Glued Dioptase ?

Hi all,

My first trip to the Tucson show, I was leary of the hotel shows, and so saved my money for the big TGMS show. I had been collecting for 6 or 8 years at that time, and had formed a desire for an emerald on matrix. Not a big gemstone, necessarily, but a green shiny stone on matrix. I visited every dealer on the floor with any gemstones, and saw maybe a dozen for sale in the upper hundreds of dollars...

I saw one for $495 too, as attractive as any, but anywhere from $175-250 less than the others. So I bought the less expensive rock, and enjoyed looking at it as I studied emeralds and gemstones in general.

The next year I bought more at the hotel shows, quite a bit, it was less expensive, and I knew more about it. One thing I bought was a good handheld UV lamp.

So came March, back home, and I tried that UV lamp on rocks I knew were going to glow, and then I started trying it on everything... and there was a little line of bright white glow all around my little emerald!! It was repaired, and that was why it was less than all the others.!!!

I didn't know enough to ask why it was less expensive, and now I do. It must have popped out while being handled, and been stuck right back in.

So live and learn... always ask, always look with the loupe, as close as you can. I still have the specimen, it stands in the show case with the garnets, and tourmalines, and so forth. And I tell most everyone with any interest how I learned about repaired specimens.

JR, in WV

> It must have popped out while being handled, and been stuck right back in.

Without wanting to make you feel even worse, it's quite likely the crystal was found loose and a piece of random matrix was shaped for the crystal to fit into it - they can be quite clever with this, drilling holes so the specimen displays nicely.

Unfortunately this is more lilkely than it just "popping out" and being repaired - if that was the case the glue needed would be minimal and you would be unlikely to see much glue visible in UV.

If you can see a mix of glue and powdered rock around the base of the crystal then it's most likely not be be a restoration or repair but a fake.

Jolyon

It sounds just like my experience with Dioptase...
Anyway maybe it can help feeling better to know that Rock Courier stopped importing Emeralds from Colombia when he realized he could not tell glued ones from the natural crystals on matrix, I remember this from his article About Mineral Collecting published on Mineralogical Record.

It seems that a lot of Dioptase appear recently.

I have seen three pieces on a show here in France, some dealers trade it to the owner and a couple of days after realize that all of them were reglued dioptase on matrix.

The same story happen also two years ago to a friend,

Better pay good attention to too perfect Dioptase....