Winter 2010 Gems & Gemology
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
G EMS & G VOLUME XLVI WINTER 2010 EMOLOGY W INTER 2010 P AGES 259–336 V OLUME Synthetics Retrospective . Scapolite from Madagascar . Pietersite from China and Namibia . New Mexifire Synthetic Opal . Identifying Historic Gems 46 N O. 4 THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE GEMOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF AMERICA 19922 GIA G&G Winter ‘10 Journal P BC 19922 GIA G&G Winter ‘10 Journal P FC Because Public Education Happens At The Counter. GIA’s Retailer Support Kit and website A $97.00 value, shipping symposium 2011 and handling extra. ADVANCING THE SCIENCE GIA’s Retailer Support Kit has been developed to help AND BUSINESS OF GEMS sales associates educate the public about diamonds, the 4Cs, and thoroughly explain a GIA grading report. Take full advantage of all that GIA has to off er by visiting MAY 29 – 30, 2011 www.retailer.gia.edu GIA World Headquarters Robert Mouawad Campus | Carlsbad, California To order your FREE kit, log on to www.retailer.gia.edu www.symposium2011.gia.edu GGWI10 Winter 2010 Volume 46, No. 4 ® EDITORIAL __________________ 259 A Fond Farewell Alice S. Keller FEATURE ARTICLE __________________ 260 Synthetic Gem Materials in the 2000s: A Decade in Review Nathan Renfro, John I. Koivula, Wuyi Wang, and Gary Roskin Looks back on an eventful decade in the synthetic gem industry, highlighted by the commercial introduction of faceted gem-quality CVD synthetic diamonds. NOTES & N EW TECHNIQUES ______________ pg. 262 274 Yellow Scapolite from Ihosy, Madagascar Margherita Superchi, Federico Pezzotta, Elena Gambini, and Emanuela Castaman Characterizes scapolite from this locality and examines established methods of calculating the gem’s chemical composition. 280 A Microstructural Study of Pietersite from Namibia and China Kaifan Hu and Peter J. Heaney Compares the properties and characteristics of this unusual gem material from the two known sources. RAPID COMMUNICATIONS _______________ 287 Update on Mexifire Synthetic Fire Opal Rajneesh Bhandari and Gagan Choudhary 292 A Study of the Gems in a Ciborium from Einsiedeln Abbey pg. 286 Stefanos Karampelas, Marie Wörle, Katja Hunger, Hanspeter Lanz, Danilo Bersani, and Susy Gübelin REGULAR FEATURES _________________________ 298 Lab Notes Large HPHT-treated type IIa diamonds • A dapper diamond • Pale pink diamonds, coated Fancy pink • Intense purplish pink HPHT-grown/treated synthetic • Large yellow-orange HPHT-grown synthetic • Silicon-vacancy defect found in blue HPHT-grown synthetic • Three melee-size synthetic diamonds • Artificial metallic veining in manufactured gem materials • Natural green pearl • Rock containing richterite and sugilite • Lead glass –filled ruby damaged during repair • Sapphire with a sapphire inclusion • Synthetic spinel and synthetic ruby doublet 309 Gem News International Amber with mineral inclusions • Field research on Tibetan andesine • Aquamarine and heliodor from Indochina • Dark blue aquamarine from Madagascar • Diopside from Pakistan • Record-breaking emerald from Hiddenite, North Carolina • Emerald-in-matrix from Bahia, Brazil • 5th century garnet jewelry from Romania • Natural pearl diving off Bahrain • Ruby and sapphire mining in Pakistan and Afghanistan • Rediscovery of sapphires in central France • Sapphire mining in southern Madagascar • A strongly thermoluminescent spodumene • “Neon” blue-to-green Cu- and Mn-bearing liddicoatite • LCD screen as a gemological tool • Smartphone photomicrography • Filled copal imitation of amber • Glass with crystalline aggregates • Synthetic ruby specimen • Louis XV’s Golden Fleece, recreated • Conference reports • Errata S1 Book Reviews S4 Gemological Abstracts pg. 319 S12 2010 Subject and Author Index www.gia.edu/gandg EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief Editor Editors, Lab Notes STAFF Alice S. Keller Brendan M. Laurs Thomas M. Moses [email protected] Gemological Institute of America Shane F. McClure The Robert Mouawad Campus Managing Editor 5345 Armada Drive Editor, Gem News International Thomas W. Overton Carlsbad, CA 92008 Brendan M. Laurs [email protected] (760) 603-4503 Associate Editor [email protected] Editors, Book Reviews Stuart D. Overlin Susan B. Johnson Circulation Coordinator [email protected] Jana E. Miyahira-Smith Martha Rivera Thomas W. Overton Consulting Editor (760) 603-4000, ext. 7142 Carol M. Stockton [email protected] Editors, Gemological Abstracts Contributing Editor Brendan M. Laurs James E. Shigley Thomas W. Overton PRODUCTION Art Director Image Specialist G&G Online: STAFF Nanette Newbry, Studio 2055 Kevin Schumacher gia.metapress.com EDITORIAL Ahmadjan Abduriyim Emmanuel Fritsch Robert E. Kane Kenneth Scarratt Tokyo, Japan Nantes, France Helena, Montana Bangkok, Thailand REVIEW BOARD Shigeru Akamatsu Jaroslav