Moonstone (probably Peristerite)

Item Description

Moonstone (also called rainbow moonstone) is soft milky white stone, but the most valuable variety of this Feldspar is those with a rainbow sheen. Moonstone shows a silvery or bluish iridescence, that is caused by the intergrowth of two different types of Feldspar with different refractive indexes. Moonstone was very popular with the Romans, who thought it was formed out of moonlight, also used in Roman jewelry since 100 AD. In India moonstone is considered a sacred stone to this day. This stone is from Madagascar which is a lesser known locality for the material. While there is an array of colors (green, blue, yellow and purple) in this stone, there are some visible inclusions. Most often, Moonstone is either carved or cabbed, so facetted stones are not as common as one might think. The stone has an "Oval" cut.