GRADING REPORT NGP1030
- Identification: Natural Unheated & Untreated Peridot
- Carat: 10.30
- Shape: Oval
- Measures: 11.16x15.55x8.59 (millimeter)
- Color Grade: Excellent
- Tone: M55
- Cutting Grade: Very Good
o Brilliancy: 80%
o Depth: 76%
- Origin: Himalaya, Pakistan
- Treatment: None
Certificate No: GGTL 3050127
Overall Grade: Excellent
Comment: Many rare collector-gems are of little beauty, some are simply unfit for jewelry. Few make for pretty jewelry AND are truly rare gemstones. Any gemmologe could now enflame into arguments about what counts as a 'rare gemstone', where is the border between varieties, what is only a sub-variety, naming, origins, but oh no, let's not go there, not here, books have and will be filled again. As a brief intro for all: Ruby and sapphires are NOT rare gemstones. Nor are topaz, emeralds, or jade. All can be bought for ten bucks a pound when you know where to go (today, that means a keyboard or find your jacket with the phone). 'Rare' is only one specifically colored, transparent, or silky, and hopefully not too heavily treated type of red corundum aka ruby. But earth has NOT yet revealed much taaffeite or richterites. She has been generous with white diamonds and white topaz but NOT with vivid hued diamonds or red beryl. These rare and beautiful gems can become so valuable in jewelry sizes that you'll need to add an armored car and guards to the overall budget. Alas, few of these seldom found gemstones are fit for jewelry. Many are black in black, 'un-facetably brittle', dull grey, have no luster, or splinter under an angry look. Taaffeite are rare yet I have personally (as in 'real life') not seen one that could compete with a mediocre spinel, let alone with a blinding Mahenge. Why then peridot? In fine color and 3*NOS they are possible to find for less than an arm and a leg. However, this here is NOT a normal peridot. It belongs to a one-time, one place only, never-again found wonders in the collector's world which is at the same time big and beautiful, durable and natural. The bayonnets are ludwigite needles, a mineral thus found in peridot only once in a far flung region of Pakistan's Himalaya (high up, and never alone). To become fit for jewelry though they must have the right amount of needles, too many make green mud, too few, too thin and they can't be seen. We bought the best from that lucky find. The needles have a most charming visual effect. As we know it from rutilated topaz, they float inside the gem and scatter into shards when seen through the facets (see side and back images) to appear whole and intact from a different angle. Apple green peridot in full size. Ignore the handshots for color. These Himalayan peridots have been bayonetted when the Himalaya was still a young breach in the first continent, millions of years ago, and miles deep, they rose through times unimaginable, and yet still in shape, a few did not shatter, until one day they could be found and facetted for you to own a true rare gemstone.
