Hi,
I just received a 43
ct rough topaz from a dealer in Pakistan where it was mined.
To me, the color is not red or brown enough to be called “imperial” but what would you call this?
It’s very pinkish with gold to me.
ct rough topaz from a dealer in Pakistan where it was mined.
Colour in pictures can be tricky as the camera and lighting temp has to match to show the true colour. 5600 or 6000K for lights and camera set for daylight is typical for good colour rendition. That said, I feel Imperial might be on the money, a lovely piece and one I would love to have on a Dop!
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Thank you for the confirmation. I know that often times a stone will cut a lot more saturated color than I had even imagined when it was rough. Depends on the skill of the cutter to be certain. Can turn a $1000 piece of rough into garbage or a $15,000 masterpiece.
vslpiBr?
Photography sometimes doesn’t show the true color, but what shows to me is a brown tone with some pink in it. Too much brown in it to be Imperial as I look at my Gemworld color reference book. You have to realize that stone merchants are not, generally, fools. Even a grade 5 Imperial topaz of 10 cts, if clean, would value at about $500/ct. So you would pay at least $50/ct for the rough, I think. I’m assuming you did not pay $2100 for this stone. If you are curious, send this stone to a custom cutter and ask for an evaluation. It will cost you about $300 or so to get this cut and see what you can get for it. I’m not optimistic about this because I have a couple of pieces near this color that were sent to me as add-ons to other orders from Pakistan…basically freebees. Sorry to not be more optimistic. I could be wrong. -royjohn
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One thing you should do before you spend time and money cutting this material is place it in your back yard in Direct Sunlight for a couple of days. Why? To see if it is going to fade to almost clear. I have some that did and some that didn’t. The colorfast material comes out Peach to Coppery Brown and is worth cutting. 
why not take a picture of it in direct sunlight?.. 5- 6,000 Kelvin artificial lighting is filtered to produce the same spectrum as daylight… it should show the color better.