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Lot 389
Taaffeite
10 – 11 August 2020, 10:00 PDT
Los AngelesUS$3,000 - US$5,000
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Taaffeite
Sri Lanka
Taaffeite was named after its discoverer Richard Taaffe (1898–1967) who found the first sample, a cut and polished gem, in 1945 in a jeweler's shop in Dublin, Ireland. As such, it is the only gemstone to have been initially identified from a faceted stone. Most pieces of the gem, prior to Taaffe, had been misidentified as spinel. For many years afterwards, it was known only in a few samples, and is still one of the rarest gemstone minerals in the world.
Faceted as an oval-cut of exceptional cut with pleasing proportions, the present very rare offering of a collector's gemstone displays a rich plum hue which is well-saturated, but shows no black patches or extinction of color. Weighing approximately 1.36 carats and measuring 7.89 x 5.89 x 3.67mm
Taaffeite was named after its discoverer Richard Taaffe (1898–1967) who found the first sample, a cut and polished gem, in 1945 in a jeweler's shop in Dublin, Ireland. As such, it is the only gemstone to have been initially identified from a faceted stone. Most pieces of the gem, prior to Taaffe, had been misidentified as spinel. For many years afterwards, it was known only in a few samples, and is still one of the rarest gemstone minerals in the world.
Faceted as an oval-cut of exceptional cut with pleasing proportions, the present very rare offering of a collector's gemstone displays a rich plum hue which is well-saturated, but shows no black patches or extinction of color. Weighing approximately 1.36 carats and measuring 7.89 x 5.89 x 3.67mm
Footnotes
Accompanied by an International Gemological Institute Colored Stone identification report GT13445901 stating that the 1.36 carats purple transparent stone is a natural Taaffeite.