shop what's new gem journeys
wishlists my shopping bag
 

fire opal - quetza-litzle-pyolliti
One of the most famous "Mexican fire opals" might not be one at all since it is "atypical" of fire opals mined today. The 35-carat opal called the "Aztec Sun God," was once part of the famous Hope collection (where it was called the Hope Opal). In his book Opals, author Fred Ward says: "[It is] a transparent blue gem with play-of-color [and] features a carved human face surrounded by sun rays. Assumed to be Mexican when catalogued in 1839, the opals origin remains unknown."
Ward says another well-documented fire opal, the 32-carat El Aquila Azteca (the "Aztec Eagle"), may have belonged to both Moctezuma II (1466-1520) and Emperor Maximilian of Mexico (1832-1867). In 1912, Mexican revolutionaries gave the stone to an American, Herbert J. Browne, as thanks for supplying arms and ammunition to the freedom forces.
Around 1960, a surge in the popularity of Mexican opals swept through Japan. At its height, only diamonds, rubies, and sapphires outsold them. Japan is still the largest market for Mexican fire opals.
 quetza-litzle-pyolliti
Described as "bestowing good outcomes and success while overcoming all danger to the wearer," fire opal has been called the "stone of discovers and conquerors" -- most probably because it was unknown to Europeans until the Spanish conquered Mexico.
According to Frank Leechman in The Opal Book, "Mexican opal first came to Europe, via the conquistadors, in the first quarter of the sixteenth century" -- included with their pillaged gold and other booty.

mexican fire opal, rough

Artifacts in Mexico prove that fire opal was known to the Aztecs (ca. 1200-1520) who decorated their most prized artworks and figurines with inlaid fire opal and used it in their jewelry, calling it quetza-litzle-pyolliti -- possibly in reference to Quetzalcoatl, the "Feathered Serpent," Aztec god of death and resurrection. The Mayas (in the Yucatan) and the Incas (in Peru) also treasured opal.

quetzalcoatl; image, codex borbonicus indigenous

Fire opal mining by the indigenous population seems to have ceased as a result of the Spanish conquest and the Spanish, apparently, had no interest in continuing.
The opal mines in Queretaro were only re-discovered in 1855 by a peon working on the plantations of the Hacienda Esperanza. However, mining operations didn't begin in earnest until Don Jose Maria Siurob opened the historic Santa Maria "Iris" mine in 1870. The Iris was closed in 1984. It then reopened several times and closed again in 1992.