Morganite & the Tiffany & Co. connection
Terminated Pink Beryl / Morganite with Green Tourmaline & Quartz from Pech, Kunar Province, Afghanistan
Morganite is the light pink variety of the mineral beryl. Other varieties of the mineral beryl include emerald (green beryl), aquamarine (blue beryl) and heliodor (yellow beryl). Morganite’s subtle pink color comes from trace quantities of manganese included in the crystal structure.
Morganite was discovered in Madagascar in 1910. George Frederick Kunz, Tiffany & Co.’s mineralogist, proposed naming this new rose-colored variety of beryl after his friend and customer, J.P. Morgan. In the early 1900’s, J.P Morgan was well known for donating beautiful and valuable gemstones to the American Museum of History in New York and the Museum of Natural History in Paris.
Interestingly, the mineral kunzite was named after George Frederick Kunz to honor him for confirming that a new purple mineral found in 1902 was a previously unrecognized variety of the mineral spodumene.
