World's Largest Star Rose Quartz - Michael Scott Collection

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    Stanley Tan
    February 7, 2010 at 7:01 am

    Hi, I am from Malaysia. Recently, I discovered a rare gemstone from our State.The hardness of the stone is 7.5 to 7.8. However, our local lab has named it as a carnelian. But, I checked the internet and I found that there are no records of our country having this type of gemstone. Please I need your comment.Thank you.


    Suhail
    February 18, 2010 at 3:52 am


    Wow what an excellent article !!!

    Another famous Star Rose Quartz resides at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. This star rose quartz of impressive size, weighing 1438 carats has a pleasant rose color and a perfect six-rayed star, and is perhaps the second largest star rose quartz in the world after the 5,500-carat star rose quartz in the Michael Scott Collection

    I stumbled upon another stunning image of a six-rayed star rose quartz at the following URL :-
    http://www.crystalgrowing.com/…stone/LROSEQU/LROSEQU.HTMhttp://www.crystalgrowing.com/…stone/LROSEQU/LROSEQU.HTM
    The rose quartz with a well defined six-rayed star is translucent and has a deep-pink color. The weight of the stone is approximately 1,250 carats and its diameter 60 mm. The stone described as a "Little sphere of platinum star rose quartz" is given the grade "platinum" to refer to its exceptional quality. The star rose quartz of Madagascar origin is price marked US$ 2,580.

    Only a fraction of the rose quartz produced in the source countries like Brazil, India, Vietnam, South Africa, Madagascar, Namibia, USA, Germany and Sweden is of gem quality and used in lapidary work for the production of jewelry. The bulk of the rose quartz produced is used as decorative pieces in landscaping and interior decoration. The hardness and color of rose quartz make it a suitable material for carvings such as figurines and ornate statutes, a practice believed to have been prevalent since ancient times, producing objects of worship and other religious symbols.
    It is in respect of the use of rose quartz in carvings that I wish to draw the attention of participants in this forum, to the website of Skullis,Creator of the Finest Crystal and Gemstone Skulls.
    The images of two rose quartz skull carvings are given below for the benefit of the readers :-

    The enormous 5,500-carat Star Rose Quartz, with its distinct six-rayed star, and beautiful rose color is indeed an extraordinary gemstone with no rivals to challenge its position. This clearly indicates the type of gemstones Michael Scott had been going after to enhance his collection, that no doubt resulted in one of the best colored gemstone collections in the world !

    I agree totally with your views Mary. The Michael Scott Collection, one of the most important private gem collection in the United States, with a few rivals in the world outside of the royal families, is essentially a collection of colored stones, both rough and faceted, precious and semi-precious, common and not so common and sometimes extremely rare; some set in jewelry, of both antique and modern designs and accentuated with diamonds; some set in animal and plant motifs such as butterflies, parrots and flowers; some rough stones carved into artworks or sculptures by renowned gem-carvers of Idar-Oberstein; and some extremely rare gemstones, their rarity either due to their extraordinary size, color or rarity of occurrence, cut and polished and set in special settings to highlight their beauty; collections of unmounted cut and polished colored gemstones of all varieties, such as beryls, corundum, garnets etc. in the whole spectrum of colors in which they exist in nature; and rare minerals together with their matrix as they exist in nature, such as the red beryl crystal with its matrix, Colombian emerald crystal with its matrix and an enormous tourmaline crystal with its matrix weighing 22,700 carats.
    The 5,500-carat Star Rose Quartz comes under the category of rare gemstones, due to its extraordinary size, color and distinct property of asterism, and it is set in a special silver setting designed by John Marshall to highlight its beauty.

    More special settings from the Michael Scott collection, that enhances its uniqueness and value might be appropriate to the ongoing discussion. Here are some which I scouted from the internet :-
    1) Queen of Kilimanjaro - World's largest faceted tanzanite weighing 242 carats mounted on a 18k white gold tiara with a serpentine band set with 803 green garnets and 913 colorless diamonds.
    2) The Sapphire Cobra - A 64-carat, oval-cut, cornflower blue, Sri Lanka sapphire guarded by a solid gold cobra.
    3) The Treasure of Gachala - An 83-carat cabochon emerald from the Coscuez mine, Colombia set in a bracelet of diamond and palygorskite, an opal-like mineral from Mexico

    The Demantoid Garnet Butterfly Brooch and the Orchid Flower Sapphire Brooch are two stunning pieces from the Michael Scott Collection, representing jewelry designs with animal and plant motifs.


