Natural Diaspore 0.43ct VS Teardrop Cut

A pale champagne diaspore pear cut with a clean, glassy transparency and crisp faceting that carries good brilliance for its 7x3.6mm size. The color is a soft, warm greyish-champagne rather than a strong hue, and at VS clarity the stone is largely clean to the eye with only faint internal features visible under close inspection.

Diaspore is an aluminum oxide-hydroxide mineral found in gem quality almost exclusively in the Ilbir Mountains of Turkey, where it is also marketed under the trade name Zultanite. The species is well known among collectors for a genuine color-change effect, shifting from champagne or greenish tones in daylight to pink or raspberry hues under incandescent light, caused by strong pleochroism combined with the way the material absorbs different wavelengths of light. This piece is untreated, as diaspore is not commercially treated. Diaspore's hardness makes it wearable in most jewelry settings, and its rarity as a source-limited gem gives it particular appeal for collectors seeking something beyond the usual color-change stones like alexandrite.

Natural diaspore, Turkey, sold loose.