Eagle,
since you like specimen pieces, here is an Elizabeth Locke labradorite bead necklace. Locke only made 3 strands of this quality and size. My friend and I have two of the three.
View attachment 4936474
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Veeerry Nice!! Those have a distinct blue cast which suggests to me they might be made of Finnish Spectrolite which is a higher grade of labradorite (it's got more color play).
From the web:
"Spectrolite is a very special, gem quality variety of
Labradorite that can show a full spectrum of rainbow colours that can only be found in Finland. ... It also has a very dark, black base, and is considered a semi precious gem, whereas
Labradorite generally is not."
I have a labradorite necklace I made with beads from bead store. They have a soft gray hue. Not much blue but still pretty. Years ago I looked at an Elizabeth Locke labradorite necklace in Mazza NM. Beautiful!!! Would have loved to have it.
Spectrolite can have yellow flashes, bright blue and green. I had a little rock from the Smithsonian Hall of Gems I kept on my desk that was like that.
A while back you went on a tour of the back rooms of the hall of gems with Jeffrey Post, is it? What did you think? I remember him commenting somewhere that he could not collect the kind of gems a museum carries -- to paraphrase, he collects what ordinary mortals do but he goes for the unusual. That seems like a reasonable proposition.
I used to buy cheap like $10 gems from ebay and they were not at all real according to the local jeweler. Which is what I wanted to find out. I got a couple set in a tiny pinky ring, and their use was adequate for my purposes. I was going for color.
Recently, I took a chance and dropped $100 on a tourmaline. (I belong to a gem society and they discuss on-line buying and selling. Seller had 100 percent feedback. Now, this was a crapshoot, I know it. Instead of getting a luminous colorful gem I got a tiny brownish pebble that looked like smoky quartz on a bad day. I got a refund!!! I should have left the seller crappy feedback but I decided to take the $$ and run. These days, you need a GIA cert to describe and validate a gemstone. Well, I'm not in that league. Plus, I don't collect gemstones.
It is hard to beat a big sparkly CZ. I had a citrine ring with a huge brownish citrine and the vendor (non-ebay) swapped it out for me with a huge pink Cz that matched the tiny pink spinels around the rim of the setting. (I didn't like the brown with the pink). That is a fun ring to wear.
