This is an outstanding red from Nigeria. It has great purity and crystal that is unusual for a rubellite. Its tone is just right for a rich flashy stone. It weighs 7.18 carats.
There have been better times in the rough tourmaline business. Some twenty years or so ago a gigantic amount of reddish tourmaline was found in Nigeria. There was so much that it actually depressed prices and it seems like everyone that was in the business got some. The stone I am posting about came from that find. It came from the residual stock of a dealer who is not active anymore. Now I had to wonder, looking at the assortment of rough that was sent to me, why this or that had not sold before. Out of the offering this stone’s rough color was unmatched in its excellence. When I looked deep into its heart I understood why it had not been sold. It had a flaw that would make cutting it much less efficient that its shape indicated. The rough was still marked triple a (minimal flaws) and price accordingly.
Now I crave for different colors in tourmaline, but a good red is very hard to pass up, even if I have examples of the wonderful color. And this was probably my last chance to get a great red from an historic find. So I passed on lesser color and put my money down. Boy am I glad that I did. The flaw disappeared a long with a significant amount of material, but the stone worked up beautiful, like other lesser pieces I have work on.
The gemstone I produced has a pavilion that is called “Super Nova” and I only use it when the rough is very deep in relationship to its girth. The gemstones crown is a deep one and made up of three rows of rectangular shaped facets like an emerald cut. The combination of deep crown and deep pavilion enabled me to get a very good yield on the piece of rough, after I removed the flaw. Better yet, it produced an outstanding red (rubellite) worth every penny to me.
This deep oval weighs 7.18 carats. It is flawless and has an excellent saturated red hue. Its tone level is right on for producing a rich stone without reducing the gemstones flash level, which is very high for an oval. It also stays red in all reasonable “white” lights both natural and artificial. Some trade people are sensitive about calling a red, a rubellite, if it “browns out” in incandescent light, but that is not a problem with this winner. It is a true rubellite.. Finally the gemstone’s transparency and purity in a great rich red is seldom seen outside of material from Nigeria.
Bruce
