Busacca Gallery

A beautiful Pair of Rare Men's French Gold and Rutilated Transparent Green Quartz Cufflinks ¾" x ⅜" 18k yellow gold cufflinks set with rutilated quartz cabochons; 20mm x 11mm; overall weight 10.8 gm. Condition: Very good. Two fantastic gemstones Set In an elegant design of gold. Rutilated quartz is a variety of quartz which contains acicular (needle-like) inclusions of rutile. It is used for gemstones. These inclusions mostly look golden, but they also can look silver, copper red or deep black. They can be distributed randomly or in bundles, which sometimes are arranged star-like, and they can be sparse or dense enough to make the quartz body nearly opaque. While otherwise inclusions often reduce the value of a crystal, rutilated quartz in fact is valued for the quality and beauty of these inclusions.

Apart from jewelry, from earliest antiquity engraved gems and hardstone carvings, such as cups, were major luxury art forms. A gem maker is called a lapidary or gemcutter; a diamond cutter is called a diamantaire.

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemstone

A gemstone (also called a gem, fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semi–precious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli and opal) and occasionally organic materials that are not minerals (such as amber, jet, and pearl) are also used for jewelry and are therefore often considered to be gemstones as well. Most gemstones are hard, but some soft minerals are used in jewelry because of their luster or other physical properties that have aesthetic value. Rarity is another characteristic that lends value to a gemstone.