Posted 9 years ago
Peasejean55
(413 items)
This pendant has been on this forum before. I lived in Kenya many years ago. While down on the beach in Mombasa I was approached by a vender who wanted me to buy this pendant/necklace, to be honest I bought it beacause it was cheap, I wanted to be left alone to walk along the beach with my kids in peace.
Fast forward many years. The first time I put this pendant on CW I really thought it was probably glass, Manikin quite rightly thought other wise and thought it could be Rhodalite, which is a part of the Garnet family.
Today I was testing some stones with my Diamond tester, I decided to test this stone, I couldn't believe it, it went to level 3 in the red. Now I'm thinking after Diamonds, Rubies and Sapphires are the next hardest stones.
I have been looking through the web and they do have Rubies in East Africa. In one of the photos you can see through the stone and you can see the chain, apparently Rubies can be transparent.
As you can imagine I'm more interested in the stone, but the setting is I think Art Deco.
If anybody has a opinion, or there is Gemologist out there who maybe able to help it would be much appreciated.
Many thanks
Gorgeous....!!!
It certainly is a very nice stone!!!
Thank you Elesgirl and jscott. To be honest I'm a little shell shocked. I think I need to take this to someone who knows about gems. I'm absolutely no expert, but for the selector to go up high, I'm very very interested. This is a big stone.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_(color)
Ive been looking at colour charts and came up with the above link, at the bottom there is Ruby BS 381 #542 is I think this is the colour. This morning I was considering it could be a Garnet, but with Garnets the hardness scale is between 6.5 to 7. Also I tested my stone with a magnet apparent with garnets they have a iron content, this stone didn't react.
Hi Jean, the little tag marked SILVER is interesting, you sometimes see these on early 1900's Art Nouveau and Arts & Crafts pieces, and if certainly looks hand made to me. If it was mine I'd be sufficiently curious to take it to my local Gem Lab and pay for an ID.
Hi paul I'm very curious, I've just done a couple of unconventional experiments. First I scratched this stone on glass which it pass with flying colours, so the stone isn't glass. Then I went to a red garnet and did the same test, same thing happened. Then I threw caution to the wind and did the same test on a stone which know was Sapphire, no scratch on either stone. What do you think paul. I'm a bit gobsmacked.
Even though its passed my test it could still be synthetic. I'm going to the UK for Christmas I'll see if I can get a ID. Many thanks for your help Paul. This stone has been all over the world with me, I even left it with my cargo in Mexico City for nearly 2yrs before it finally was reunited with me. We shall see what transpires.
Many thanks
nutsabotas
melaniej
MyFavoriteTreasures
Elesgirl
Djpeder
kyra
vetraio
mikelv
racer
aura
jscoott
OneGoodFind
Caperkid
Manikin
Moonstonelover
Rick
SEAN
inky
Toni
Wonderful stone and setting and not the least the story of leaving it and getting it back :). Wow!
Hi Elisabethan, it's nice to see you, I hope all is well and life is good. I should really reword what I said above. I left a lot of my things in storeage in Mexico City. I had no where to live and decided to look for somewhere to live in Spain, I'm glad I did I love it here. I just left loads of belongings in Mexico until I was settled here in Spain, looking back I was probably a little stupid with something's.
Many thanks
Elisabethan
Many thanks
Vladimir
Cl-ant
Just had the results back from the Lab, it's a Synthetic Sapphire.
Thank you Jean for the update gaving the info!
Thanks kyra, now we know what this stone is :-) so mystery is now solved.
Sorry but that seems a bit strange. How can a synthetic sapphire register so high on your meter?
Such a stunning Ring!! Thanks for sharing it !!
Hi katherinescollections, synthetic stones do register the same has the natural stones. The synthetic stones are the same composition as the natural stones, of course they are man made. Thanks for your comment.
Thank you, antiquerose, your comment is much appreciated. The pendant has now been changed into a ring, I hope you like the changes.
Great work on the re do! Your friend is a keeper :)
Well kyra, I think he enjoys doing the restorations, but yes definitely a keeper.
Many thanks
Caperkid
freiheit
mrcolorz
katherinescollections
martika
antiquerose
fleafinder
TassieDevil
Jlmam
Late to the party again. By any chance, is this a color change sapphire? They may be the blingiest stones ever. You would need to look at it various light sources to know, including incandescent, which is getting harder to come by. See:
http://www.ebay.com/gds/Synthetic-Simulated-Alexandrite-/10000000204937344/g.html
They do also grow corundums in pink & purple. The USSR used to be a major producer.