A 2.20-carat alexandrite is a genuine rarity in itself — most material coming out of Malyshevo today is cut well under a carat, and clean rough large enough to hold a full pear shape at this weight almost never reaches the cutting wheel intact. This one did, and the cutter built the shape to show it off rather than just preserve the number on the report. In daylight the stone reads a cool bluish-green with real depth across the pavilion; under incandescent light it turns to a convincing purple, the same transformation that made this deposit legendary the moment it was found in 1830. At 9.71 × 6.60 × 5.08 mm, it has the kind of scale collectors specifically look for in Russian alexandrite — weight this size, in this species, from this source, doesn't come around often.
