GRADING REPORT PBO277
- Identification: Natural Unheated & Untreated Iolite
- Carat: 2.77
- Shape: Pear Checkerboard
- Measures: 11.70x8.50x5.50 (millimeter)
- Color Grade: Good+
- Tone: M50
- Color Zoning: Faint
- Clarity: Very Lightly Included
- Cutting Grade: Very Good
o Brilliancy: 50%
o Depth: 65%
- Origin: India, Nepal
- Treatment: None
Certificate No: AIG G94134947BE
Overall Grade: Very Good
Comment: This light toned iolite, also called 'cordierite', is cut in an unusual combination of checker-board and drop-shape. Checkerboards are often used to hide inclusions in gems but not so here. Except a few lens-only fuzzy somethings, this 2.77 is as clean as one may wish. IMO, the lapidary playfully aimed at an ideal pendant gem and that is where it should go. If you like bright violet (as opposed to dark violet), a water-crystal appearance combined with a checkerboard luster, this 2,77 will make a great pendant. Note the size: 12x8mm from under three carats. I point this out here not because of the $/carat ratio but because the 'lightness' of the material is present in its crystal; a slightly esoteric interpretation but when you see and feel the gem it transfers the exact opposite impression of the term 'heavy clunker' despite its serious size. Perhaps one of the reasons that this gem is also called 'water-sapphire', aside the potential scam of selling it as a type of sapphire of course. Iolite, in general, is strongly trichromatic which explains the variations in hue and tone depending on viewing angle, though this gem here is surprisingly stable in its colors, no yellow or brown sideview.
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