Mars

and

Jupiter

an independent-minded asteroid started its own voyage in space & time, marking its own course in the skies and breaking away form its friends and colleagues in the asteroid belt...

After much traveling and adventure, it encountered in space a different, most attractive (irresistable--just like a magnet...) kind-of-planet, this planet of ours, called Earth, and entered it in a dramatic show of fire and light. Appearing as a falling star and leaving a trail of light and spark, bewildered animals watched it with owe...

Many years later, our little renegade asteroid (by now weighing 'only' 2,200 lb.., or so, after loosing much weight in its fiery entry into our atmosphere) was discovered in Esquel, near Chubut Argentina. The year was 1951.

It took some forty years before a thorough gemological examination was carried out on the gems, known as Peridot or Olivine, buried within our little asteroid, by now officially called "Esquel" and having even a family name, or at least, belonging to a family called "Pallasites"-- named after a researcher from the 19th. century who identified and described them--Mr. Peter Simon Pallas)

Indeed, geologists, astronomers and Gemologists have remarked the presence of Olivine in Pallasite type meteorites for over a century. However, as a gem it was only In a catalogue published by Tiffany & Co. for the 1900 Paris International Exposition, that a reference is made to the display of an Olivine from the Eagle Station Kentucky meteorite. Unfortunately, it is unknown whether the described gem was faceted...

The earliest knaown study of faceted extraterrestrial Peridot is from 1916, by one, Mingaye, who studied such Peridot from a Pallasite meteorite found near Molong, New South Wales, Australia. The Olivines have proven to contain sufficiently low concentration of Iron to qualify as Peridot. The analysis showed that the gems' principal components were SiO2 (40.40wt.%), FeO (9.59wt%) and MgO (47.70wt%).

After noticing in 1990 a relatively large transparent area in a slice taken from the Esquel-- Gerhard Becker of the GIA arranged for some pieces to be sent out for faceting and for a later study of their gemological properties. At the time of publishing of the study results Gerhard has faceted less than 30 Peridots. All contain unique linear or flat inclusions that are oriented at 90 degrees to each other and appear as criss-cross fine lines (at 90 degrees). Fractures and cleavages that have reached the surface contain, in most cases, brown-red iron oxide staining (see examples) and tiny black particles, too small to analyze. The Esquel's Peridot appears to be somewhat brittle and some fractures are also noticed. Careful and protective setting (e.g., prongs) by your experienced jeweler is recommended. This is due to the violent growth process, the celestial flight, the fiery entry into Planet earth and the high impact. In fact, already the very birth of the Pallasite meteorite is believed to be "...violent events that mixed mantle and core materials".

Faceted Esquel Peridots:

Close observation reveals some of the typical inclusions characteristics of the interplanetary gem.

Those are visible with relative ease in the bottom-right round stone and the trilliant on top.

In the published results of the Esquel Peridot study, the GIA research team comments: "The Olivine-rich meteorites known as Pallasites sometimes contain areas of Olivine that are large and transparent enough to yield small faceted gems of the Peridot Variety. To date, however, few such stones have been cut and they must, therefore, be counted as among the rarest of all gems...Numerous museum collections around the world contain specimens of Pallasites with Olivine suitable for faceting into gems, although most finished stones would weigh less than one carat".(Gems & Gemology, spring 1992,"Peridot as an Interplanetary Gemstone")

At Van-Daaz we believe that no other gem is a better reminder of the meaning of the change of millennia than those who participated in marking of such changes throughout history, namely, gems from celestial bodies, of ancient formation and of impact on the very compilation of millennia marking calendars. Nothing more than the parent planets, stars, comets and falling stars of those gems has contributed more to the refinement of the concept of time and to our understanding of the end of the millennium and the dawn of a new one.

Van-Daaz is now in exclusive possession of all currently available faceted and polished extraterrestrial Peridots in the market, and is proud to offer them to you. Van-Daaz's Interplanetary Peridot gems are shipped with a Certificate of Authenticity of Origin (in fact, regardless of this measure--most of the Esquel Peridot bear typical marks and inclusions unknown in terrestrial Peridot see examples), a copy of the article about them in the GIA's very own "Gems & Gemology" and a special Transmillennia Commemorative Certificate. You are invited to visit their lot (select "Interplanetary Peridot Lot")..

As rare as the turn of millennia, as a unique symbol of this tiny cosmic milestone, the transplanetary Peridots offered to you by Van-Daaz today will shine through this special moment in life, a reminder that some things are as precious, as transcendent, as devine and as special as time itself.