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Lot 6

Fantasy-cut Beryl var. Aquamarine

2 May 2023, 12:00 PDT
Los Angeles

Sold for US$1,530 inc. premium

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Fantasy-cut Beryl var. Aquamarine

By Tom Munsteiner
Idar-Oberstein, Germany

Featuring a fine-quality aquamarine of lozenge-shaped outline, fantasy-cut by Idar-Oberstein's best known avant garde gemstone carvers, Tom Munsteiner. With an internal reflection of a star returned from the pavilion facets, this sky blue gem would create a novel pendant. Weighing approximately 18.17 carats and measuring 28.74 x 17.70 x 10.98mm

Footnotes

Tom Musteiner
A relatively new art form in the lapidary world "fantasy cut" or fantasieschliffe as it is known in German, can follow the best attributes of the rough stone while eliminating or avoiding cleavage planes, internal flaws, and inclusions. Probably the most famous practioners of this is the German stonecutter family Munsteiner. The Munsteiner family (Bernd (father), Tom (son) and Jutta (daughter) at Atelier Munsteiner have taken the boundaries of stone cutting to their limits with their endlessly imaginative shapes and forms. While using modern saws, grinders and polishers to create these fantasy cuts, this type of stone cutting brings back the lost art of "hand-cut" craftsmanship. The design is limited only to the cutter's imagination who must possess an intimate knowledge of a mineral's cleavage and optical or refractive properties in order to reveal the stone's natural beauty.

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