Rande Bly postulates that there are three shades of Topaz

There are three Steuben shades of Topaz that Gardner listed.

1.) Pale Topaz (or Yellow Topaz)-(black light reactive, from uranium)

2.) Topaz (Regular) (Black light test unknown)

3.) Dark Topaz-(Black light reactive, from uranium)

First picture is factory line drawing showing Pale Topaz was made. Pale Topaz and Crystal is the last color combination listed.

Second picture is of shape 5114 Candlestick in Pale Topaz. This is the color that was mistakenly known as Citron Yellow.

Third picture is Dark Topaz that is shown correctly at the CSC website.

I want to focus on what is just regular Topaz. Gardner had Topaz correct in 1971. He showed a picture of a grouping of Amber and Topaz in ill. XXIX-B. The fourth picture is of the Gardner grouping.

What you see above is a picture showing six pieces of Amber and two pieces of Topaz. The two Topaz pieces shown are the Tadpole Prunt bowl front and center and the wine glass second to last on the right.

Topaz is a very rare color that I have never held in my hands. I do however have pictures of this color. We all know now that the other six pieces shown by Gardner are Amber.

The fifth picture is a color accurate up close and personal picture of the extremely rare Topaz.

The last picture I will show today is of the Gemstone Topaz.

A picture is worth a 1000 words, so let the pictures do the talking. In my opinion, if we are going to call a color Topaz we must be specific as to which Steuben color (or shade) of Topaz it really is.

Rande