Discover the Value of your Jewels

Category: Opal

Toni Cavelti

Modern Classic

Toni Cavelti is a creative artist, craftsman, and jeweller based in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Canada’s beautiful West coast. He has retired from jewellery, but continues to be a creative artist. He has said that he feels jewellery is more craft than art. However, the jewels we see from the Cavelti workshop are easy to see as art.

1960s-1970s architecturally inspired brooch

Apprenticed in Switzerland, in 1954, a young Toni Cavelti arrived in his chosen new home of Vancouver, British Columbia. He found work in the jewellery business, and his designs and style promptly became an important part of Vancouver style and society.

In the 1960s and 1970s, nature and geometry combined in vibrant designs that are both bold and joyful. The combination of space and reflection, texture and polish creates highlights and depth of form.

1960s-1970s: A classic opal and diamond brooch, featured in the Max Wyman book Toni Cavelti, A Jeweller’s Life, and offered in the Important Jewels Auction, November 2020

Light and dark form a regular part of Cavelti’s style. The textures provide depth and highlights that capture the viewer’s imagination.

Diamond earrings exploring form and texture

Fine Gems

Cavelti’s work is widely recognized as innovative, carefully considered, and expertly made. Cavelti jewels have a balance and form that is immediately appealing to the eye. They are comfortable to wear, and make a joyful statement.

Vivid rubies forming a joyful heart pendant

Owners of Cavelti jewels recall the strong relationships developed with the jeweller. They often recall the design process, and many have his original artwork framed on their walls. Many jewels were created specifically for clients.

Experiments in light and reflection, highlighted with diamonds, creates a fascinating, rich texture

Gems used in Cavelti jewels are very fine. Colours are exquisite, carefully chosen, and perfectly matched. Rubies are as red as flames, emeralds are green as grass. Clarity is strikingly good. Cut is fine. Clearly Cavelti was not prepared to cut corners, and we are all the beneficiaries of his focus on quality.

Brilliant red rubies and fine diamonds. Cavelti chose gems very carefully

Published Source: Max Wyman: Toni Cavelti, A Jeweller’s Life

In 1996, Max Wyman wrote a book, Toni Cavelti, A Jeweller’s Life, a biography of Cavelti. The book documents the progress of the artist from his early years in Switzerland to becoming an icon of the jewellery world. Nine of the Jewels featured in the book are highlights of the Dupuis Important Jewels Auction in November 2020.

Featured in the Max Wyman book, Toni Cavelti, A Jeweller’s Life: “One of the most important stones to be handled in the Cavelti workshops…”. This 5.29 carat ruby pendant is offered in November 2020.

Toni Cavelti embraced modern forms and modern materials. In 1967, a new gem was found in Tanzania. Named after its source, Tanzanite quickly became a prominent and highly desired gem. Competing with fine sapphires for beauty, tanzanite can be a rich and vibrant gem. It is only to be expected that Cavelti would choose the finest examples. In the Important Jewels Auction, November 2020, a pair of earrings, a bracelet and a pendant feature exquisite tanzanites. These jewels are also featured in the Max Wyman book.

Very fine tanzanite, weighing approximately 19.40 carats, in an expertly crafted pendant. Featured in the Max Wyman Toni Cavelti book, and offered in the Important Jewels Auction November 2020

Diamonds are a mainstay in the world of jewels. Toni Cavelti chose his diamonds with great care. There is a fine suite of diamond jewels in featured in Toni Cavelti, A Jeweller’s Life. This suite is a highlight of the November 2020 auction.

A diamond brooch and necklace, offered in the November 2020 auction. There are matching earrings, and ring also offered in the auction. All are all also featured in Toni Cavelti, A Jeweller’s Life.

Cavelti jewels are often offered in Dupuis Auctions, and we are always proud to feature them. It a rare and special opportunity to include this very important collection of Cavelti Jewels in a single auction.

Opal: A Spectrum in a Gem

Black Opal in a Belle Epoque Necklace
Offered at auction June 2020

Opal has fascinated people for thousands of years. Its hypnotic iridescent spectrum of colours flash as the gem moves. The colours in an opal float mysteriously from within its translucent depths.

Sources

While many people think of opal as a distinctly Australian gem, the ancient Romans were very enthusiastic about opal. Pliny the Elder, a scholar in ancient Rome, 2000 years ago, wrote that opals “combine…the brilliant qualities of the most valuable gems…all combined together in incredible brilliance…they defy description”1… . Opals known in ancient Rome were not from Australia, they were likely from what is now known as Slovenia.

These days, most opal in the market is from either the classic sources in Australia, or Mexico (for “fire” opal), or from the relatively new source in Ethiopia. 

Opal is known under many different variety names. These names usually describe the body of the opal. The body colour is the appearance the gem has before you take the flashes of colour into consideration.

Opal Types

Black opal has a black to dark grey body colour. The dark background shows the flashes of colour to their best effect. Black opal from Lightning Ridge, in Australia’s New South Wales, is the most famous. Other sources do produce opal with a dark background, often dark grey, or from Ethiopia it’s sometimes dark brown. Often black opal is opaque. Black opal is the most rare and valuable opal. 

Semi-black opal has a dark body colour, while not quite “black” it’s next in darkness. Semi-black opal can come from Lightning Ridge and from other sources, including Mintabie in South Australia.

White opal has, as you might guess, a white body colour. The flashes of colour are seen against a light background. The best known source for white opal is a town in South Australia called “Coober Pedy”. 

Fire opal has an orange or red body colour, like flames in a fire. The most famous source is Mexico. Often fire opal has no flashes of colour at all, but it is still prized for its near-transparent appearance, and is often faceted, with small flat faces, like a diamond or other gems. 

Crystal opal is often colourless, and very close to transparent, but with a “play of colour”, those famous flashes of colour that makes opal so desirable. In a crystal opal, the colours are particularly mysterious as they float in the clear colourless gem.

Colours of Flashes

There is a hierarchy of desired colours in opal. Flashes of red are the most desired, and if you have red, you’ll usually find the other colours present in the opal’s flashes. Some opals may show just green and blue colours, and can be quite lovely.

Patterns

Pattern of colours is another thing we note. One pattern, of geometric blocks of colour flashes is called “harlequin”, is rare, and highly desired.

“Rolling flash” is a pattern of play-of-colour that has areas of colour that may roll over large parts of the surface of the opal, changing colours as the opal is moved.

A common pattern is called “pinfire”. Opals that have this pattern show tiny dots of colours scattered and shifting as the viewer’s angle changes.

One of Queen Victoria’s favourite gems was opal, and during her long reign, several of the Australian localities were opened up by the colonists. The discoveries of opal in Australia meant that there was a renewed interest in opal in Europe, in the nineteenth century. 

The discovery of opal in Ethiopia has produced a new source of striking and beautiful gems. The opals from this African nation range from crystal opal to black. The film Uncut Gems features an Ethiopian black opal. 

Fine Harlequin Opal
A Fine Black Harlequin Opal sold for $13,000 at Auction

(1: Pliny: Natural History Books 36-37, Translation by D.E. Eicholz, Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass, 1962)