Featured What stone is this? Victorian 14k brooch

Hi!

Unsure on the stone. Please let me know your thoughts

Thanks

 

No idea but it’s very nice!

 

Possibly variscite.

 

Turquoise with matrix.

 

I had one person tell me variscite and another suggest green turquoise. Thank you

 

I’m thinking turquoise too.

 

Could we see the back? You know us joolies, we live for findings.

 

Those were my two guesses but can’t go one over the other without hardness. Turquoise is harder. Can you test?

 

Not a clue but the stone + setting is a very attractive combination.

Debora

 

Yes, I know better than to not show. Pics coming soon!!

 

How would I test hardness? Sounds scary. Lol

 

I thought turquoise as well.

 

In my mineral guide, variscite is in a section of stones mainly of interest to collectors and rarely used in jewellery. It is even softer than turquoise & has perfect cleavage; both features would make it more vulnerable to damage than turquoise is. Relatively rare, I don't know whether Victorian era jewellers would ever have heard of it, much less used it in their work.

On the other hand, turquoise had been popular since at least the Georgian period. This strikes me as being in the vein of brooches showing off a pretty & interesting mineral specimen, like the bull's eye agates & slices of fossil bed that got made into pins. Size of yours? Less than 2 fingers?

 

Don't even think about it.

 

That gold frame just makes that stone sing,doesnt it ? lovely.

 

You really can’t without scratching the stone.

 

I looks like variscite, but if a piece of turquoise is handled/mishandled over time it can turn green. It's a copper-bearing stone, and porous, and can oxidize.

 

Some turquoise is green straight out of the mine. This has probably picked up a lot of skin oil & may be darker than when new. I imagine duller, too.

 

I like it the way it is now. Blue turquoise in gold has always looked a little off to me, but the green and the gold don't fight each other.

 

I'm quite partial to green turquoise.