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History |
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Tanzanite History
Tanzanite - The Celebration of New Life. The Tanzanite Story
Deep in the foothills of Africa's tallest mountain, the legendary Kilimanjaro, lies hidden a tiny cache of a unique and precious gemstone. Created hundreds of million years ago when the continents collided, tanzanite owes its existence to a cataclysm little short of a geological miracle.
Tanzanite is a gemstone variety of the mineral zoisite, a relatively abundant mineral. However, the unlikely presence of vanadium in combination with other specific geological conditions produced the rare - and only possible - environment for tanzanite's conception. Today, tanzanite is buried within a labyrinth of complex folds beneath the earth's surface.
'Tanzanite is only to be found in a thin strip about 5km long' says Reyno Scheepers, geology professor at Stellenbosch University and world-renowned expert on the gem. 'It's the only source in the world. And it will be exhausted in about 15 years.'
So could Mother Earth ever produce tanzanite again? 'Perhaps,' smiles the professor. 'But only if the continents collided again under the same precise conditions and then we waited more than 550 million years, the time it took to create tanzanite.'
It is hardly surprising that tanzanite is individualistic as it is when you consider where it comes from. Tanzania, which takes its name from the old colonial territory of Tanganyika and the island of Zanzibar, is the site of Africa's deepest lake as well as its highest peak. And if that is not distinctive enough, Tanzania boasts another geological wonder, the Olduvai Gorge, where excavations have yielded up some of the earliest fossilized hominid remains ever discovered.
The tanzanite mining area, known as Merelani, has been divided into four blocks. London Stock exchange listed TanzaniteOne owns the mining licence for the largest, Block C, where it has developed the world's most modern non-diamond gemstone mine. At the center of Block C lies the Juuyawatu Pit - allegedly the site of tanzanite's discovery. According to folklore, the land had been struck, and set ablaze by a bolt of lightning. When all the cinders had finally settled and the thick smoke had abated, the mystical gemstones were revealed to the world. While the tale has many variations, the account most widely accepted attributes the find to a Maasai tribesman named Ali Juuyawatu, who came upon a piece of translucent rock. Fascinated by its blue-violet hue, he shared his find with Manual D'Souza, a tailor by profession and prospector by passion, who happened to be in the region in search of rubies.
D'Souza was delighted! He thought he had found a new source of spectacular sapphires. However, gemmological tests revealed that the stones were not sapphires because their colour was a multitude of blue hues and their composition too complex. This was an even more exciting first discovery, so new, in fact, that D'Souza had no idea that he had encountered a gemstone that up until then had never been seen and, of course, was unnamed.
Halfway around the world, the significance of the discovery was plain to Henry B. Platt, great grandson of Louis Comfort Tiffany and later president and chairman of New York's Tiffany & Co. It was Platt who named the stone tanzanite and who, at the gem's debut at Tiffany in October 1968, remarked that it was 'the most beautiful blue stone discovered in over 2 000 years'.
Tanzanite's most outstanding feature is that it radiates different colours simultaneously. When cut and polished, the stone reflects a kaleidoscope of indigo, royal blue and lilac. This range of tones and hues offers jewellery designers a rich palette from which to create their pieces. Stones with the deepest intensity of colour fetch the highest of prices.
Of all coloured gemstones, tanzanite is the one most sought after by visitors to Africa. There are many reasons for this, but probably the most important is that it is so uniquely African, so very rare and so exceptionally beautiful. In general, blue gemstones are highly favoured because blue is a colour that most can wear and relate to. With tanzanite, this is all the more true because of the stones extraordinary colour - at its best, a rich velvety blue with a hint of violet, reminiscent of rare Kashmir sapphires. Another reason that tanzanite is so prized is that it is available in large sizes. Set off beautifully in platinum or white-gold, tanzanite also makes a strikingly sophisticated impression when combined with diamonds.
In recognition of tanzanite's growing desirability, the American Gemstone Association (AGTA) named tanzanite as a December birthstone in 2002, amending a list that had not been changed since 1912.
'Affordability and distinctive beauty have earned this gem a status that rivals that of sapphire,' says Douglas Hucker, AGTA's executive director. 'Although the Tiffany & Co. connection gained the newcomer worldwide publicity, tanzanite has won international popularity on its own merits in the last decade.'
While December's official nomination is appropriate, increasingly tanzanite is regarded as the birthstone; a talisman of new beginnings, treasured moments and life's most precious miracles.
Tanzanite has historically represented transformation and a better life for the people of Tanzania. Recent Maasai tradition tells of how pieces of tanzanite were given by Maasai Chiefs to their wives on the birth of a baby to bestow upon the child a healthy, safe and positive life. According to their customs, only women who have been blessed with the miracle of new life have the honour of wearing blue coloured beads and garbs.
Interestingly, this symbolism associated with tanzanite and the celebration of new life is being adapted more and more by other cultures. Tanzanite is frequently being given on the birth of a child not only to celebrate new life but also as an heirloom as its supply will be extinct at the birth of the child's child. So make sure you are part of this great heritage.
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The Tanzanite Gallery offers you the opportunity to purchase a rare Gemstone, A Thousand Times Rarer than DiamondsTanzanite is so rare, it has become the Fashion symbol of Celebrities and Stars.This is an opportunity of being the Proud Owner of Tanzanite.
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