aquamarine, where you would put your pear?

If you have money to burn and little to no time to shop, Pala is the place to go. They have superb quality gems, really collector or museum quality gems. They price their gems quite high, show then to a huge number of well heeled buyers, and then wait patiently for years for some wealthy person to break down and pay their prices. They are perfect standard to compare, to determine top quality.

Here is the finest aquamarine in their present inventory:

http://www.palagems.com/php/db_search.php?action=gemdetail&inventory_number=257

It is 34 cts. It is much easier for a 34 ct gem to show top color than an 11 ct gem. And an 11 carat gem of equal color should be priced considably higher than a 34 ct gem, considering that you don't have to pay for more weight to get equal color.

I don't know how accurate thier photography is, but my guess is it is true to the actual gems. I don't see any over the top photoshopped pictures at Pala like I see on eBay.

I would rate my pear at better than any aqua shown at Pala. The real test is to take it to the wholesale shows at Tucson 2010, and see if there are any Marta Rocha aquas there and then put my pear side by side with them.

I did that with a top imperial topaz several years ago at Tucson. I found a top dealer based in Rio, who had more top color imperial topaz in his booth than all of Tucson put together. He had stunningly fine color gems, with the usual so-so Brazil cutting. I put my topaz next to his finest 4 Imperial topaz and he almost cried. There was simply no contest.

 

[T L]

I actually saw some nice colored and smaller aquas on ParaibaInternational.com''s site. Although many of them have too much grey, there are some that pop out from the crowd with more pure blue saturation levels. What do you think of those Zeolite?

 

[zeolite]

Date: 4/13/2009 3:48:48 PM
Author: tourmaline_lover
I actually saw some nice colored and smaller aquas on ParaibaInternational.com''s site. Although many of them have too much grey, there are some that pop out from the crowd with more pure blue saturation levels. What do you think of those Zeolite?

i went to Paraiba''s site, and did a sort from highest to lowest price. Their aquas seem to show more gray than on Pala''s site. But you can only go so far with pictures. They can be photoshopped. You need to see the stones in person and side by side if possible.

Besides if you want pure intense blue with no gray, and you can pay $10,000/ct, don''t waste your time with aqua. Buy top Paraiba blue toumalines.

 

[icekid]

So glad you cut it so that we.. I mean you, could enjoy it to its fullest! Beautiful.

 

[Sagebrush]

Mr. Zeolite,

Very interesting exposition on aquamarine. I agree about rarity, gem aquamarine is much rarer than it''s cousin the emerald.

There is an image out there somewhere, I think it may be a Van Pelt photograph in an old copy of G&G (will take a look through my back issues) that has several Marta Rocha stones along with a piece of the original Marta Rocha crystal which, if memory serves, was huge. So, I don''t know if, strictly speaking, your crystal could be termed Marta Rocha though it certainly looks like the right color.

Like most aquamarine with tonal values over 50% gray creeps in! I prefer something slightly lighter in tone that is a pure blue. I saw some on a trip to Brazil from Nova Era that were, believe it or not, unheated and a few from north of Teofilo Otoni, found near a town called Padre Paraiso that were also lovely, about 50% tone, fine crystal and no gray.

Beautiful stone,

 

[BWise]

Mr. zeolite, can we have more pictures of this beauty, please?