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August - PeridotMany believe that wearing a Peridot brings success, peace, and good luck. You won't need any luck to find a beautiful Peridot at Perrywinkle's.
We travel the world selecting Peridots to fit every budget. Not the pale, washed out ones most jewelry stores carry, but beautiful, rich, olive green stones - that almost look like gumdrops. Placed into setting from our collection of timeless designs, a Perrywinkle Peridot is perfection.
Peridot Education
The vivid, slightly, golden shimmering green of Peridot is the ideal gemstone color to complement a light summertime outfit. This is no surprise - Peridot, after all, is assigned to the summer month of August. Peridot is an ancient and yet currently very popular gemstone. It is so old that it can be found even in Egyptian jewelry from the early second millennium BC. The stones used in those days came from an occurrence on a little volcanic island in the Red Sea, about 70 km off the Egyptian coast, off Assuan, which was rediscovered only around 1900 and has been completely exploited since. Peridot, however, is also a very modern stone, for only a few years ago Peridot occurrences were discovered in the Cashmere region, and the stones from there show a unique beauty of color and transparency, so that the image of the stone, which was somewhat dulled over the ages, has received an efficient polishing. At Perrywinkle's we carry a vast selection of beautiful Peridot jewelry beginning at $100.
Gemology
The gemstone is actually known under three names: Peridot, Chrysolith (derived from the Greek word "goldstone") and Olivin, because Peridot is the gemstone variety of the Olivin mineral. In the gemstone trade it is generally called Peridot, a name derived from the Greek "peridona", meaning something like "giving plenty". Peridot is one of the few gemstones, which exist only in one color. Finest traces of iron account for the deep green color with a slight golden hue. Chemically Peridot is just an iron-magnesium-silicate, and the intensity of color depends on the amount of iron contained. The color as such can come in any variation from yellow-green and olive to brownish green. Peridot is not especially hard - it only achieves about 6.5 to 7 on the Mohs' scale - and yet it is easy to care for and quite robust. Very rare treasures indeed, however, are Peridot-Cat's Eye and Star-Peridot.
The most beautiful stones come from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. Peridot as gemstone does also exist in Myanmar, China, the USA, Africa and Australia. Stones from East Burma, today's Myanmar, show a vivid green with fine silky inclusions. Peridot from the American state of Arizona, where it is quite popular in Native Indian jewelry, often shows a yellowish to golden brown shade.
Lore
According to folklore, Peridot will bring its wearer success, peace, and good luck. Peridot has been found in Egyptian jewelry from the early second millennium BCE and was mined from the volcanic island of Zebirget, or St. Johns Island, in the Red Sea. Native Hawaiians referred to Peridot crystals as the tears of Pele, their goddess of fire. The ancient Romans were quite fond of the gemstone and coveted the brilliant green sparkle, which does not change either in artificial light. They named the stone "Evening Emerald". In Europe, Peridot is found in many medieval churches decorating several treasures, like, for example, in the Cologne Cathedral. In the era of Baroque the deep green gemstone experienced another short flourishing, before it became forgotten.
Then suddenly, around the middle of the 1990s, Peridot was the great sensation at the Gemstone Trade Fairs all around the world. The reason: In Pakistan there had been found a sensationally rich occurrence of finest Peridot on a rough mountainside, in about 4,000 m height. The extremely hard climatic conditions only allowed mining to go on through the summer months, and yet the unusually large and fine crystals and rocks were brought down into the valley. These stones were of finer quality than anything else ever seen before, and the occurrence proved so rich that the high demand can be met without problems at present. These Peridot are known as known as "Kashmir" Peridot. Due to the large size of the rough stones found there, cutters have successfully created faceted stones of over 100 carats (20 g) from the rough gems of this area.
Crystal Structure
Crystal system: Orthorhombic; short prisms, vertically striated.
MAJOR SOURCES
China, Australia, Brazil, Myanmar, Kenya,
Mexico, Sri Lanka, US
PROPERTIES
Refractive Index :1.654-1.690
Hardness : 6.5-7 (Moh's Scale)
Specific Gravity: 3.34
Species : Peridot
Optic Character: Double Refraction.
Phenomena: Cat's eye and star peridot are known, but are rare
CARE
Ultrasonic: Risky to use.
Steamer: Never use.
Heat: Poor; rapid heat may cause fracturing or breakage.
Chemicals that harm: Sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, pickling solution.
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