Bosnia and Herzegovina Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring Men Womens Fashion 2006

Bosnia and Herzegovina Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring Men Womens Fashion.  

By Farzana Aamir

A dagger with a lapis handle, a bowl inlaid with lapis, and amulets, beads, and inlays representing eyebrows and beards, were found in the Royal Tombs of the Sumerian city-state of Ur from the 3rd Millennium BC

Bhutan Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring Men Women Fashion.2004

Bhutan Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring Men Women Fashion.  

By Farzana Aamir

Lapis lazuli beads have been found at Mehrgarh, a neolithic site near Quetta in Pakistan, on the ancient trade route between Afghanistan and the Indus Valley, dating to the 7th millennium BC.

Bermuda Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring Men Womens Fashion 2003

Bermuda Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring Men Womens Fashion. 

By Farzana Aamir

Naqada I (Egypt) female figure, circa 3700 BC. Bone with Lapis inlay from Badakhshan.

Lapis lazuli has been mined in Afghanistan and exported to the Mediterranean world and South Asia since the Neolithic age

Benin Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Men Womens Fashion 2002

Benin  Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring Men Womens Fashion. 

By Farzana Aamir

A lapis lazuli urn two meters high from the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia (19th century).

In the Ancient World[edit

Belize Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Men Womens Fashion 2001

Belize Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Men Womens Fashion.  

By Farzana Aamir

Girl with a Pearl Earring (1665) by Johannes Vermeer is painted with ultramarine, a natural pigment made from lapis lazuli.

Belgium Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion 2000

Belgium Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion.  

Farzana Aamir

Carved lapis lazuli mountain scene, from the Chinese Qing Dynasty (1644–1912).

Barbados Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion 1998

Barbados Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion. 

By Farzana Aamir

History and art

A Mesopotamian lapis lazuli pendant circa 2900 BC.

A lapis lazuli bowl from Iran (End of 3rd, beginning 2nd millennium BC)

Close-up of the lapis lazuli inlays in the 25th-century BC Statue of Ebih-Il

In the funeral mask of Tutankhamun (1341-1323 BC), lapis lazuli was used for the eyebrows of the young Pharaoh.

Turkmenistan Emerald Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 194

Turkmenistan Emerald Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring.   

By Farzana Aamir 

A gem graded none on the enhancement scale may still exhibit visible inclusions. Laboratories tend to apply these criteria differently. Some gem labs consider the mere presence of oil or polymers to constitute enhancement. 

Bangladesh Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion 1997

Bangladesh Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion. 

By Farzana Aamir

Lapis takes an excellent polish and can be made into jewelry, carvings, boxes, mosaics, ornaments, and vases. It was also ground and processed to make the pigment ultramarine, widely used during the Renaissance in frescoes and oil painting. Its usage as a pigment in oil paint largely ended in the early 19th century when a chemically identical synthetic variety became available

Turkey Emerald Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 193

Turkey Emerald Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring.   

By Farzana Aamir 

 Other treatments, for example the use of green-tinted oil, are not acceptable in the trade. Gems are graded on a four-step scale; none, minor, moderate and highly enhanced. Note that these categories reflect levels of enhancement, not clarity. 

Bahrain Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion 1996

Bahrain Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion. 

By Farzana Aamir

Alternatives

Lapis lazuli is commercially synthesized or simulated by the Gilson process, which is used to make artificial ultramarine and hydrous zinc phosphates.[14] It may also be substituted by spinel or sodalite, or by dyed jasper or howlite

Tunisia Emerald Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 192

Tunisia Emerald Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring.   

By Farzana Aamir

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission requires the disclosure of this treatment when an oil treated emerald is sold. The use of oil is traditional and largely accepted by the gem trade, although oil treated emeralds are worth much less than un-treated emeralds of similar quality.

Bahamas Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion 1995

Bahamas Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion. 

