Magic of
Colours
Colour
immediately appeals to our emotions and stimulated them, making us feel happy,
vivacious or calm, making us experience magic and freedom. And where would
colour be more permanently or beautifully presented than in a gemstone? In the
fascinating realm of gemstones Emeralds shine in the most burning green imaginable.
Aquamarines sparkle in all shades of blue – from light pale sky-blue to the
deep blue of the sea. And charming pink Morganite enthrals women all over the
world. And only few people will realise that all these different gemstones
belong to one and the same family. Aquamarine,
Emerald
and Morganite
are all Beryls – just like Golden Beryl, gold-green Heliodor and colourless
Goshenite. No matter whether blue, green, yellow, colourless or pink, their
chemical and physical consistence is basically identical, they only differ in
colour.
What are the reasons for this? The story is ancient and
fascinating, it happened millions of years ago, when in the core of our Earth
fine crystals were created at high pressure and enormous heat. Beryls are in
fact Beryllium aluminium silicates. Colourless as pure Beryl (see Goshenite),
their structure allows for the integration of various other substances, which
will in turn cause the different colours to appear and turn an unexciting
colourless gemstone into a green, yellow, pink or blue precious beauty.
Iron is responsible for making Beryl appear sea blue and
turning it into one of the most popular and well-known gemstones, Aquamarine.
This stone not only sparkles in all the colours of the water – colours which
complement almost any colour of eyes and complexion. Often it seams sea-green,
a typical characteristic of the stone. It is the favourite stone of many
creative designers and is set apart by quite a number of positive features: the
distribution of colour is even throughout the stone, there are only little
inclusions so that it is almost flawless, it has a good hardness and a
beautiful lustre.
It is closely related to Emerald. This most valuable of
all Beryls owes its colour to chromium and/ or vanadium, which make it show the
maybe most beautiful and brightest green of all respective gemstones coining a
class all by itself, emerald-green. Fine crystal inclusions, fissures and flaws
are not only tolerated in this valuable gemstone, they are even considered as
identifying features stating its authenticity. Experts have lovingly called
them the Emerald’s "jardin” (= garden).
Beryl reacts completely different, however, when manganese
comes into the picture. This element lends a fine feminine pink, rose or peach
colour to the stone, which is then called Morganite, besides Emerald and
Aquamarine probably the best-known representative of the beryl group. Formerly
it was simply known as "pink beryl”. Only since 1911 it has been called
"Morganite” in honour of New York banker and gemstone lover John Pierpoint
Morgan. This gemstone loves large-scale generosity, since only from a certain
size on the beauty of its colour, usually a pale pink to pale violet, can be
really appreciated.
Small traces of
uranium are sufficient to lend colourless Beryl a more or less satiated golden
colour – typical characteristic of Golden Beryl. This gemstone also shows the
same good qualities as its blue brother Aquamarine. Usually it is also mined in
the same occurrences alongside Aquamarine. Golden beryl fascinates us by its
fine range of yellows, from palest lemon shade to warm gold. Contrary to
Emerald, however, it shows only few inclusions.
Iron and uranium in combination are responsible for the
fresh and invigorating green-yellow of another Beryl variety, of Heliodor. The
stone has been aptly named, for "helios” is the Greek word for "sun”
and "doron” denotes a gift. Heliodor is thus a gift from the sun to all
mankind.
From time to time there are Beryls without such traces of
elements lending colour to the stone. In these cases we end up with
"simply” colourless Beryl, which is named Goshenite in the trade according
to its occurrence in Goshen in Massachusetts/USA. Colourless Beryl is rare and
of little importance as gemstone. However, its history is quite important, for
it is considered to be responsible for the German word "Brille”, denoting
spectacles. Even in antiquity it was originally used for the lenses of
spectacles.
The name Beryl as such originally is rooted in India.
Based on the Sanskrit word "veruliyam" – an old term for the gemstone
Chrysoberyl – from these roots there later developed the Greek word
"beryllos".
Beryls are popular gemstones, and not only because of
their gorgeous colours. They also convince because of their high brilliance and
their excellent hardness of 7.5 making them very suited for everyday wear. The
typical hexagonal crystal structure of Beryls with usually vertically striped
surfaces are mainly mined in the South American occurrences and in Middle and
Western Africa. However, they are also found on Madagascar, in Russia and the
Ukraine and in the USA . The skilled hands of expert gemstone cutters turn them
into a wide range of many-faceted shapes. Especially popular cuts for Beryls
are rectangular or square step cuts, since a clear design will succeed in best
bringing out the transparent beauty of this multi-coloured gemstone family.