Cutest Lapis Lazuli heart pendant. Smallish, 20x20mm, but plump, a lovely shape, and a touch weighty for its size, just over 7grams. Lapis is one of the two rock gemstones, the other being Turquoise, and is dense. The heart was hand-carved in Jaipur, Rajasthan, and the origin of the rough was the rugged highlands of the far north-east of Afghanistan, the only source of this ultramarine gemstone from ancient times.
In the last hundred or so years another commercial source has come on the world market, from Chile, however the Afghani Lapis still holds sway, for its consistently fine deep blue, for its pyrites inclusions, and, not least, for its long history -the ancient Egyptians used it ornamentally thousands of years before the Romans called it “ultramarine”.
The above cute little plump Lapis Lazuli heart presents with interesting pyrites inclusions, golden constellations embedded in deepest blue.