If you take a look at an opal photograph on the web or in a book, it rarely does justice to the actual gemstone.
That’s because the play of color is really only visibile when the gemstone is moving.
Usually, the color is captured but the play of color is missed.
One method to capture an opal at its best is to submerge it in water. (Of course, you’d only do this with real opal, not doublets or triplets). This results in all of the opals showing simultaneously.
Take photos of dark stoneson a white background, and white or crystal opals on a black background. Increase the exposure a little bit to compensate for a lack of light.
Of course, the best way to photograph an opal is with a video camera, so that the complete play of color can be captured.
Although Australia remains the world leader in opal production, other countries do have interesting opal speciments to offer. Mexico is famous for its fire opals, for example.
Opals from Ethiopia are also gaining in reknown, and a website exists that lets interested persons keep track of how the industry is going.
It makes for interesting reading, and they have some pretty interesting opal photos on display, as well!
http://www.opalinda.com/
Australia is world-reknowned as the location for precious opal. And while most opal is found by professional miners, a lot of “noodling” takes place, in which the amateur comes on the scene - with permission of the landowner, and searches for opal (without using tools). He or she can take any opal that they discover. This costs nothing
Tourists can go to Denio, Nevada, USA to do noodling as well, although of course in the United States it isn’t called noodling. It’s called fee digging. And it does cost $50 a day (although children under the age of 12 are allowed in free). In Denio, the place to go is the Bonanza Opal Mine.
To find out the times that they are open for such fee digging, call the appropriate phone number:
May 20th - September 30th — 775-941-0111
October 1st - May 19th —-864-597-1421
Here’s a bit of history from the site:
In 1954, Glenn and Bea, and Keith and Agnes Hodson purchased the Bonanza Opal Mine from Mrs. Lockheed’s grandson and Mr. Mark Foster. One warm morning in 1973, Keith Hodson was scraping the surface of the Bonanza mine in preparation for some fee-digging customers due that day, when the blade flipped up what he originally thought was an empty beer bottle. Climbing down from the bulldozer, he was surprised to find that the “bottle” was actually an Opal weighing more than six pounds! Officially named The Bonanza Opal, it was filled with brilliant flashes of fire.
The mine has changed hands many times.
It was purchased by Lloyd Olds and Dick Leger in June of 1988 and became a corporation in July of 1992. The mine is now owned by the holders of 100 shares.
A double is a slice of natural opal glued to potch (common opal), glass, or some other base material. Triplets consist of a slice of opal glued between a base on the bottom and a piece of crystal or glass top.
(Note that if a cutter leaves some potch on tbhe bottom of a light or black opal, , that isn’t a doublet. It’s only if the opal is actually glued onto the potch - with the subsequent possibility of falling off as the glue degrades over time - that it is a doublet.
Although doublets are available, triplets are the most popular form of assembled opal. It used to be that triplets were assembled with quartz tops, opal centers, and potch bottoms. Today, it’s typically slivers of opal between two pieces of glass. The old-fashioned way was much sturdier - quartz being sturdier than glass - but the new way is more inexpensive.
Doublets were first made in Austria in 1946. Triplets began being made around 1960.
Although doublet and triplet jewelry can be quite attractive, make sure that you don’t immerse them in water, and be careful about knocking it into any furniture, as the glass ay break.
In 1954, Queen Elizabeth II was going to make her first visit to Australia. The South Australian government wished to present her with the finest opal in all Australia as a gift, and set in motion an extensive search for such a gemstone.
The firm of Altmann & Cherny submitted a piece of rough opal which had been mined at Andamooka, and it was this piece that the government selected as the best quality gemstone to give to the English queen.
The opal was cut to 203 carats, and polished by John Altmann, and displayed a magnificent array of colours including red, blue and green. It was set with diamonds into an 18 carat palladium necklet.
What’s palladium? Palladium ihas been used as a precious metal in jewelry since 1939, as an alternative to platinum or white gold. It is slightly whiter, much lighter and around 10% harder than platinum.
