Dictionary Definition
morganite n : a kind of pink beryl used as a
gemstone
User Contributed Dictionary
English
- Physical properties:
- Moh's Hardness: 8.0
- Specific gravity: 2.6-2.8
- Color: Pink
- Luster: Glassy, transparent
- Fracture: Conchoidal
- Cleavage: Poor basal
- Habit: Hexagonal - Dihexagonal bipyramidal
Extensive Definition
Morganite, also known as "Pink Beryl," "Rose
Beryl," "Pink Emerald," and "Cesian Beryl," is a rare light pink to
rose-colored gem-quality
variety of the mineral
beryl (Be3Al2(SiO3)6),
which is better known for its green variety (emerald) and its blue variety
(aquamarine).
Morganite was named for financier (and gem and mineral collector)
J. P.
Morgan. Orange/yellow varieties of morganite can also be found,
and color banding is common. The mineral turns pinker upon
high-temperature treatment.
Discovery and naming
Morganite was first discovered together with
other gemstone minerals, such as tourmaline and kunzite, at Pala, California,
early in the twentieth century. This started a bonanza for these
quite popular gemstones which drew the attention of gemologist
George
Frederick Kunz, who knew that pink beryl was quite a
rarity.
In 1911, Kunz suggested naming the pink variety
of beryl "morganite" after J.P. Morgan (the famous financier), his
biggest customer at the New York jeweler Tiffany's.
. Ever since, the stone has held a certain popularity with
Tiffany's, though it still remains a relatively scarce gem.
By the turn of the century, Morgan had become one
of the most notable collectors of gems and minerals, and had
assembled the most important gem collection in the United
States, with over 1000 examples of American gemstones. Morgan's
collection was exhibited at the World's Fair in Paris in 1889, The exhibit won
two golden awards and drew the attention of important scholars,
lapidaries, and the general public. Tiffany's, with Kunz as their
"chief gemologist," had actually assembled Morgan's first
collection. Kunz then continued to build a second, even finer,
collection for Morgan, exhibited in Paris in 1900. These
collections were donated to the
American Museum of Natural History in New York, where
they were known as the Morgan-Tiffany and the Morgan-Bement
collections.
Morganite is also be known as "pink beryl," or in
the jewelry]] trade as "pink emerald." Attempts to change the names
of beryl gem varieties were a matter of some contention in the gem
trade, but this ended for morganite when National Jeweler Magazine
declared in a cover story (Vol. 36, No. 12; June 16, 1994), "Morganite:
It's Pink Emerald Now." In July, 2005, the auction
house Sotheby
International sold a 947-carat morganite Islamic prayer bead in an
Islamic art auction in London, calling the
gem "Pink Emerald." This was the first major auction house to use
the jewelry trade term pink emerald instead of the mineral name
morganite.
The Rose of Maine
On October 7,
1989, one of
the largest gem morganite specimens ever uncovered, eventually
called "The Rose of Maine," was found at the Bennett Quarry in
Buckfield, Maine. The crystal,
originally somewhat orange in hue, was 23 cm long and about 30 cm
across, and weighed in (along with its matrix) at just over 50
lbs.
This ill-fated stone was later shattered by the
brothers leasing the quarry at the time of the discovery, in spite
of the fact that the Smithsonian
had offered a very large sum for the stone 'as is.' The remains of
the stone would be cut into smaller gemstones that, all together,
did not come close in value to the original offer.
Chemical and physical properties
The chemical composition of beryl is beryllium
(14%) aluminium (19%) silicate (67%), usually containing alkali
ions, other minerals, water, and gases. It crystallizes in
hexagonal shapes, known as habit, and is in the dihexagonal-dipyramidal
class of the Hexagonal
crystal system. Beryls sometimes crystalize in well formed
hexagonal prisms with pedion (flat) terminations. It has refractive
index values of 1.57 to 1.58 with weak dichroism. Cleavage
is absent to poor in one direction. The hardness is 7.5-8 on the
Mohs
hardness scale, and the specific
gravity ranges from 2.66-2.83.
Many sources attribute morganite's color to the
element manganese in
interstitial sites in the beryl's ring structure. Other references
attribute the color to the element caesium
Value as a gemstone
Morganite is much rarer than other common beryls,
such as aquamarine and heliodor. Its value is influenced by demand,
and is generally less well known than aquamarine. Red beryl
()bixbite), also known
as "red emerald," is also very rare and is primarily found in the
Wah-Wah Mountains of Utah.
Morganite can be routinely heat treated to remove
patches of yellow and is occasionally treated by irradiation to
improve its color.
References
morganite in French: Morganite
morganite in Latvian: Morganīts
morganite in Lithuanian: Morganitas
morganite in Japanese: モルガナイト