VERY RARE : Blue Opal from France ! Great for collectors !

I'm a professionnal Opal cutter since 2009. I do mainly commission work  for Jewellers in Europe. I love Opals and I  respect the stones ; this means : orientating the color, sawing when it is needed, polishing to the highest standard. I think that only after that,  the Opal can deliver her true Beauty.

Thank you for looking. Boris

This is your chance to own a specimen of Blue Opal from France. The most impostant find in terms of quantity and quality was made in 1980 during road work. Some gem quality like the blue opal from peru has been found and faceted and is kept preciously by french collectors.

This piece in particular is from the 90's. It is a small piece without Matrix of very good quality (AA grade). The blue/green opal is slightly translucent and could cut a stone. There is some inclusions. I think it will be best if kept as a specimen.

It is very hard to find these opals. I have a very limited supply so grab one while you can !

Good luck bidding !

More informations :

The Oligo-Miocene pyroclastic deposits from Biot and Villeneuve-Loubet (Alpes-Maritimes) are locally silicified with blue opal. Mineralogical analysis were performed, including X-ray diffraction and quantitative Fourier Transformed Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy which show up a paragenesis including opal-CT and allophanes (amorphous Al/Fe hydrated silicates). The structure of the opal-CT from Biot is identical with the sedimentary opal-CT. Sedimentary and Biot hydrothermal opal-CT exhibit quite identical structure : thin (1 to 2 nanometers) crystallits with both cristobalite and tridymite characters. However, for the Biot opal-CT, the computed intertetrahedra angle is larger and near values of tridymite. The paragenesis is completed with the occurence of allophanes together with opal-CT. The crystalline particular details of the Biot opal-CT, and its association with allophanes is related to the composition and temperature of the original fluids.

from "Les silicifications hydrothermales à opale de Biot" by François Frölich, Gilbert Mari and Danielle Mari in "Le Règne Minéral N°40 - August 2001".