Hyršl Lore Kiefert James E. Shigley Tokyo, Japan Prague, Czech Republic Lucerne, Switzerland Carlsbad, California Edward W. Boehm A. J. A. (Bram) Janse Michael S. Krzemnicki Christopher P. Smith Chattanooga, Tennessee Perth, Australia Basel, Switzerland New York, New York James E. Butler E. Alan Jobbins Thomas M. Moses Wuyi Wang Washington, DC Caterham, UK New York, New York New York, New York Alan T. Collins Mary L. Johnson Mark Newton Christopher M. Welbourn London, UK San Diego, California Coventry, UK Reading, UK John L. Emmett Anthony R. Kampf George R. Rossman Brush Prairie, Washington Los Angeles, California Pasadena, California SUBSCRIPTIONS Copies of the current issue may be purchased for $29.95 plus shipping. Online subscriptions are $74.95 for one year (4 issues), $129.95 for two years (8 issues). Combination print + online subscriptions are $139.95 in the U.S. and $160 elsewhere for one year, and $269.95 in the U.S. and $305 elsewhere for two years. Canadian subscribers should add GST. Discounts are available for group subscriptions, renewals, GIA alumni, and current GIA students. For institutional rates, go to gia.edu/gandg. Subscriptions include G&G’s monthly gemological e-newsletter, the G&G eBrief. To purchase subscriptions and single issues (print or PDF), visit store.gia.edu or contact the Circulation Coordinator. PDF versions of individual articles and sections from Spring 1981 forward can be purchased at gia.metapress.com for $12 each. Visit gia.edu/gandg for free online access to the 1934–2009 subject and author index and all 1934–1980 issues. To obtain a Japanese translation of Gems & Gemology, contact GIA Japan at [email protected]. Our Canadian goods and service registration number is 126142892RT. DATABASE Gems & Gemology’s five-year impact factor (for 2004–2008) is 1.197, according to the 2009 Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports (issued July 2010). The journal ranked 17th out of 27 titles in the mineralogy category. Gems & Gemology COVERAGE is abstracted in Thomson Reuters products (Current Contents: Physical, Chemical & Earth Sciences and Science Citation Index—Expanded, including the Web of Knowledge) and other databases. For a complete list of sources abstracting G&G, go to gia.edu/gandg. ANUSCRIPT M Gems & Gemology welcomes the submission of articles on all aspects of the field. Please see the Guidelines for Authors at SUBMISSIONS gia.edu/gandg or contact the Managing Editor. Letters on articles published in Gems & Gemology are also welcome. Abstracting is permitted with credit to the source. Libraries are permitted to photocopy beyond the limits of U.S. copyright law for private use of patrons. Instructors are permitted to photocopy isolated articles for noncommercial classroom use without fee. Copying of the photographs by any means other than traditional photocopying techniques (Xerox, etc.) is prohibited with- out the express permission of the photographer (where listed) or author of the article in which the photo appears (where no pho- tographer is listed). For other copying, reprint, or republication permission, please contact the Managing Editor. COPYRIGHT Gems & Gemology is published quarterly by the Gemological Institute of America, a nonprofit educational organiza- AND REPRINT tion for the gem and jewelry industry. PERMISSIONS Postmaster: Return undeliverable copies of Gems & Gemology to GIA, The Robert Mouawad Campus, 5345 Armada Drive, Carlsbad, CA 92008. Any opinions expressed in signed articles are understood to be the opinions of the authors and not of the publisher. ABOUT The desirability of natural fire opal has stimulated the production of synthetic counterparts. In this issue, Rajneesh THE COVER Bhandari and Gagan Choudhary characterize the new version of Mexifire synthetic opal, which has RI and SG values much closer to those of natural fire opal, such as these two superb examples. Bernd Munsteiner’s “Changing Perspectives” 181.36 ct fire opal carving (left) measures 100 × 23 mm. The 132 ct faceted fire opal on the right is courtesy of W. Constantin Wild & Co., Idar-Oberstein, Germany. Photos by Robert Weldon. Color separations for Gems & Gemology are by Pacific Plus, Carlsbad, California. Printing is by Allen Press, Lawrence, Kansas. © 2010 Gemological Institute of America All rights reserved. ISSN 0016-626X A Fond Farewell his is indeed a fond farewell. In January 2011, I am I can take little credit, though, for what is one of G&G’s stepping down from G&G, and retiring from GIA, most important contributions to the science of gemology: after 30 years first as managing editor, then editor, becoming the first gemological journal admitted to the and most recently editor-in-chief of the journal. As is Thomson Reuters (formerly ISI) database, the world’s fore- Tso often stated, I am doing so “for personal reasons.” But most resource for