World's Largest Star Rose Quartz - Michael Scott Collection

Another famous Star Rose Quartz resides at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. This star rose quartz of impressive size, weighing 1438 carats has a pleasant rose color and a perfect six-rayed star, and is perhaps the second largest star rose quartz in the world after the 5,500-carat star rose quartz in the Michael Scott Collection

Thank you Mike for your valuable contribution.

I stumbled upon another stunning image of a six-rayed star rose quartz at the following URL :-
http://www.crystalgrowing.com/alte-version/gemstone/LROSEQU/LROSEQU.HTM http://www.crystalgrowing.com/alte-version/gemstone/LROSEQU/LROSEQU.HTM
The rose quartz with a well defined six-rayed star is translucent and has a deep-pink color. The weight of the stone is approximately 1,250 carats and its diameter 60 mm. The stone described as a "Little sphere of platinum star rose quartz" is given the grade "platinum" to refer to its exceptional quality. The star rose quartz of Madagascar origin is price marked US$ 2,580.

Only a fraction of the rose quartz produced in the source countries like Brazil, India, Vietnam, South Africa, Madagascar, Namibia, USA, Germany and Sweden is of gem quality and used in lapidary work for the production of jewelry. The bulk of the rose quartz produced is used as decorative pieces in landscaping and interior decoration. The hardness and color of rose quartz make it a suitable material for carvings such as figurines and ornate statutes, a practice believed to have been prevalent since ancient times, producing objects of worship and other religious symbols.
It is in respect of the use of rose quartz in carvings that I wish to draw the attention of participants in this forum, to the website of Skullis,Creator of the Finest Crystal and Gemstone Skulls.
The images of two rose quartz skull carvings are given below for the benefit of the readers :-

The enormous 5,500-carat Star Rose Quartz, with its distinct six-rayed star, and beautiful rose color is indeed an extraordinary gemstone with no rivals to challenge its position. This clearly indicates the type of gemstones Michael Scott had been going after to enhance his collection, that no doubt resulted in one of the best colored gemstone collections in the world !

I agree totally with your views Mary. The Michael Scott Collection, one of the most important private gem collection in the United States, with a few rivals in the world outside of the royal families, is essentially a collection of colored stones, both rough and faceted, precious and semi-precious, common and not so common and sometimes extremely rare; some set in jewelry, of both antique and modern designs and accentuated with diamonds; some set in animal and plant motifs such as butterflies, parrots and flowers; some rough stones carved into artworks or sculptures by renowned gem-carvers of Idar-Oberstein; and some extremely rare gemstones, their rarity either due to their extraordinary size, color or rarity of occurrence, cut and polished and set in special settings to highlight their beauty; collections of unmounted cut and polished colored gemstones of all varieties, such as beryls, corundum, garnets etc. in the whole spectrum of colors in which they exist in nature; and rare minerals together with their matrix as they exist in nature, such as the red beryl crystal with its matrix, Colombian emerald crystal with its matrix and an enormous tourmaline crystal with its matrix weighing 22,700 carats.
The 5,500-carat Star Rose Quartz comes under the category of rare gemstones, due to its extraordinary size, color and distinct property of asterism, and it is set in a special silver setting designed by John Marshall to highlight its beauty.

More special settings from the Michael Scott collection, that enhances its uniqueness and value might be appropriate to the ongoing discussion. Here are some which I scouted from the internet :-
1) Queen of Kilimanjaro - World's largest faceted tanzanite weighing 242 carats mounted on a 18k white gold tiara with a serpentine band set with 803 green garnets and 913 colorless diamonds.
2) The Sapphire Cobra - A 64-carat, oval-cut, cornflower blue, Sri Lanka sapphire guarded by a solid gold cobra.
3) The Treasure of Gachala - An 83-carat cabochon emerald from the Coscuez mine, Colombia set in a bracelet of diamond and palygorskite, an opal-like mineral from Mexico

It's decent and outstanding piece.

Thanks afrojack and russelmark for your contributions and keeping the discussion going.

The Demantoid Garnet Butterfly Brooch and the Orchid Flower Sapphire Brooch are two stunning pieces from the Michael Scott Collection, representing jewelry designs with animal and plant motifs.

1) The Demantoid Garnet Butterfly brooch is set with 330 garnets and 472 diamonds, mounted on a unique titanium setting, making the brooch lighter for any wearer.
2) The Orchid Flower Sapphire Brooch set with sapphires, spinels and diamonds on a titanium setting. The sapphires weighing 33 carats are from Montana-USA, Mayanmar and Basel-Switzerland.

An outstanding piece no doubt from the category of modern jewelry designs is the stunning Ramona Orange Spessartite Garnet Necklace made up of 63 color-matched spessartite garnets from Ramona, California, weighing 165 carats, and 11 carats of white/colorless diamonds that highlight the garnet's intense orange color.

Thanks Joan and afrojack for more updates on the Michael Scott Collection.

The Paraiba Parrot Brooch is another interesting example of a jewelry design with an animal motif. The eye of the parrot is set with a 7-carat faceted pear-shaped Paraiba tourmaline, surrounded by 25 white diamonds and the feathers are set with 119 blue tourmalines with a total weight of 31 carats.

I have heard about the "Ceylon Sin Flower" in the Michael Scott Collection, but has never seen an image of this in the internet. Could someone please upload an image of this if you had come across one in the internet. Does anyone have any idea why this jewelry creation was christened the "Sin Flower" ?