    1) The Demantoid Garnet Butterfly brooch is set with 330 garnets and 472 diamonds, mounted on a unique titanium setting, making the brooch lighter for any wearer.
    2) The Orchid Flower Sapphire Brooch set with sapphires, spinels and diamonds on a titanium setting. The sapphires weighing 33 carats are from Montana-USA, Mayanmar and Basel-Switzerland.

    An outstanding piece no doubt from the category of modern jewelry designs is the stunning Ramona Orange Spessartite Garnet Necklace made up of 63 color-matched spessartite garnets from Ramona, California, weighing 165 carats, and 11 carats of white/colorless diamonds that highlight the garnet's intense orange color.

    I have heard about the "Ceylon Sin Flower" in the Michael Scott Collection, but has never seen an image of this in the internet. Could someone please upload an image of this if you had come across one in the internet. Does anyone have any idea why this jewelry creation was christened the "Sin Flower" ?

    The "Ceylon Sinflower" is another special setting from the Michael Scott Collection. It is actually a model of an almost life-size sunflower incorporating a 400.6-carat Ceylon Yellow Sapphire as its centerpiece, mounted in 18 karat red gold and accented with diamonds. The sunflower is mounted on a stem in a rock crystal vase. The Sunflower is a common flower of tropical countries like Sri Lanka (Ceylon), and since the main gemstone incorporated in the flower, the Yellow Sapphire, originated from Sri Lanka, the designers of this piece opted to create a flower commonly found in Sri Lanka, and named it the "Ceylon Sunflower"
    It is not exactly known how and why the name "Ceylon Sunflower" was eventually corrupted to "Ceylon Sinflower." Possibly it may have something to do with the legend of Adam and Eve being cast out of "The Garden of Eden"after eating the forbidden apple, the unfortunate sinners eventually landing in Ceylon, where Adam left his footprint at the summit of the 2,243 meter mountain, the Adam's Peak.
    It is important to note, that the "Ceylon Sinflower" is not a main setting in the collection, but a derivative from a dual setting piece, the original setting being a necklace, the centerpiece of which was dismantled to create the "Sin flower."
    Images of both the original setting and the derived setting are given below.
    Peter, I do hope I have answered your question.

    The legend related to the "Ceylon Sin Flower" is quite interesting; but the "Sapphire Cobra Setting" depicting a 64-carat, oval-cut, cornflower blue, Sri Lanka blue sapphire guarded by a solid-gold cobra, whose image has been uploaded by Afrojack, is without any doubt inspired by the popular legend in countries of South Asia, such as India and Sri Lanka, that living King Cobras can produce a valuable pearl in its hood, that emits light in darkness. As the legend goes, there are times particularly in the night when the King Cobra would like to bring out this light-emitting pearl through its mouth, which it guards zealously from a possible intruder. The pearl is known as "Naga Mani" in India and "Naga Menik" in Sri Lanka. Several meta-physical properties are associated with the possessor of an authentic "Naga Mani" such as power, position, leadership, victory, great courage, success, fortune, wealth and happiness.
    Hence the solid-gold cobra guarding the Sri Lanka blue sapphire is based on the myth of the King Cobra and the Naga Mani.

    The most stunning pieces in the Michael Scott Collection are without any doubt the numerous carvings and sculptures which he acquired from the renowned gem-carving villages of Idar-Oberstein in Germany, where the ancient tradition of gem-carving is believed to have existed since the period of the ancient Roman Empire. The collection includes 13 gem carvings by contemporary German artist Bernd Munsteiner and four intricate carvings of animals by German artist Gerd Dreher. However, the most striking of all the gem-carvings is "The Repose" by Gunter Petty of Idar-Oberstein executed in 1991, representing a nude male youth in the squatting position, carved out of an enormous quartz crystal, sitting on an obsidian base, with an 18-karat gold cloth draped over his lap; the whole sculpture weighing 9,000 carats.
    Another stunning piece by Gunter Petty is the "Magnolia Flower" carved out of natural Ametrine Quartz, which has shades of purple and yellow in the same crystal and also using yellow gold in the setting - total weight 1,250 carats.

    Other stunning gem-carvings from Idar-Oberstein include the Agate Starfish and Mephisto.
    The Agate Starfish by Gerd Dreher is carved from a single piece of agate material, weighing 9,306 carats. This is indeed a masterpiece in gem-carving given the minute details in external structure of the star fish excellently portrayed in the carving.
    The "Mephisto" is a sinister-looking, 5,650-carat bust of Satan, with piercing blood-red eyes and red-gold horns and collar, carved from a single ruby crystal from Tanzania weighing 5,750 carats, and mounted on an obsidian base.

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