Brookite (INCREDIBLY rare, faceted stone)

This Brookite, when backlit, shows a rich burnt orange hue with fairly good clarity. The stone, understandably, has a very shallow and narrow "cushion" cut, but you take what you can get with this material. I've only seen a handful of faceted Brookites over the years, and they were all black/opaque, so the fact that this stone has COLOR (when backlit), is significant. This stone is a big deal because it's over 1 carat in weight, which is one of the criteria for a stone to qualify at true "collector quality".

Brookite is not necessarily what most people would consider to be a rare species, but it's HIGHLY coveted among gemstone enthusiasts. Knowledgeable collectors will tell you that a good faceted Brookite is exceedingly rare to find on the market for two reasons. First is that the very nature of Brookite crystals doesn't lend too much in the way of truly facettable material, as they are often incredibly thin (tabular) and sometimes dark or opaque. Even if you find one thick enough to cut, Brookite is rather brittle, so a stone can break in the middle of the faceting process, rendering it useless. In the early 2000s, some of the finest Brookite crystals in the world started coming out of the Balochistan Province in Pakistan. These crystals were not only large and colorful, but in some instances, they were thick enough to yield faceted gems! We were fortunate to get our hands on a few faceted stones from a good friend, and we're excited to give everybody the opportunity to acquire one of these highly coveted gems for your collection.

Fun fact: The refractive index of Brookite is one of the highest of any gem in the world at 2.58 which is HIGHER THAN DIAMOND!

Item #BROOKPAK106