PURPLE SPINEL              

PURPLE SPINEL

In the late 1990’s, a young gem hunter stood before a growing pile of unfamiliar gems. There was no potential customer in mind for this material and so it seemed to him to have no real value. It was given the rather grudging definition of “mauve”. It was scarcely even considered a precious gem back then. Fast-forward twenty years though and, with its name finally recognized, its splendid Golconda-like brilliance and sparkle and its mostly Burmese origin, the mauve spinel is finally getting its due. Only it is very unlikely that anyone will ever see a great quantity of these stones again; not even a decent handful – so rare has it become. “Mauve” – the name serves the purpose and gives a general impression of the color, but so subtle and complex is the fusion of warm and cold hues in this gem that each stone somehow seems to need a little more definition to make the name its own. With subtle hues that evoke swift glimpses of life in a rainless, rocky field and the nuanced shades of the mauve in heatheror thyme as sun and clouds scud overhead, these romantic, pastel-colored spinels may lack the vibrancy and saturation of some of their more neon toned cousins, but they have strong sentimental appeal and an understated organic beauty.
(Chapter from the Book “Gemstones. Terra Connoisseur” by Vladyslav Yavorskyy)