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Lot 8355
4 December 2005, 11:00 PST
Los AngelesUS$25,000 - US$30,000
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Find your local specialistTashmarine—A Rare Faceted Gem Stone and a Rough Crystal
Xinjiang Province, Western China
Faceted by Award Winning Gem Cutter, Richard Homer
From the Silk Road region of China comes this rare variety of green diopside—Tashmarine. It is one of the newer gem discoveries of the 21st Century and has been named Tashmarine derived from Tash meaning “stone” in the local Persian dialects of the region and “marine” being Latin for water. In 2001, a small crew mining mica found one larger pocket of the rough diopside containing approximately 50 kg of finer rough material. In the four years since, the area has produced only about 40 kg of somewhat lesser quality. The present stone was discovered in the first pocket of the find. The gem deposits are located in an inaccessible area on a steep mountainside in this remote region requiring the miners to haul rock hammers up a 60-degree slope to access them. There has been no further production in the last two years and none planned in the future.
This stunning gem-quality triangular concave-cut stone, is characterized by a rich bottle green color, without any enhancement—and it has superb qualities of transparency and luster. The color is well-saturated and even and without any modifying hues of yellow. It is exemplary, not only for the precision of its concave faceting, executed by an award winning lapidary, but also for its striking color, excellent clarity and its large size. The largest cut stone of Tashmarine recorded in any publication is a 38 carat stone listed in the Color Encyclopedia of Gemstones, by Joel E. Arem, 1977,however, that stone probably originated from an entirely different locality—Dekalb, New York. Another stone of 40.25 carats (an oval-cut probably from the Chinese locality) is on display at the Smithsonian. The present stone is, thus, at approximately 54.13 carats, the largest cut stone available for sale on the market today.
It is offered together with a tashmarine crystal, also of bottle green color, measuring 3 ½ x 1 ¼ x ¾ in., having a classic hexagonal prismatic form with natural termination to the top, and exhibiting facetable material in the top portion of the crystal. (2)
Weighing approximately 54.13 carats and measuring 21.9 x 28.0 x 16.8mm. The rough crystal weighing approximately 131.7grams (658.5 carats).
Faceted by Award Winning Gem Cutter, Richard Homer
From the Silk Road region of China comes this rare variety of green diopside—Tashmarine. It is one of the newer gem discoveries of the 21st Century and has been named Tashmarine derived from Tash meaning “stone” in the local Persian dialects of the region and “marine” being Latin for water. In 2001, a small crew mining mica found one larger pocket of the rough diopside containing approximately 50 kg of finer rough material. In the four years since, the area has produced only about 40 kg of somewhat lesser quality. The present stone was discovered in the first pocket of the find. The gem deposits are located in an inaccessible area on a steep mountainside in this remote region requiring the miners to haul rock hammers up a 60-degree slope to access them. There has been no further production in the last two years and none planned in the future.
This stunning gem-quality triangular concave-cut stone, is characterized by a rich bottle green color, without any enhancement—and it has superb qualities of transparency and luster. The color is well-saturated and even and without any modifying hues of yellow. It is exemplary, not only for the precision of its concave faceting, executed by an award winning lapidary, but also for its striking color, excellent clarity and its large size. The largest cut stone of Tashmarine recorded in any publication is a 38 carat stone listed in the Color Encyclopedia of Gemstones, by Joel E. Arem, 1977,however, that stone probably originated from an entirely different locality—Dekalb, New York. Another stone of 40.25 carats (an oval-cut probably from the Chinese locality) is on display at the Smithsonian. The present stone is, thus, at approximately 54.13 carats, the largest cut stone available for sale on the market today.
It is offered together with a tashmarine crystal, also of bottle green color, measuring 3 ½ x 1 ¼ x ¾ in., having a classic hexagonal prismatic form with natural termination to the top, and exhibiting facetable material in the top portion of the crystal. (2)
Weighing approximately 54.13 carats and measuring 21.9 x 28.0 x 16.8mm. The rough crystal weighing approximately 131.7grams (658.5 carats).