this ebay seller is auctioning a set of benitoite that has a colorless benitoite.
From my very limited knowledge of gemstones, I know that these are very rare with colorless being the rarest. Please tell me if any of you guys have bought from this seller. I'd really love to get my hands on these beauties if they are what they really are.
Why would you want colorless? The most expensive is the royal blue, similar to the best sapphire. The interesting thing about Benitoite is that it can have both blue and violet tones in one stone, similar to Tanzanite. I've purchased good stones for reasonable prices from the seller from Asia, can't remember the name now, but it's the only one from Asia and sells many other stones. I had them authenticated by a gemologist friend. Lynn in Salinas, CA
Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2005 12:22 pm Posts: 21602 Location: San Francisco
Colorless benitoite is a rare curiosity. I own a few of them. They are highly dispersive and interesting. There are serious collectors on the forum who are more interested in rarity than resale.
I was hesitating to post one interesting peculiarity about colorless benitoite. But now I figure the topic has opened for peculiarities.
Everyone should know that all benitoite fluoresces a fabulous chalky blue under SWUV light. As has been published, and as my students have shown, this is due to a very limited amount of 290 nm light in the standard 250 nm SWUV lamp. Just imagine what happens when you shine pure 290 nm light upon one. But, not to digress...
The peculiarity of colorless benitoite is that some examples fluoresce red under LWUV light. This is not a bright red fluorescence, but it doesn't require strict blackout conditions to see it. I have one colorless piece that does fluoresce red, and one piece that doesn't. I've never seen, nor heard of, any blue pieces that can fluoresce red. I have about three dozen pieces of varying blue saturation, and none show even a hint of the red fluorescence.
So Barbra, since you have a few colorless pieces , thus outnumbering mine, do any of them fluoresce red under LWUV?
I'd be interested in Brad's offering if it did fluoresce red, as its size is way bigger than what I have. But if so, it would have been mentioned, as it would definitely add value. Oh, what was that bit I remembered reading "There are serious collectors on the forum who are more interested in rarity than resale." Sounds like someone I know.
I bought a REALLY nice 1 ct benitoite from here, and I couldn't be more happy with it. It has a great cut so the dispersion is fantastic. Plus he always has quite a good number of them.
Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2007 12:01 am Posts: 556 Location: Vancouver, Canada
Hello lynxene,
Many years ago I was offered a Benitoite specimen that measured approx 6" x 4" and described as vivid blue crystal. It had a price tag of $250 CDN.
When I got to see it, I was less impressed as it consisted of a plate of the described size with a liberal sprinkling of crystals none of which was more than 3 mm.
I turned it down as I didn't see how it was worthwhile cutting material. Have been kicking myself ever since.
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