IS THERE NEED FOR REVIEW

In more recent times and in conjunction with the discovery of some new precious opal occurrences as well as other discoveries of non-precious or ornamental opal varieties many in the opal industry in particular and the jewellery industry as a whole have begun to suggest that the Opal Nomenclature as published by the GAA in the Australian Gemmologist in 1997.

THE CURRENT DISCUSSION BEFORE THE INDUSTRY

The present day proposal for discussion in the opal, gemstone, jewellery and jewellery valuing and appraisal industry revolves around the classification of opal into 8 categories:

Natural precious opal
Natural precious opal on host rock
Natural precious opal in host rock
Natural ornamental or common opal
Natural hydrophane opal
Treated opal
Composite opal
Synthetic and imitation opal

SOME HISTORY

Opal classification or nomenclature has been the subject of discussion almost ever since opal was mined in Australia. There have been many attempts, and many different documents published and ideas expressed. The discussion has resulted in many articles in the Australian Gemmologist, some of which will find its way into the literature section of the Academy over time. A couple of examples are:

May 1971 - p24 - The Classification of Black opal - NSW opal Research Group

November 1971 - p16 - Black opal nomenclature - A Kalokerinos

February 1972 - p Opal Nomenclature discussion - P.A. Males

August 1973 - p31 - Opal Classification -your problem - J.H. Oughton (Editor)

However lets not go back too far in history for the present. In 1979 the first attempt a providing suitable legislation for precious opal trading in the industry was adopted by the South Australian Government. In the SA Trade Standards act of 1979, definitions and classifications were detailed and became law.

Some details and a reprint of the legislation included in regulations in 1985 is available: here:

The South Australian legislation was perhaps Oriented to the industry in South Australia, and was primarily instituted for a discussion of composite opal (then only doublets and triplets, and treated Andamooka matrix opal. Also included was the first discussion regarding synthetic and imitation opal. In recent times and very unfortunately these trade regulations have disappeared from legislation

In about 1995, the subject of opal classification again was raised in conjunction with an increase of laboratory gemstone reports and discussion in the Australian industry that identification, descriptions for Australian precious opal was becoming an issue that needed to rectified. So a committee was formed under the auspices of the Gemmological Association of Australia.

The result of the committees discussions resulted in the publishing of the article in the 1997 issue of the Australian Gemmologist. The nomenclature as published was then to be taken and explained to CIBJO the World Jewellery Confederation for adoption and inclusion in CIBJO documents.

The Australian representative for CIBJO at the time did this at the CIBJO conference shortly after the nomenclature was published and the Australian contribution was well accepted. What did not happen was that the document was not adopted at the CIBJO meeting.

However the nomenclature as proposed received a good general acceptance both in Australia and in the world gemstone community.

CURATORS NOTE:

The opal nomenclature as published was suitably presented to the Gemmological Association of Australia’s (GAA) Federal Conference in 1998 and adopted as a suitable nomenclature for opal at the conference and included in the GAA constitution for use.

Further, the publishing of the article on opal nomenclature received the award of the the Australian Gemmologist, The Bill Hicks Award, for the best Australian paper in the AG in 1997 by the Author, Anthony Smallwood.

WHY A NEED FOR REVIEW?

There are two things in particular that occurred after the nomenclature was published.

There was a discovery of precious hydrophane opal in Ethiopia in large quantities.
A substantial amount of hydrophane was being treated, to a black body colour and being misrepresented in opal trading.

Another committee was brought into existence both in Australia and overseas. The new committee was formed with colleagues from the GAA, and the Opal Association, form the overseas point of view a committee was convened under the auspices of the GILC, the Gemstone Industry and Laboratory Conference associated with the ICA, International Coloured Stone Association.

The GILC discussions were conducted via email!, although not by zoom as we might do today. It was realised that the most notable issue for discussion was the advent of hydrophane opal and its subsequent treatment. Discussion formalised a definition of a new “type” of opal under the heading “Type 1b precious hydrophane opal” to be included in the presently operating opal nomenclature.

The GILC information can be viewed here:

FURTHER DISCUSSION REVEALED THAT NOMENCLATURE RIEVEW SHOULD CONTAIN MORE CHANGES

As the original nomenclature was “up for review” and in the original discussions nomenclature was deigned to be a “Living document” to change as discussions progressed. It was highlighted that further changes should be considered. Some of the discussion revolved around the following topics:

The original nomenclature contained information on varieties of opal such as the terms “Black opal, Dark opal, Light opal and Crystal opal. Presently discussion amongst our colleagues are that these terms are more related to the “grading” or commercial trading or valuation/appraisal terminology and should be considered separately from more general and gemmological terminology.
In some ways the original opal nomenclature was “Australian industry eccentric”, at the time, statistics suggested that Australia produced 95% of the worlds commercial opal production. This is no longer the case with the advent of precious opal from Ethiopia.
Further to this discussion, to use the term common opal for “Mexican Fire Opal” is possibly disrespectful to the beauty of Mexican opal, the same might be said for aqua blue and pink opal from Peru. It has been suggested to use the term “ornamental” opal for these opal types in a similar fashion that we use the term Ornament Quartz in gemmology for the non crystalline varieties of the Quartz gemstone family.

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