By Farzana Aamir

In addition to the Afghan deposits, lapis is also extracted in the Andes (near Ovalle, Chile); and to the west of Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia, at the Tultui Lazurite deposit. It is mined in smaller amounts in Angola; Argentina; Burma; Pakistan; Canada; Italy, India; and in the USA in California and Colorado

Trinidad and Tobago Emerald Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 191

Trinidad and Tobago Emerald Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring.   

By Farzana Aamir 

Other liquids, including synthetic oils and polymers with refractive indexes close to that of emerald such as Opticon, are also used. These treatments are typically applied in a vacuum chamber under mild heat, to open the pores of the stone and allow the fracture-filling agent to be absorbed more effectively

Azerbaijan Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion 1994

 Azerbaijan Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion. 

By Farzana Aamir

During the height of the Indus valley civilization about 2000 BC, the Harappan colony now known as Shortugai was established near the lapis mines

Tonga Emerald Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring.190

]Tonga Emerald Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring.   

By Farzana Aamir 

Most emeralds are oiled as part of the post-lapidary process, in order to fill in surface-reaching cracks, improving their clarity and stability. Cedar oil, having a similar refractive index, is often used in this generally accepted practice. 

Austrian Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion 1993

Austrian Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion. 

By Farzana Aamir

Afghanistan was the source of lapis for the ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations, as well as the later Greeks and Romans. Ancient Egyptians obtained this material through trade from Afghanistan.

Australian Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion 1992

Australian Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion. 

By Farzana Aamir

Sources

Lapis lazuli is found in limestone in the Kokcha River valley of Badakhshan province in northeastern Afghanistan, where the Sar-e-Sang mine deposits have been worked for more than 6,000 years.

Tokelau Emerald Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 189

Tokelau Emerald Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring.   

By Farzana Aamir 

This relative crystal non-uniformity makes emeralds more likely than other gemstones to be cut into cabochons, rather than faceted shapes. Faceted Emeralds are most commonly given the Oval cut, or the signature Emerald cut, a rectangular cut with facets around the top edge.

Aruba Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion 1991

Aruba Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion. 

By Farzana Aamir

Color

The intense blue color is due to the presence of the S3− radical anion in the crystal.[11] An electronic excitation of one electron from the highest doubly filled molecular orbital (No. 24) into the lowest singly occupied orbital (No. 25)[12] results in a very intense absorption line at λmax ~617 nm.

Armenian Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion 1990

Armenian Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion. 

By Farzana Aamir

Other possible constituents: augite; diopside; enstatite; mica; hauynite; hornblende, and nosean. Some lapis lazuli contains trace amounts of the sulfur-rich löllingite variety geyerite.

Lapis lazuli usually occurs in crystalline marble as a result of contact metamorphism.

Togo Emerald Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring.187

 Togo Emerald Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring.   

By Farzana Aamir 

Eye-clean stones of a vivid primary green hue (as described above) with no more than 15% of any secondary hue or combination (either blue or yellow) of a medium-dark tone command the highest prices.

Timor-Leste (East Timor) Emerald Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring.186

Timor-Leste (East Timor) Emerald Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring.   

By Farzana Aamir 

The inclusions and fissures within an emerald are sometime described as "Jardin" (French for 'garden'), because of their mossy appearance.[12] These imperfections within the stone are unique to each emerald and can be used to identify a particular stone. 

Argentina Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion 1989

Argentina Lapis Lazuli Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring 2015 Fashion. 

By Farzana Aamir

Composition

Lapis lazuli is a rock whose most important mineral component is lazurite[9] (25% to 40%), a feldspathoid silicate mineral with the formula (Na,Ca)8(AlSiO4)6(S,SO4,Cl)1-2.[10] Most lapis lazuli also contains calcite (white), sodalite (blue), and pyrite (metallic yellow).

Tibet Emerald Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring.185

Tibet Emerald Diamond White Gold Engagement Ring.

  By Farzana Aamir 

Thus, if an emerald has no visible inclusions to the eye (assuming normal visual acuity) it is considered flawless. Stones that lack surface breaking fissures are extremely rare and therefore almost all emeralds are treated ("oiled", see below) to enhance the apparent clarity.