It is one of the three most popular metals used to make white gold alloys.
When researching the history of opal - from mining to miners to famous opals - it is sometimes necessary to read several books before you come up with the full story on any given subject.
Take for example the Empress of Australia Opal, which I talked about briefly a few days ago. Here’s that entry:
The “Empress of Australia” was mined in 1915, from the same patch on Phone Line where the “Pride of Australia” opal had been found by by Urwin and Brown. It was first called the “Kaleidoscope Queen”, then “Tartan Queen”, before being given its present name.
This stone originall measured 3 x 2 3/4 x 2 1/4 inches in the rough. It was accidentally dropped and broke into two pieces, from which two new opals were cut.
These new, almost matching stones each measuring 2 inches long and weighing 20 carats.
The daughter of Ernie Sherman designed a beautiful pendant for one half. The second piece, measuring 1 3/4 x 1 1/2 inches and weighing 50-60 carats, was mounted in a necklet of brilliants.
Well, what were the names of these new opals?
According to The World of Opals, by Alan W. Eckert, pg 132, the new stones were called the Black Prince, Flamingo, and Pride of Australia, with the largset one being called the Empress. They were all sold in a single parcel and purchased by a well-known buyer, Ernest G. Sherman — and given those names by his sister.
According to the Guinness Book of World records, the largest uncut black opal in the world is the Halley’s Comet Opal.
Halley’s Comet is a “short term” comet, which orbits the earth in a period of about 75 years. One of those years in which it was visible was 1985, and that’s when this opal was found, by the Lunatic Hill Mining Syndicate. (Halley’s Comet will return again in 2061.)
It is the third largest gem grade black opal ever recorded, the largest specimen ever found in its region — Lightning Ridge, and the largest one still extant.
It weighs 1,982.5 carats and is about the size of a man’s fist. It is a very fine specimen, with few flaws. A large green and orange color bar goes through the opal.
Formed about 20 million years ago, it is an example of a nobby, a natural lump-shaped opal found only at Lightning Ridge.
Halley’s Comet Opal sold for a record price, $300,000, in 1995.
The Flame Queen opal is a red-on-black opal, and the best-known example of “eye-of-opal.” When opal in-fills a cavity, an eye-like effect is created.
The Flame Queen’s has a central raised dome, which flashes red or gold depending on the angle of view. It is surrounded by a band of deep blue-green, which gives it the appearance of a fried egg. The stone weighs 263.18 carats and is roughly triangular in shape, measuring 7.0 x 6.3 x 1.2 centimeters (2.75 x 2.50 x .50 inches).
The Flame Queen was discovered in 1914 by Jack Philips, Walter Bradley and “Irish” Joe Hegarty, three partners working the Bald Hill Workings at Lightning Ridge in Australia. They had taken over a shaft abandoned by another miner who had gone to fight in World War I.
The three men sold the Flame Queen to a buyer on the opal field for just £93.
The Flame Queen was exhibited at the Geological Museum, London, in 1937 on the occasion of the Coronation of King George VI and again at the Gemological Institute, London, in 1980 and 1981.
At one time if was part of the Kelsey I. Newman Collection Opal collection, and more recently the Jack Plane Collection. It was sold at auction in 2008.
The “Empress of Australia” was mined in 1915, from the same patch on Phone Line where the “Pride of Australia” opal had been found by by Urwin and Brown.
It was first called the “Kaleidoscope Queen”, then “Tartan Queen”, before being given its present name.
This stone originall measured 3 x 2 3/4 x 2 1/4 inches in the rough. It was accidentally dropped and broke into two pieces, from which two new opals were cut.
These new, almost matching stones each measuring 2 inches long and weighing 20 carats.
The daughter of Ernie Sherman designed a beautiful pendant for one half. The second piece, measuring 1 3/4 x 1 1/2 inches and weighing 50-60 carats, was mounted in a necklet of brilliants.
(See our entry on The Flamingo Opal)
