A piece of gemset jewellery has always been a prized item in a fine jewellery collection and around a decade ago, the demand was mostly for the classic precious gemstones, diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds and to a lesser extent, garnets and opals.  But no more!  Although these traditionally precious gemstones are still highly prized, increasingly women are looking to include the more unusual gemstones in their fine jewellery pieces.  One such gemstone is peridot.

Pronounced "pair-ee-doh", peridot was popular in early Greek and Roman jewellery and Cleopatra's renowned "emerald" collection is now thought to have been mostly comprised of peridot gemset jewellery!  

There are also many myths of peridots having the power to cure asthma, reduce fevers and increase the potency of medicines.  These  fabled powers may arise from one the more unusal peridot origins.  Although mined on Earth in Tanzania, Kenya , South Africa and other locations, the most unusual peridot comes from meteorites!  Known as pallasites, some meteor peridot is reputed to have been facetted and set into jewellery!  This means peridot is truely an extraterrestrial gemstone!

Peridot ranges in colour from golden lime greens to rich grass greens and from light yellow-green to deep olive.  It is widely admired for its sunlit citrus glows and has come to symolise warmth and charity.  It is also August's birthstone.  

Go on, add a piece of eyecatching peridot gemset jewellery to your fine jewellery collection!