Madagascar is the birth place of this smaller emerald cut with relatively poor gemological properties. Its claim to fame is a lavender purple that is very close to the cuprian tourmaline's purples. It weighs 1.33 carats.
This emerald cut will not win any prizes for cleanliness or excessive brightness since its crystal is below average, but its color assure it a place in the collection. This is one of my better non-cuprian purples and it is fascinating. I just compared it with a cuprian round that is a very nice purple and the stronger purples in the dichroic ends of the emerald cut are very similar to the cuprian round. It kind of makes me wonder if the non-cuprian emerald cut would turn a pale blue if heated (rest assured, I will not be heating it) like the cuprian purples from Mozambique. I believe the non-cuprian (I checked with my spectrometer) in the collection come from Madagascar and this fine example that is certainly less than perfect, weighs 1.33 carats. Now you can appreciate a little more, why it can be so hard to identify much in tourmaline by color.
Bruce
