Questions about small carved emerald

[casualcollector]

Hello,

I don’t know if this is the right place to ask this question or not but I will give it a try. I acquired a small gem quality emerald carving of an owl a while back from a consignment shop and it looks to me to be old, weathered and dug and I was wondering if someone here could help me find out more about it. It is a little under a half inch tall and literally glows in your hand in the right light, photos below. Any information or insight would be appreciated. Please let me know if you have any questions for me. Thanks.

[Garguy]

Neat. You sure that's emerald?

[Von]

That’s a cool find but I agree with Carguy. I’m not seeing a lot of inclusions which all emeralds have. If it’s emerald it’s a really nice one. You should take it to a jeweler to have it examined by someone and see what a spectrometer says. All beryls are close and it could be green beryl not emerald. There is a chemical difference between to two.

Von

[Uncle Trav]

Kinda looks like molded glass. Where was it found?

[Quicksilver]

Looks like molded glass, ez enuff. There should be micro bubbles. The color looks like chrysoprase, if so pretty valuable. Look for black inclusions or veiled whitish inclusions. The color is too valuable for it to be a wonky carving.

[Quicksilver]

Blacklight it. If it glows.... Uranium

[Quicksilver]

You could do a specific gravity, weigh it, the immerse in a graduated cylinder of water. Measure the level increase then calculate the specific gravity. That will immediately tell you what it ain't.

[clovisoid]

The Muisca, Tairona and a couple of other Precolombian groups in Colombia occasionally carved emeralds, some of the largest and highest quality stones come from around Boyaca Colombia. The color and quality don't look wrong compared to some the smaller high quality beads, and the owl/avian figure is something they could have made. (Normally the larger carvings are lower quality stone with inclusions.)

The workmanship looks more highspeed rotary tool than what I've have on quartz and jade carvings from same people. But hard to say for sure.

Take it to a jeweler, they'll be able to tell you what material is.