LAVENDER SPINEL              

No! No black for Monet! – this is what his friend Georges Clemenceau exclaimed, rejecting the somber covering on the great impressionist’s coffin in favor of a bright floral cloth. Indeed,Monet’s most famous works were painted in anything but black – and they bear a close resemblance to the palette of lavender spinel. Lavender is one of the most coveted and best loved varieties of spinel found in all the major mining localities: Burma, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Vietnam and Tanzania.The palette ranges from sweet pink-lavender to vibrant violet-lavender, embracing the full range of the color, with the Tanzanian stones having a remarkable neon glow.

Some gems also display a slight change of color from a distinct violetish to a bluish hue. Some of the colors seem to be “out of production” nowadays though. So it is no wonder that a handful of exceptional lavender spinels, like this large, clean 19.62-ct Burmese masterpiece, are kept in collectors’ vaults and never shown to the public. This only adds to the desirability of the gem; tender as an iris, royal as an orchid, rare as a seven-petalled lilac in bloom.

Together the transparency and clarity of the crystal, and the spinel’s extraordinary brilliance and fire,sending out flashes of blue and pink all over the facets, inspire a sensation of purity and delicacy in this tender lavender.
(Chapter from the Book “Gemstones. Terra Connoisseur” by Vladyslav Yavorskyy)