1.61 ct. Apple Green Orthoclase

One of the single rarest gem materials of the last decade.  A very small find of this material was made 5 years ago in the area around Minh Tien which is around 15 km south of the famous Luc Yen deposits in Vietnam.  At the time is was reported to be transparent gem grade Amazonite, but subsequent analysis by GIA (see the write-up in Gems and Gemology, Winter 2005, pp. 354-355) identified this material as a very unusual color of gem Orthoclase Feldspar.  The color is quite impressive, a very bright and unusual green.  Indeed, we have heard this color described as 'neon', which, though over used in the trade, is not an exaggeration here.  This lovely collector's piece is considerably more saturated than some we have seen from this area - the impressive size for these certainly helping.  An impossible material to source and essentially irreplaceable.

$600 / carat - $966 total