GRADING REPORT CDI158
- Identification: Natural Untreated Unheated Chrome Diopside Cat's Eye
- Carat: 1.58
- Shape: Round Single Cabochon
- Measures: 7.35x7.58x3.44 (millimeter)
- Color Grade: Very Good+
- Tone: Medium Dark 75
- Zoning: None
- Clarity: Translucent
- Cutting Grade: Very Good
- Finish: Very Good
- Ray: Very Good (sharp, S-shaped, yellow glow)
- Origin: Kenya
Treatment: None
Certificate No: AIG G90712605BE
Overall Grade: Very Good+ ('+' for rarity)
Comment: Forgive a brief excursion... In the very first year of our business we dug-out a 15-carat vivid-green cat's eye which the locals in Sri Lanka could not identify convincingly. We sent the gem to Bangkok where it was ID-ed as 'Chrome-Diopside Cat's Eye'. Green-horns that we were, and with the web in diapers, we didn't know that the important word in that classification was 'chrome'. (The gem went into a pendant for a family's birthday and hence is still with us..., sort of.) Over the following years, we found many more diopside cat's eye and also diopside stars but always with dark grey-green bodies, or in olive brown, or this greenish black; never ever again did we come across the vivid green of that first gem nor with its shiny yellow ray. Today, we know that simple 'diopside cat's eye' is a different animal than 'chrome-diopside cat's eye'. The same holds true for faceted diopside versus chrome-diopside but less dramatically. Still today, many traders and even some gem-labs do not yet distinguish between the two versions of diopside, while the difference between, for example, tourmaline and chrome-tourmaline is widely acknowledged. Hence, we proudly present our second-only chrome-diopside cat's eye. Faceted chrome diospide are in relatively good supply, chrome diopside cat's eye, however, is in very much the opposite corner. This slim cabochon (see side image) attracts attention with over 7mm of metallic green sliced by a gleaming yellow ray in S-shape. Snatch this beauty while we keep a look-out for this generaly rare combination in the world of gems: cat's eyes with a powerful color. BTW/FYI: Asterism, or rays, or stars, are naturally opposed to strong colors due to their specific type of crystal and inclusions... a topic for another comment, only one excursion per gem :-)
Drop us a line.
