Jewelry Lovers

Ever since man became acquainted with topaz, this noble stone has been paying dearly for the melodiousness of its name, which was formerly bestowed on the whole range of all yellow to golden brown gemstones. At the heart of such misnomers is the citrine, a variety of quartz mostly obtained through the heating of amethyst. This stone, lacking brilliance and fire, with its glassy luster, is not only far removed from, but not even worthy to be compared with, the incomparably more lively, more brilliant topaz, flaunting its warm golden tones. The glowing, fiery sparkle of topaz has always enchanted poets and men of taste with its beguiling resemblance to the flaming splendor of a noble wine. As a result of the poet’s words, the popular mind is imprinted with an image of topaz only as beautiful clear golden drops; in this way, however, other knowledge has been lost, namely, recognition of the wide scale of the blue shades and delicate pink tones of topaz, which are of equally enchanting intensity and strong luster.

The range of glittering pink topazes spans all stages of rose shades, culminating in an incomparable full and saturated rose-red which, in its flaring brilliance, even surpasses the exquisite morganite of the beryl family. As the golden topaz is indebted for its rich sunny tone to a harmonious blending in of peach-pink, so a hardly discernible neon-blue shimmers through the reddish specimens. The blue topaz bathes the eye with its fresh, shining azure blue, without ever reaching the deep saturation of the aquamarine. Of perfectly pure color, without the slightest addition of green, it presents a maidenly charm as its gradually diminishing color passes into colorless to pure white topaz. This, too, formerly caused some confusion. Thus, the Braganza Diamond of 1,68o carats in the Portuguese Crown Jewels is in fact a colorless topaz, while, on the contrary, a “topaz” half as big as a pigeon’s egg in a peasant jewel from the lower Rhine was recognized about 1929 as a yellow diamond.

The rarest are the pink-colored topazes, which, in their loveliest guise of sparkling vin-rose color, are native to the Urals. Since the Bolshevik October Revolution no precious stones have been exported thence—at least until recent times no gemstone deposits have been mined there. Somewhat lighter but of the purest cherry-blossom pink are the pink topazes from Brazil. In this country, too, their decided rarity holds good. Most of the pink topazes seen in the trade are heat-treated ones originally golden in color. For this purpose stones are chosen whose golden color, as a result of an unattractive reddish tinge, demands enhancement.

Topaz, crystallizing in the rhombic system, develops prisms with rectangular or lozenge-shaped basal planes, as well as many-faced terminations, and—thanks to its good gem hardness—takes an excellent polish. The extreme smoothness of its surface even provides a diagnostic property; for, as well as by its characteristic colors, it may easily be distinguished in the hand from other similar gemstones by its slippery touch. The considerably higher refractive index (1.62) gives topaz the advantage of superior brilliance over the pretentious citrine. In addition to this, a simple means of distinction offers itself to the gemmologist in the methylene iodide test.

With a specific gravity of 3.33 this solution separates the two rivals, in that the lighter citrine (2.65) floats, while the heavier topaz (3.53-3.56) sinks to the bottom. Even together, the Urals, Burma, Ceylon, and the United States cannot compete with that classic crucible of pegmatites in Brazil—the gem-rich state of Minas Gerais—which shelters under its weathered dome the choicest topazes both in quality and quantity; here they are recovered, together with aquamarines, either from their primary source or from the valley floors somewhat downstream. Their great scarcity is explained by the fluorine so vital to their existence—one of the volatile constituents, enriched in the pegmatitic residual magmas, from which the chemical compound results. Where the rare elements, such as beryllium, boron, fluorine, and lithium, providing the key to the genesis of beryl, topaz, and tourmaline, could not move far from their origin within the residual magmas, their compounds are found almost exclusively in pegmatites.

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