Brookite (incredibly rare faceted stone)

Item Description

To most people, Brookite is not necessarily considered a rare species in the mineral world, but it's HIGHLY coveted among gemstone enthusiasts. If you to talk to knowledgable gem collectors, they will tell you that a good faceted Brookite is exceedingly rare to find on the market for two reasons. First off, the very nature of Brookite crystals doesn't lend to much in the way of truly facettable material, as they are often incredibly thin (tabular) and typically dark or opaque. Even if you find one thick enough to cut with good color, Brookite is rather brittle, so a stone can break in the middle of the faceting process, rendering it useless. In the early 2000s, some of the finest Brookite crystals in the world started coming out of the Balochistan Province in Pakistan. These crystals were not only large and colorful, but in some instances, they were thick enough to yield faceted gems! We were fortunate to get our hands on a few faceted stones from a good friend in Peshawar, and we're excited to give everybody the opportunity to acquire one of these highly coveted gems for your collection. This stone when backlit shows a rich burnt orange hue with good clarity. The stone understandably has a very shallow and narrow "cushion" cut, but you take what you can get with this material. I've only seen a handful of faceted Brookites over the years, and they were all black/opaque, so the fact that this stone has COLOR (when backlit), is significant. Don't miss out on this one, as we will have only a handful to offer in the auctions, and our friend overseas tells us that he doesn't expect to have any more faceted material in the future. For reference, I saw a dealer in Tucson a few years ago who had two of these stones at the AGTA Show priced at $3,000 per carat, and this stone is nearly a full carat in weight, which is a big deal for faceted Brookite.