TANZANITE ROUGH 2.90 CTS [F917 ]

Item Description Pictures Bidding History Comments

About This Auction		About This Seller: QUALITY ROUGH
Minimum Bid (USD)		Feedback Rating	99.56% Positive
Current Bid (USD)	0.00	Member Since	13 Jul 2009 in Australia
Bid Increment (USD)	1.00	View feedback Send seller message View 1602 other auctions from this seller More about this seller
Bids Placed	0
Starting Bid (USD)	16.00
Reserve Price (USD)	none
Starts	March 9, 2010 9:05 PM
Ends	March 13, 2010 9:00 PM	Basic Shipping Information
Auction Category	Tanzanite > Tanzanite Rough	Shipping Cost	3.00 paid by buyer
Auction ID	132102	Shipping Insurance (optional)	7.00
Ends in 10 hours 59 minutes
* note for every bid placed in the last 5 minutes the auction end time increases by 60 seconds - refresh page to update

Gallery

* Hint: Click on the thumbnails above to see the full sized version. Images are of the actual item unless otherwise indicated.

Description

TANZANITE

This is a natural rough specimen which has been heat treated as are all Tanzanites.

Mohs scale 6.5 to 7

Weight 2.90 cts app

size 9 x 7 x 6 mm app

Tanzanite is an extraordinary gemstone. It occurs in only one place worldwide -Tanzair africa. Its blue, surrounded by a fine hint of purple, is a wonderful colour. Thanks to its unusual aura and the help of the New York jeweller's Tiffany, it has rapidly become one of the most coveted gemstones in the world.

Tanzanite is a blue variety of the gemstone zoisite. It consists of calcium aluminium silicate and is not particularly hard, having a value of 6.5 to 7 on the Mohs scale. For that reason, it should always be worn carefully and never placed in an ultrasonic bath for cleaning or brought into contact with acids.

The deep blue of the tanzanite is fantastic, and runs from ultramarine blue to light violet-blue. The most coveted colour is a blue surrounded by a delicate hint of purple, which has a particularly wonderful effect in sizes of over 10 carats. The well developed polychromaticity of the tanzanite is typical: depending on the angle from which you look at it, the stone may appear blue, purple or brownish-yellow. Having said that, most raw crystals are somewhat spoiled by a brownish-yellow component, though it can be made to disappear by the cutter if he heats the stone carefully in an oven to approximately 500°. During the procedure he must pay careful attention to the moment at which the colour turns to blue. This burning is a method of treatment which is regarded as customary in the trade, but the raw stones must be as free of inclusions as possible, since otherwise fissures may occur. In fact working with tanzanite can sometimes give even the most experienced cutter a bit of a headache, the cleavage of this gemstone being very pronounced in one direction. This exclusive gemstone is cut in every imaginable shape from the classical round shape to a number of imaginative designer cuts.