size: 43 x 24 mm weight: 12.35 grams material: platinum gemstones: natural Australian opal: 30 x 19 x 3 approx 10.00ct natural diamonds: 0.66ctw, VS-SI, G-H color necklace not included. only meant for display. Notes from the Curator This pendant carries an Australian opal of considerable size—ten carats—framed in a halo of round brilliant diamonds and hand-fabricated in platinum, a configuration that draws directly from the Edwardian tradition of the early twentieth century. Platinum and opal arrived in jewellery together during the Edwardian era, when the advent of the oxyacetylene torch allowed jewelers to work the dense metal into filigree patterns delicate enough to let light pass through the gem from multiple angles. White opals like this one fall into the N7–N9 body-tone range on the Australian grading scale, their pale milky base providing a canvas for the play-of-colour—here a shifting field of green and blue fire—that defines precious opal. Platinum keeps the backdrop neutral and lets all the color flashes come through equally, a pairing that became canonical for opals set in high jewellery. The oval cabochon cut maximizes the stone's face-up area, and the continuous halo amplifies its visual weight, a technique refined in the decade before World War I when platinum mountings reached their apogee.