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Something unique happened in the year of 1956 that triggered a significant chain of events. It all began with the removal of a very interesting piece of wood opal from its natural environment in Virgin Valley (Humboldt County, Nevada) to an
urbanite's garage shelf. During the next 32 years, that was where the opal resided, long forgotten, amongst the other objects that had once held their owner's interest.
It wasn't until the spring of 1988, that the opal was moved from its dark and dusty resting place. It was brought out for a special occasion -- the bi-annual garage sale -- and it was there that it caught
the interest of Jim Paige, a collector of the unusual. He and his son, Mike noticed that if you held the opal up to a light, you could see some color flash through the crystalized wood.
Jim quickly purchased the opal for only fifty dollars. He then took it to his jeweler, David Burton, at Lapidary International. Once David saw the play of color in the opal, he immediately recognized
that the gem that Jim had purchased was a Contraluz opal. The opal itself was rare because of its unusually large size, but the fact that it wasn't heavily cracked gave David the hope that it might facet into a gemstone of great potential.
Unfortunately, at the time, Lapidary International was utilizing a faceter who lived out in the California desert and David could think of nothing worse than cutting a Virgin Valley opal that crazed easily
out in the middle of the desert during the peak of summer. Temperatures during that time of year were reaching into the low 100's with the average temperature being 102'F.
Before David handed over the piece of opal to Frank Lacante, the faceter in Boron, he preformed the opal so that the total weight of the opal could be noted before the cutting commenced. The total weight was now approximately 88 carats.
Two weeks went by without a word from Frank. David began to worry that something (or rather someone) was going astray. Frank had no home phone and the only way that anyone could reach him was by driving up there to see him in person. Fortunately,
after the third week went by, Frank did call to inform David that he was sorry as he could be, because he felt that the opal would craze after a few days. Frank ended the conversation by telling David that he would try cutting it again.
David reluctantly agreed. By this time, David owed Frank more than he was charging his customer, Jim Paige, for the cutting. Nevertheless, David felt that it was a stone of great promise and worth all the
hassle. As a result, he let Frank continue working on the opal.
After the fifteenth attempt, the stone stabilized. The carat weight was now only 43.43 carats, and to David, that seemed like a lucky number, because fortunately for Lapidary International, Jim's wife
liked diamonds more than she did opals. With Christmas looming just around the corner, Jim gave the opal to David in exchange for a 4 carat diamond cluster ring. In addition, David also returned the money that Jim had paid for the faceting of the
opal.
Lapidary International now had it's first world class opal. After David showed the new stone to his mother, she hid her eyes and exclaimed that she could see the "colors of Heaven," From that moment on, the name "Colors of Heaven" was placed upon the
Contraluz opal from Virgin Valley.
Recently, much interest was expressed in the opal, mainly by a graduate gemologist, Fred Ward, who was gathering information about opals for his new book. When Mr. Ward saw Lapidary International's collection of world class opal, he decided to feature
four of them in his new book about opals. The Contraluz is one of the big four. It was beautifully immortalized within the pages of Mr. Ward's book, Opals.
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Copyright, 1997 by David Burton
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