Titanite, as it is known to modern mineralogists for its significant titanium content, was first recognized as a new mineral by the great German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth in 1795. Soon after its discovery, in 1801, the wedge-shaped crystals inspired the mineralogist Rene Just Haüy, the name bearer of mineral hauyne, to introduce the name “Sphene” after “sphenos,” meaning wedge in Greek.
*Gem Focus & Market Pulse (Free Subscriber)The fascination of deep blue matrix speckled with golden colored pyrite flecks of lapis lazuli goes back several millennia, almost to the beginning of all civilizations.
*Gem Focus & Market Pulse (Free Subscriber)Rainbow Garnet: All Colors on Black.... Garnet group minerals are never short of marvels. There are more than twenty-four related species of garnets, ten of which are also known as gemstones. Structurally similar, gem garnets differ from…
*Gem Focus & Market Pulse (Free Subscriber)Fancy Zoisite: A collector’s mineral from Austria to a celebrated gem of Tanzania. The name saualpite for a collector’s mineral from Saualpe in Carinthia, Austria must have sounded strange to Professor A. G. Werner of…
*Gem Focus & Market Pulse (Free Subscriber)Turquoise is found in many locations in the world not only in Iran, but also Tibet, China and the US. It may vary in color as well as purity. The purest sky blue material is named as robin’s egg and considered to be the finest quality when it is really compact.
*Gem Focus & Market Pulse (Free Subscriber)There are two suggestions for where the name topaz originated from; one is “topazios” in Greek referring to the island, also known as Zabargad, and the other is “tapaz” in Sanskrit translates as fire. Although Zabargad Island in today’s Egypt is the source
*Gem Focus & Market Pulse (Free Subscriber)Tourmaline: The Mineral that comes in every Imaginable color.
*Gem Focus & Market Pulse (Free Subscriber)Blue Sapphire: The Backbone of the US Colored Stone Industry. Corundum is an aluminum oxide mineral that occurs in the earth’s crust in abundance. It has been known as a common abrasive called “emery” when…
*Gem Focus & Market Pulse (Free Subscriber)Spinel, the most misidentified and under appreciated gem in history, is gaining back its glory. Most gem professionals are made to believe that if it wasn’t for modern gemology, we wouldn’t know the difference between red spinel and…
*Gem Focus & Market Pulse (Free Subscriber)Ruby, the birthstone of July, is the king of gemstones. Ruby, the king of gemstones, has traditionally been much rarer than sapphire in nature, although both are varieties of the same mineral. This vibrant slightly purplish red colored…
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