Knowledge
Tourmaline has been regarded as the gem of long-lasting love and friendship since ancient times. Coming in a rainbow of colours, tourmaline is a popular choice for decorating jewels of all kinds.
Gemstones
History and Lore
The name ‘tourmaline’ is derived from the Singhalese word 'toramalli' which was used for the first time when some of these stones were brought from Ceylon to Amsterdam. Meaning 'mixed gems', this reflected the confusion as to the exact identity of this stone with Dutch traders viewing these stones as multi-coloured pebbles, worn by water and found in gem gravels. It wasn’t until the 1800s that tourmaline was recognised as a distinct mineral species.
Tourmaline has a long and colourful history, with the ancient Egyptians believing its wide variety of colours resulted from travelling along the rainbow, capturing all the different shades as it went. It has also been thought of as the gemstone of friendship and everlasting love.
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Historically, tourmalines have been confused with both emeralds and rubies. The first tourmaline, discovered in 1554, was known as the 'Brazilian emerald', and red tourmalines can, confusingly, be known as rubellite. Remarkably, 'Caesar's Ruby', a 255.75 carat 'ruby' set atop the Russian crown jewels was discovered to be a rubellite in 1922.
Tourmaline sources
Tourmaline has been found in many sources throughout history, including the old Ceylon mines. It was later discovered in California, USA in 1892. The renowned gemmologist for Tiffany & Co., George F. Kunz wrote about the deposits in California, along with others in Maine, praising the quality of the stones. It has since become known as an American gem and much of the American tourmaline in the early 20th century was destined for China who particularly prized it.
Deposits were also discovered in Brazil in the first part of the century and Madagascan and Afghanistan deposits soon followed. Today, this gem can be found in lots of countries around the world, many on the African continent.
Physical Characteristics
Tourmalines are a group of closely related mineral species that share the same crystal structure but have different chemical compositions which are responsible for their physical appearance.
Tourmaline comes in a vast spectrum of hues and has one of the widest colour ranges of any gemstone. Some even feature multiple colours in one crystal, which are known as particolour.
Some specific shades of tourmaline are better known by other names. The reddish/purple variety is often called rubellite, paraiba tourmaline exhibits a vivid bluish green hue, chrome tourmaline is an intense green, indicolite showcases a dark violet/blue colour and watermelon tourmaline features both pink and green in one stone.
Some tourmalines also show a cat’s-eye effect called chatoyancy. Cat’s-eye tourmalines are most often green, blue, or pink, with an eye that’s softer than that in fine cat’s-eye chrysoberyl. These are often cut as cabochons to best display this effect.
Visit Berganza to view our beautiful selection of tourmaline jewels, dating back to the Victorian era. From rings to pendants, we invite you to explore our entire collection online.
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Opals
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Onyx
Citrine
Tourmalines can occur in many shades of pink, red, yellow, blue, brown, black and green.
Tourmaline ranges greatly in price depending on its size, variety and quality.
A little bit of water won’t harm a tourmaline. To clean it, we would recommend using a soft cloth.
Tourmaline is not included in the ‘big four’ precious gemstones (diamond, sapphire, emerald and ruby) and would instead be classed as semi-precious.
With a hardness of 7 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale, they are fairly durable and can be worn on a daily basis as long as some care is taken.