opals

Rare Gem

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today I am veering off my cat course to write about a recent jewelry purchase. October, the witchy month of fall, is a perfect time to write about opals as it is the birthstone for those born this month. I must be an October baby at heart because I never seem to get enough of them.

I write today with some trepidation because I know I will not be able to photograph these gems properly to give you a sense of the glorious fire and snapping color they sport when you see them in person and moving in the light. In fact, when I bought the necklace above on an auction site recently, I was taking a bit of a chance as their photos were lousy too. I admit up front that none of these photos do the beauty of these glittering changeable gems any justice.

Pictorama readers may remember that I wrote about my love of opals quite extensively in posts that can be found here and here. Two opal rings were given to me as gifts, but I am not sure I can easily remember which was the first opal I purchased, although there are two necklaces I bought from my friend and jeweler (@murielchastanet_finejewelry) on the west coast many years ago. One is of opals from New Zealand and the other is made up of flat Ethiopian opals.

New Zealand opals cut in slices! This was the first necklace I purchased and I have never seen one like it since. This came to me via Muriel Chastanet’s store in Los Angeles.

The necklace I just purchased is the sibling to that one – in blues instead of oranges but I believe they are Ethiopian opals. Because I owned that one I recognized this one right away and took a closer look. They looked interesting however there was no way I would pay nearly as much from an online auction as I had paid to a trusted jeweler. I can say that these could easily look like a meh string of overpriced beads.

This necklace is the second opal I have bought from this auction site (I purchased a ring, shown below, more or less uncontested over the summer) and I think I keep looking because frankly opals don’t seem to sell well for them. Unlike strands of pearls and jewelry from contemporary designers opals, luckily for me, do not seem to be popular.

The yellow/orange beads came from the wonderful Muriel Chastanet establishment. I have tried to show them together although not a great pic!

So I gather that the premise of the auction house, called Everything but the House, is to essentially clean out houses and estates and sell every last thing of value via live auction on their site. A league of experts in different areas descend on you and voila – they put it all online and sell it. They had (have?) a television show devoted to it I saw a few years ago. I’m always curious what will turn up in such random slices of life and collections. However it never occurred to me to look at the auctions until good ole Instagram marketed it to me.

Yes, while other people are fretting about politics on social media, I am just spending money like a drunken sailor. It started during the pandemic and has burgeoned over time. Before that I largely confined myself to eBay and a few well known toy auctions. Not now – I’m making deals for things I spot in photos, have all sorts of obscure auctions on my calendar and the folks at Live Auctioneers totally have me in their clutches, emailing me reams of images daily they think I should see. (I seem to largely get outbid on that site as I am rarely there for the finish and true to their name a lot of action seems to happen in the final minutes.)

The other ring I bought from this auction house, shown in an antique ring box from my collection.

In the end I was not the only bidder on the necklace but I got it for very little. I did something I almost never do. When I saw an outbid email I went back and put another small increment on and won it.

My father’s mother went to auctions all the time and furnished her house and then some with her purchases. (For my dad it was estate auctions but more about that another time.) In her day those were of course in person and she would come into Manhattan from Westchester for them. She always said to set your limit and do not allow yourself to get chased above it. I’m sure she’d forgive me on this occasion however. (You can read more about Gertie, aka Tootsie, Butler here. I dearly wish I could have one afternoon as an adult talking to her about the auctions she went to!)

My orange “circus” beads in their original box.

Anyway, long story short I won the necklace and it arrived via Fedex the other day. Even at the price I paid (a true small fraction of what I paid for my other one) I was somewhat on pins and needles to see it. Oh man, I was not disappointed. It was sent unromantically but effectively wrapped in a bit of bubble wrap which I quickly sliced open.

A sort of side-by-side view.

I could see the changing color and fire in the stones immediately. Unlike my other necklace these are each faceted, unlike my other ones where are each smooth. The clasp and stringing is perhaps a bit inferior, although they still lay nicely on my neck where they have largely resided since I got them. It seems no matter what I wear they pick up the color and shoot it back differently! On the first day I wore a green top and it took on a slightly green blue hue, red makes them more blue as does black.

I always call my other strand my circus beads (oh to go to that carnival!) and now I have two. Lucky girl! I have not yet figured out if I can wear them together but I find them incredibly cheerful and intend to wear them often.

Opal Oddity

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: In the rhythm of Pictorama posting, jewelry posts tend to appear a bit randomly, as items are purchased or catch my imagination over again. I have written about my passion for opals before and in particular for a ring I wear very often which is referred to as a boulder opal. (That post can be read here.) This is a recent acquisition post.

The charm of the boulder opal (for me) is that it was caught in the act of becoming an opal – forever frozen in the process of change. Wearing this ring so often I have had time to reflect on how much I like that aspect of it. Embracing growth and ongoing change is such an important aspect of life, I like reflecting on it when I look down at the ring and see it’s tiny flares of opal fire.

From my post on the boulder opal ring, shown here in the original listing.

Yesterday a friend was looking at some gem stones at a jeweler we know. One stone she mentioned seeing was lapis on one side and malachite on the other – fascinating! Forever frozen in their native fusion in a shared atmosphere for their evolution. I haven’t seen the stone, but the concept makes my mind twirl a bit.

Therefore, as a result, I keep my eye out for boulder opals which have been snatched from the wilds and made into jewelry. I saw a newer silver ring recently and agonized a bit – I didn’t like the setting so I would want to reset it and the stone was hard to see in the online posting. It sold and I still have mixed feelings about my choice not to buy it.

