IT is not very often that a discovery of a new type of gemstone makes the industry jump to attention. Most ‘new’ gems are first found in such small quantities or in colours not obviously attractive that they become specimen stones for the most devout gemologists only. Yet, when the Brazilian Paraíba tourmaline was first discovered in the 1980s, the market was thrown into a complete frenzy.
This is one of my favourite stones, because it comes in so many colours: rich reds, pastel pinks, peach colours, intense emerald greens, deep blues and vivid yellows, even a bi-coloured combination of pink and green in a single crystal, known as a watermelon tourmaline. The stone is only slightly rivalled by sapphire for its variety of colours.
Tourmaline covers a group of closely related minerals, including elbaite, schorl and dravite. It has a complex borosilicate composition and a hardness of 7½, so the stones have a good durability for setting into rings. The crystals are found in many parts of the world, including Russia, Madagascar, the US, Brazil, Myanmar and east Africa.
Tourmalines tempted the Spanish conquistadors in Brazil in the 1500s, but they likely thought the green tourmaline was emerald, which is unsurprising as they were stealing all the emeralds they could find from Colombia at the time. Although Brazilian stone cutters would have recognised the different crystal shapes of tourmaline and emerald, the Spanish would not have truly known what they were holding until the scientific classification of minerals in the 1800s.
Denne historien er fra October 13, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra October 13, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
