February will be a busy month of celebration for many Arizonans, with Valentine’s Day, the Super Bowl and Arizona’s 102nd birthday.
While most people may not be aware of the latter, a fine jewelry store in Chandler gave Arizona, or, more accurately, one lucky buyer, the most rare and exquisite birthday present.
Coffin & Trout Fine Jewelers handcrafted a pendant titled “The Phoenix” to commemorate Arizona’s growth just in time for the state’s birth month ― and Valentine’s Day.
“I think it’s a celebration of Arizona’s birthday. It’s just an inspiration that covets the city’s namesake, which is a city that certainly has been reborn many times before. I was born and raised her in 1956 and so obviously the change that I’ve seen here in the Valley has been tremendous and in my estimation, all very good change,” President of Coffin & Trout Randy Coffin said.
The center gemstone, a bi-color topaz, was the inspiration behind the pendant.
“When I saw this particular gemstone, which is basically an imperial by-color topaz, my mind pretty quickly formed an image of what I wanted it to be, which was somewhat of a representation of the Phoenix bird, the bird of fire. So we called it the Phoenix,” Coffin said.
The rarity of the gemstone and the unique aspect of Arizona seemed to make the perfect combination for a pendant.
“The other thing that’s so unique about the piece of course is the rarity of that particular gemstone. It’s quite rare. It comes from only one place in Brazil and it’s found out of a particular mine,” Coffin said.
Not only does the pendant contain the 5.74ct bi-color topaz set in platinum, but it also has a pear shaped garnet and tourmaline accented with 18 karat rose and yellow gold and diamonds. Every detail in the pendant is symbolic.
“You have the fiery red and orange topaz, which is representing the Phoenix itself. As soon as I saw that flaming reddish pink tip in the stone, I instantly thought of flames, which led me back to this bird. Then of course the wings, the shimmering diamonds reaching up into the pearl shaped garnet, which is the orange stone, you see on the secondary stone. Then the top is the tourmaline turquoise, which kind of represents the color of the summer sun here, the sun setting,” Coffin said.
The pendant is part of Coffin & Trout’s Masterpiece Collection of mostly one-of-a kind pieces. To no surprise, “The Phoenix” pendant already sold for an estimate of $33,500.
“There is only one and very likely will only be one,” Coffin said.