One that got away…

However, a few months later this necklace came up and from a seller I have never bought from or much seen in my feed before. (The seller can be found at http://trademarkantiques.com.) They were celebrating and promoting October’s birthstone, the opal. The pendant flashed before me in a video in a series of opal items and I snatched it up immediately.

The setting is such that it is clear it is the same dawn of the 20th century period as my ring. (This makes me wonder, was it a sort of thing at the time that fell out of fashion? If I keep looking is this the period I will largely find them from?) Upon receiving it in the mail, I realized that the bezel (the do-hickey where you string the chain through) is unusually small. Luckily I had a very thin gold chain the belonged to my sister, but the fragility and weight of it on the chain worries me a bit.

I gather that the idea of a boulder opal is that it retains some of its “host” rock. I am not clear if that is what is happening in this pendant or if it was manmade or something else entirely. I’ve done my best here to show you that it is a clear sphere chock full of tiny opal bits. These bits are full of fire when the light catches them – the essence of the charm of opals. A little research turns up the answers to my questions – once I figured out the right question to ask, always a trick with Mr. Google.

It turns out that this is a technique called floating opals. This method of suspending bits of opal in a glass orb filled with liquid. The idea for floating opals was created and patented by Horace Welch, a mechanical engineer, in 1920. From what I can find online this would be one of those early designs although others snatched up the technique after his death in the late 1940’s.

From the website where I purchased the pendant.

While the development of this may sound straightforward as a technique it was fraught with issues. Most notably, opals have a large percentage of water in them. This is in fact one of the things that contributes to their being quite fragile. (I once met a woman who sold fabulous high-end vintage jewelry and she told me never to wear my opals on an airplane, especially large ones. The altitude makes them crack. I worry about even shipping them by air now as a result.)

Just floating them in glass didn’t allow for their natural expansion and the sphere would crack. Ultimately Welch settled on the newly discovered Pyrex as his medium and a design where there is a space, hidden by the bezel, which allows for natural expansion and contraction. The “liquid” suspension appears to be confirmed as glycerin which also allows for the natural expansion and contraction of the tiny flecks of opals stones.

Mine has a patent mark (barely visible under a strong loupe) of 1931, the third of four patent marks on his jewelry. The site I found with much of this information gives tips for storing the pendant which I am grateful for (away from other pieces which could damage it), in an upright position if possible (have to think about that…) and of course away from temperature extremes. The chamber can be damaged it seems and air can get into it.

The pendant, which I have not done justice to here, is like a tiny snow globe (I love those too!), worn around my neck. It is infinitely cheering.

I will of course continue to look for boulder and now early floating opals. There is something else called a fire opal (bright orange!) and I have yet to find one that fits my collection. Opal lovers, more to come I hope.

Opal

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: I don’t think I have ever opined on my affection for opals. I’m not exactly sure of the evolution of my fascination, but at some point I fell hard for opals. I was discussing this passion with Kim this morning. It may be the organic and individual nature of opals that fascinates me – each one with a different fire, a unique sensibility, hard to capture.

Opals are sensitive to shifts in humidity and moisture and one jeweler of antique gems told me that she is even careful about wearing them on airplanes as the shifts in altitude could cause cracking. I believe they are somewhat soft as gem stones go.

I cut my teeth on opal collecting teeth with the purchase of two necklaces, one from Australia and the other from New Zealand (both acquired via @murielchastanet_finejewelry) which appears to be one of the world’s natural El Dorados of opals, over a long period of time as they were significant indulgences.

Opals can be (generally are) very expensive, but my strings of opals can pass for nicely strung cheerful beads – circus beads I always call them, not calling attention to themselves unless you know what you are looking at. It is the endless variation and change in each light and against different colors that fascinates me, a never ending display, different each time.

Australian opals; Pams-Pictorama.com collection

The ring I am writing about today was purchased online right before I got sick with Covid. An IG dealer (@marsh.and.meadow) had previewed the ring and I asked for a heads up when it went on sale. The notification came while I was at work one night – in the middle of a set at Dizzy’s – and I bought it with having seen only one small photo and with no idea of the price! Absolutely no regrets – I was thrilled to have gotten it and I have nothing like it, nor am I entirely sure what it is.

Slices of New Zealand opals; Pams-Pictorama.com collection.

Heather (aka Marsh and Meadow, whose daughter is named Opal incidentally) identified it as a boulder opal which I would say is very likely. When I research a bit I would also say a fire opal is possible as well, hard to tell and I welcome better informed opinions if any. Heather noted the setting as pre-1900, 10k gold – the doom of the stone .5″ from the setting. For me it appears to be an opal in formation, as if someone managed to catch it in the very act of becoming an opal, an entire world captured within, trapped in my ring.

This is the listing photo by Heather Hagans – a much better job than I can do!

Because I got sick immediately following buying it, the box sat unopened for a bit before I rallied enough to open it. What a treat! (Strangely I also acquired a very old, gold bracelet from Australia at the same time which also waited through my Covid period before being revealed. What was going on in my pre-Covid brain I wonder? More to come on this but I was on a bit of a jewelry tear – all extraordinary things though and some very old, future posts all.) I felt better immediately – the healing value of jewelry.

As some things do, it became an instant favorite and I have worn it several times a week ever since. I never tire of it.

I researched today and opals are formed by the evaporation of silica rich water over millions of years according to Mr. Google. The internet also informs that boulder opals (which evidently all originate in Queensland, Australia) represent serenity of the soul and actualization, but also success and rebirth. If it is a fire opal (mined largely in Mexico) it symbolizes a joy of the heart and a passion for the elements of life, as well as good fortune and success.

If I had to chose I would lean toward feeling the former. I slip it on frequently where it perches high on my hand and encourages day dreaming about that tiny internal opal world on my finger.