***Top quality gem blue zircons over 10 carats trade at a minimum price of $200 per carat and go up from there depending on the size of the stone and the quality of the color. Blue zircon, the most popular color, is produced by heat treatment of brown zircon. But not all brown zircon will turn blue when heated; only some zircon has the right physical structure for this to occur. This is why most blue zircon comes from certain sources in Cambodia or Burma. Blue zircon is a reasonably hard gem with a Mohs hardness of about 7 to 7.5. Blue zircon has some unique properties that make it very popular with gemstone aficionados. Not only does zircon have outstanding brilliance, but it also has very strong dispersion or fire, the tendency to split white light into the spectral colors. Zircon also has very pronounced birefringence or double refraction, with a wide variance between the two refractive indices. This can be often be observed with the naked eye when you look down through the table of a cut zircon; you will observe facet doubling that makes the facet edges appear blurred.
AMERICAN ART DECO
Sterling Coffee and tea set on silverplate tray c. 1935
Sterling Coffee and Tea Set: Sterling with exotic wood finials and finials
Marks: 925, Sterling
Tray: Silverplated brass
Marks: Silverplated On Brass, PM Italy, Argente
Coffee pot: H: 7 ½” x Tea pot: H: 6 ¼” x Creamer: H: 3 ¾” x Sugar: 3 3/8”
Tray: 13 9/16″ square
AMERICAN NEON DESIGN
OK Chevrolet Used Truck Sign c.1940’s
Blue, yellow and red baked enamel on metal with an orange neon tube spelling out “OK” encircled with a round blue neon border, original paper tag.
Marks: Registration Mark (in the enamel) Original paper tag, This is an OK Used Truck, Authorized Chevrolet Dealer, Chevrolet Motor Division, General Motors Corporation
Diameter: 31” x Depth: 6”
Price: $10,500
WALTER PAUL SUTER USA
AMERICAN ENCAUSTING TILING CO. New York, NY
Art Deco Seated Female Figure with Draped Skirt and Holding an Art Deco Vase 1929
Hand-modeled and molded cream glazed earthenware figure with gold and silver details on a separate, but matching black glazed earthenware base.
Signed: SUTER ‘29 (under glaze on back right hand corner)
H: 13″ x D: 7 1/2″ x W: 9″
Price: $14,500
Walter Paul Suter was born in Basel, Switzerland in 1902 and studied there at the School of Fine and Applied Arts. He moved to the United States in 1924 and settled in New York. He was a member of the American Ceramic Society, as well as the Society of Swiss Painters, Sculptors & Architects. In 1932 Suter won first prize in the Robineau Member Exhibition in Syracuse. He was a member of the American Encaustic Tiling Company in NYC.