Posted by slang on October 4, 2009
Golden Jubilee,largest faceted diamond since 1985
The Golden Jubilee is currently the largest faceted diamond in the world. It was discovered in 1985. This large brown diamond of 755.5 carats (151 g) was cut and polished to a weight of 545.67 carats (109.13 g). It was discovered in the Premier mine in South Africa.
Cullinan I or First Star of Africa-Largest faced PEAR SHAPED DIAMOND
Previously (since 1908 until 1985), the largest faceted diamond was Cullinan I, also known as the First Star of Africa. It was discovered in the Premier mine in South Africa; as the largest rough gem-quality diamond ever found, it weigh at 3,106.75 carats (621.35 g). It was named after the mine’s owner, Sir Thomas Cullinan. It was presented to the reigning British monarch, King Edward VII, on his 66th birthday by the Transvaal government. It is cut into the shape of a pear and was mounted at the head of England’s royal sceptre. The cutting of the Cullinan yielded nine large pieces and around 100 smaller ones. The largest of all the Cullinan weighed a hefty 530.2 carats (106.0 g).It can be removed and worn as a pin or a pendant. Todate, the Cullinan I still continue to be the largest faceted, pear-shaped diamond in the world.
Posted by slang on September 8, 2009
Earlier articles on what is snuff bottle & materials snuff-bottles are made of and collecting,identifying and maintaining snuff bottles. Some of the snuff bottles which were made from precious gemstones are quite expensive.
Snuff bottle made from white jade
Snuff bottle made from Black Jade
Snuff bottle made from Amber
Snuff bottle made from Ameythst
Snuff bottle made from Turquoise
Snuff bottle made from Tourmaline
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Experts advocate the following on the:-
Collecting of snuff bottle:
- The Shape of the snuff bottle should be shapely and sightly. The snuff bottle’s shoulders can be compared to “Beauty’s shoulders”. So its line must be elegant, and charming.
- As usual, the snuff bottle should have intact its caps and little spoon to make it original.
- The Color of the snuff bottle should be bright.
- Integrity:- The snuff bottle needs intact without shatter or fade.
- Carve technique:-It need has a fine and aesthetic feeling.
- Paint technique:- It need be fine and neatness, also has a certain art characteristic.
- Bottle wall:- Its outer wall need level off and smooth, it also has high transparency, and has no sand eye and veins.
How to Identify Snuff-bottles::
Zhao Ruzhen, a connoissueur of Qing Dynasty in his book “ Appreciate The Snuff Bottle” advise the following two points on collecting curio:
- Identify its genuineness or fake
- Identify whether it is classy or plain or inferior
According to him, the normal method for curio’s appreciation is to identify its genuineness, after that only to identify whether it is classy or not.
However, for collecting snuff bottle, he advise the need to look at its classiness before identifying its genuineness. This is because for snuff bottle’s rareness, one only see its material, painting and is not able to see which period it was made and its artists name.
A superb snuff bottle is one where the material is rare and the paint technique is superb. On the contrary, if the snuff bottle material is common, and paint technique is common, even if it was made during Kangxi and Yongzheng Period, it has not much a value.
How to maintain snuff-bottle:
Experts advocates the following on the maintaining of rare snuff bottles:
- Remember that all snuff bottles cannot stand strong sunlight hence put it into glass counter, etc
- Note that jade snuff bottle fears sweat and alkali.
- Do not rinse or clean the snuff bottle with any chemical detergent. You should wipe it with soft white cloth after appreciating it.
- Do not taint it whether when spraying insecticides,etc
- Pine stone snuff bottle should not be placed near lampblack or steam as they are quite delicate materials. Also avoid high temperature, otherwise the pine-stone snuff bottle will change its color.
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A snuff bottle is generally small and less than 3 inches high. It is made from all kinds of materials namely:
- Glass
- Different types of Jade(jadeite),
- Crystals like agate, precious stones such as tourmaline, even ruby matrix, amethyst,
- Porcelain.
Snuff bottles have a variety of shapes. The Chinese snuff bottles represents the microcosm of the craftsmanship of Chinese artisans.
Snuff bottles are the Chinese equivalent of the snuff boxes that evolved in the Western World. Both were used as containers for powdered tobacco. Tobacco was originally brought to Europe from the Americas and the powdered variety became known as snuff. It was subsequently introduced to China, probably by Portuguese traders.
Later Jesuit missionaries were known to have presented the Emperor with an elaborate snuff box and a quantity of snuff. The Emperor delighted in this gift but soon found that snuff could be better preserved in the traditional Chinese medicine bottles. He had equally elegant snuff bottles made for himself and members of his family. Soon snuff bottles became a status symbol for the nobility and in time for the entire population.
