Harlequin Opal: The Rarest and Most Expensive Pattern of Opal

Peacock harlequin Opal. Photo: Opal Auctions

Harlequin Opal
A variety of Precious Opal in which the play of color is arranged in a vivid harlequin, diamond-shaped, or rectangular-shaped pattern.

This is an extremely rare pattern. Some stones may contain just a small part of the opal in this pattern but the pattern needs to encase the whole stone not just one part in order to be called a true Harlequin Opal.

This pattern has been unique to black opals from Lightning Ridge and red fire is by far the most rare. Black Opal with a body tone of N1 with this pattern can be worth around $ 5,000 to $ 30,000 per carat on the opal fields.

Barry O’Leary’s (Opal author) definition of a Harlequin opals is ”precious opal showing a regular mosaic-like chromatic pattern in rounded, angular, or roughly square patches of about equal size presenting a spangled appearance.

Harlequin Opal

Harlequin Black Opal. Photo: Black Opal Direct

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