9x7mm Lapis Lazuli oval. This gemstone was one in a small packet of small Lapis gemstones, all of different cuts, not one matching pair among them, purchased from a gemcutter one sunny winter morning in the late 1970s, on the lovely grass expanse of Jaipur’s Pink City Hotel gardens (nice gardens, very indifferent rooms). Every highly polished gemstone in the packet, handcut in Jaipur, was of superior AGrade quality, as is the above 9x7mm Lapis oval, all of superfine deep blue, exemplary ultramarine, many with just the faintest trace of the natural and characteristic surface inclusion of silvery gold pyrites.
The characteristic touch of silvery pyrites glint can be seen in the top left of the above image. Interestingly, devotees of high grade Lapis Lazuli often find desirable the surface presence of a trace or two of pyrites.
The origin of the above 9x7mm Lapis Lazuli is the ancient source area of north-east Afghanistan, in the Badakhshan region. Many gemstones, both precious and semi-precious, can be found in Afghanistan (for example, the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul is the source of significant finds of fine Emerald, Tourmaline, Spinel), but the gemstone most associated with that country is the fabled Lapis Lazuli of its rugged north-east high country.