Featured Opal? Silver brutalist? Blob

Not sure how to describe this but I picked it up at a car boot sale from a man who was helping his mother clear some of her hoard ( no idea how that happens!).

Tons of brooches and so on. I bought a few and came back later and spied this oddity that I took a punt on simply because it was very cheap,assumed it was pewter or base metal and I thought the stone was that dragons breath type glass that I could reuse.

I cleaned the layers of filth off it to discover it is a really odd stone not glass at all. It has the flash of an opal with green and blue but part of it is incredibly clear and has such depth. I can't get it on a photo but with a loupe it's like looking into an underwater cavern.
The only think I can find online similar is a crystal opal. Could it be that or am I way off?
The blobby surround isn't marked but tests as silver and looks amateur made.
I presume it's maybe a pendant and a chain just goes through one of the gaps. It is 6cm long and the stone is 0.75cm.
Any thoughts on it please? Apologies the light isn't good, I can take more photos tomorrow if need be.
Thankyou for looking

 

Looks like it could be Ethiopian opal.

 

The overall circumference was made by dropping hot wax into cold water, the setting and stone were added later. Typical student work, imho.

 

Google " Boulder Opal" and see if that's a fit.Opals are hard to photograph, so really hard to tell you for sure.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Huge-Austr...215454?hash=item366629481e:g:tP8AAOSwGXJe3omB

 

I was thinking jelly opal. But... definitely opal. It looked like sapphiret at first glance, but this ain't that. Either way, it sounds like you stole a sterling lump with a pretty opal in it.

 

Agreed!

 

It doesn't look bad except the crack under the prong isn't good.

 

Yay Pleased to have found an opal in the wild!.

Would you describe it as brutalist?. Presumably it could have been made anytime up to yesterday?!.

Off to google Jelly, Boulder and Ethiopian opals.......You are right, very hard to photograph. I tried to show the illusion of depth it gives but my camera isn't good enough.

Yep It does have a saphiret look to it. The brown is inclusion and some of it shows as a rough spot on the outside.

Good spot. I will handle with care.

 

I think you are spot on. Crystal opals are found in most opal regions of the world.
I don't know if it is Ethiopian, it doesn't look it to me. Ethiopian opals have only been mined for some 25 yrs or so, and your blob could be older.
It is only a boulder opal if it is in another stone (veins), the boulder or matrix. Jelly opals look like jelly, without those gorgeous flashes of different colours yours has.

I love that brownish colour, and it looks like it could be natural. The treated brown opals I have seen, are a different shade of brown.

Cruel man!

Yes.

 

Awesome!
Thankyou

 

Yes it could have been made at any time. No, this was never made intentionally to look brutalist, although if you used that word, I wouldn't challenge it. I would describe it as Cire' Perdue (Lost Wax) method. These often come out looking "blooby" or "brutalist" by the very nature of the hot wax hitting the cold water.

 

Ethiopian opal looks more like it than most other suggestions. https://www.google.com/search?q=eth...GB6AQ_AUoAnoECAwQBA&biw=1386&bih=739&dpr=1.09

 

Coming in late here but just want to add that I really like it a lot and would wear it as a belt buckle. I collect Elsa Peretti and would wear that piece the same way if it would work which I think it might by attaching a thin leather strap. I would just knot it on one end and loop it on the other through itself. Asymmetrically strap attachment wouldn’t bother me at all although I guess it could be a pendant too. The Brutalist aspect just kinda screams buckle to me. Next, if you’re selling it I would just call it an opal as you have no way to prove where it’s from.

 

Yes, it could work as a belt adornment and would look great.
I think I will hold onto it for the moment as I rather like it. I wouldn't know where to price it either as it's just a blob of silver so probably wouldn't get my happy price so I'd rather keep it.
I had no idea there were so many variations of opal until I fell down this rabbit hole!

 

Definitely, opal! The crack made me think opal before considering anything else. Too bad it is cracked. But a very pretty stone! If you try & remove the stone the crack may worsen. So I would keep it in that setting

 

Thankyou. I will leave it well alone
Welcome to Antiquers @David Kiehl!

 

most likely treated opal looking at the black spots (carbon) and inclusions, probably started off as (white) opal, then smoke or sugar treated to darken the stone and give it grey or brown body colour.