{ See article on how to collect,identify and maintain snuff-bottles}
Posted by slang on
In earlier article, we noted we can get many type of colors from jadeite. Of course, the emerald green color is the best amongst all colors.
Below are some of the colors of jadeite:
Jadeite-Black color
Jadeite-Purple/Lavender color
Jadeite-Pale Green colorJadeite-Red Color
Jadeite-Yellow Color
Jadeite-Icy color
Group of multi-color jadeite
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Below are some of the beautiful jadeite design/carvings. No wonder jadeite is so popular particularly with the Chinese Hong Kong,etc. The sight of these highly translucency well carved jadeite artistic designs are lovely to enjoy!
Beautiful pair of dolphin-jadeite with diamonds
Beautiful butterfly design-jadeite with diamonds
Beautiful jadeite flower brooch with diamond
Beautiful jadeite flower in basket brooch with diamond design
Beautiful gourd jadeite with diamond
Posted by slang on September 7, 2009
Below are a few very lovely very highly translucent jadeite necklaces which fetched extremely high prices in the Sotheby’s auctions:
16 cabochons Jadeite Necklace with a hammer Price with Buyer's Premium22,462,400 HKD
Thirty-nine graduated brilliant emerald green jadeite beads of exceptional translucency and fine texture.Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium HKD26,080,000
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Below are some very beautiful expensive jadeite pendants bearing popular Chinese/Buddhist images:
Highly translucent jadeite carving
highly translucent bright emerald green material of even tone throughout carved as a seated buddha wearing a joyous expression with one hand holding a rosary
Highly translucent bright emerald green material carved as a seated guanyin holding a flask
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Due to its high price, there are many jadeite fakes in the market. Hence, it is extremely important to buy from very reputable auctioneers like Sotheby’s and Christie’s Swire in Hong Kong.
Highly translucent jadeite Peapod of rich emerald green material of good thickness, surmounted by a pear-shaped diamond weighing 1.23 carats, mounted in 18 karat white gold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: HKD6,480,000
A pair of highly translucent interlocking jadeite double hoops of brilliant even emerald green colour, accented with a diamond-set hoop, suspended from a trilliant and princess-cut diamonds, mounted in 18 karat white gold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: HKD 5,696,000
Jadeite Ring set with a highly translucent bright emerald green jadeite cabochon, on a textured gold shank of 18 karat yellow gold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium: HKD 660,000
Emerald green material of fine translucency carved as a pepper of good thickness, surmounted by circular-cut diamonds, mounted in platinum, circa 1940's.Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium:HKD4,800,000
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The most famous and valuable cat’s eye gemstone is chrysoberyl cat’s eye. The cat’s eye can fetched very high premium with its vivid cat’s eye effect. In fact, some of the prices of the chrysoberyl cat’s eye are comparable to the prices rivaling high quality sapphire.
Interestingly when cat’s eye is mentioned amongst jewelers, they normally mean the Chrysoberyl cat’s eye. Other types of cat’s eye gems require an designation like cat’s eye apatite, cat’s eye quartz and others.
Many would wonder the reasons for the sought after chrysoberyl instead of other types of cat’s eyes. The reasons are as follows:
- Chrysoberyl has superb gemstone characteristics, with a hardness of 8.5 on the Mohs scale. This places chrysoberyl right behind ruby and sapphire as an especially hard-wearing gem, suitable for all kinds of jewelry. Because of its excellent hardness, chrysoberyl takes a good polish and displays superb luster.
- Chrysoberyl cat’s eye displays a very sharp cat’s eye that can be seen in any kind of light. Some other gem varieties that exhibit phenomena such as the cat’s eye or star effect do so only when strong light is focused on the stone.
- Some chrysoberyl cat’s eyes also have a considerable degree of translucency, rarely found in gems cut as cabochons.
More details of Chrysoberyl:
- Chrysoberyl was discovered in 1789 and described and named by Abraham Gottlob Werner, in 1790. Werner worked at the Freiberg School of Mining from 1790-1793 and was well known as one of the most outstanding geologists of his time.
- Chrysoberyl is usually found in golden-yellow, green-yellow, brownish or red tones. The main deposits are in Brazil, Sri Lanka, Burma, Madagascar, Russia, Zimbabwe and the USA.
- Incidentally, there is another chrysoberyl which is the Alexandrite, chrysoberyl cat’s eye which is quite rare and exotic.