cat’s-eye

cat’s-eye, any of several gemstones that, when cut en cabochon (in convex form, highly polished), display a luminous band reminiscent of the eye of a cat; this particular quality is termed chatoyancy. Precious cat’s-eye, the rarest and most highly prized, is a greenish chatoyant variety of chrysoberyl called cymophane; the chatoyant effect is due to minute parallel cavities. Quartz cat’s-eye, the commonest, owes its chatoyancy and grayish green or greenish colour to parallel fibres of asbestos in the quartz. The two may be distinguished by their specific gravities; chrysoberyl is much denser. Crocidolite cat’s-eye (African cat’s-eye), more commonly known as tigereye (or tiger’s-eye), is quartz that contains oriented fibres of crocidolite that have been replaced by silica. Corundum cat’s-eye is an imperfect star sapphire or ruby in which the star is reduced to a luminous zone.