TOURMALINES
Tourmaline is part of the most colorful of the gemstone families. Green Tourmaline (Verdelite) and Pink Tourmaline (Rubellite) are varieties of the tourmaline family. They have different elements giving them their colors. Iron and chromium make Tourmaline green, whereas manganese makes it pink. There are also rare Blue Tourmalines (Indigolites).
Green Tourmaline, Verdelith (12.18 ct)
Class: silicates (complex silicate)
Genesis: pegmatites (magma, Tourmalines form relatively late in "miarolitic“ cavities, in part in hydrothermally impacted cavities of pegmatitic bodies)
Known varieties: Rubellite, chrome Tourmaline, Verdelite, Indigolite
Colors: red, yellow, green, green-blue, neon blue and neon green (Paraíba Tourmaline if copper and manganese are the source of the color).
Hardness: 7
Optical effects: cat-eye effect
Most important deposits: Brazil, Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, USA
Red tourmaline, Rubellite (19.95 ct)
Tourmalines frequently exhibit strong color zoning. Homogeneously colored stones with little color change when viewed from different perspectives are very rare and desirable.
In the jewelry context there are so-called "Watermelon Tourmalines," which display a different palate of colors from inside to outside. This material is frequently used as disks in earrings, among other things. In the past Tourmaline was used by sailors as a pipe cleaner. To that end they heated certain Tourmalines, which gave them a surface charge. This charge is similar to balloons, when they are rubbed against a sweater and it causes the person's hair to stand up. Using this characteristic Tourmalines were inserted into sailors' pipes to pull the ashes out. A historical term for some black and dark-green Tourmalines is therefore "ash puller."
Violet Tourmaline, Cuprian (2.94 ct)
Tourmalines are among the minerals with the most interesting inclusions. Because Tourmalines in gemstone quality have very few inclusions, you have to search for them. But if the inclusions are more frequent and pronounced, their natural dynamics show up quite nicely in them. Liquid inclusions, which look like torn-apart cloth, offer a sense of the interaction between solids and liquids in the crystallization process.
Today many mines would love to receive tourmaline crystals. Crystals with some individual crystals on the source rock reach prices of up to one million euros at auctions.
Blue Tourmaline, Indigolite (12.39 ct)
Deutsches Edelsteinhaus DEH GmbH
Chief Executive Officers: Alexander Streeb, Oliver Kleimaier
Commercial Register Number: HRB 737047
