TOPAZ

Honey yellow. Fiery orange. Cyclamen pink. Icy blue. In warm or cool tones, topaz is a lustrous and brilliant gem.

OVERVIEW

ABOUT TOPAZ

Topaz actually has an exceptionally wide color range that, besides brown, includes various tones and saturations of blue, green, yellow, orange, red, pink, and purple. Colorless topaz is plentiful and is often treated to give it a blue color. Topaz is also pleochroic, meaning that the gem can show different colors in different crystal directions.

Topaz Description

Placeholder Alt Text — This selection of gems from Ouro Prêto, Brazil, and Russia’s Ural Mountains, displays the golden orange to pinkish-red color range of precious topaz. The gems range from 7.61 to 14.33 carats in size.

Many consumers know topaz as simply an inexpensive blue gem. They’re surprised to learn that its blue color is hardly ever natural: It’s almost always caused by treatment. They might also be surprised to know that topaz has so many more colors to offer gem lovers, including pinks and purples that rival the finest fancy sapphires.

Reddish Purple Pear-shaped Topaz

This superb reddish-purple pear-shaped topaz from Brazil’s Capão mine displays the gem’s top color. – Courtesy Dr. Wagner Colombarolli

Topaz is allochromatic, which means that its color is caused by impurity elements or defects in its crystal structure rather than by an element of its basic chemical composition. The element chromium causes natural pink, red, and violet-to-purple colors in topaz. Imperfections at the atomic level in the topaz crystal structure can cause yellow, brown, and blue color. Brown is a common topaz color, and the gem is sometimes mistakenly called “smoky quartz.”

So far, commercial deposits of imperial topaz are found in a single area of the world: Ouro Prêto in Brazil. The 6.00-carat pear shape and 3.82-carat antique cut display nuances of the gem’s color. – Courtesy Suwa & Son

Against the light, this crystal’s color zones and high clarity stand out clearly. It might be possible to fashion a unique gem from this piece. – Courtesy Dr. Wagner Colombarolli

Topaz crystals are typically elongated, with grooves parallel to their lengths. For this reason, they’re commonly cut into a long oval or pear shapes. These crystals show orange, pink, and brown colors. – Eric Welch/GIA

The color varieties are often identified simply by hue name—blue topaz, pink topaz, and so forth—but there are also a couple of special trade names. Imperial topaz is a medium reddish-orange to orange-red. This is one of the gem’s most expensive colors. Sherry topaz—named after the sherry wine—is a yellowish-brown or brownish yellow to orange. Stones in this color range are often called precious topaz to help distinguish them from the similarly colored but less expensive citrine and smoky quartz.

Topaz is also pleochroic, meaning that the gem can show different colors in different crystal directions.

Topaz History and Lore

Most authorities agree that the name topaz comes from Topazios, the old Greek name for a small island in the Red Sea, now called Zabargad. (The island never produced topaz, but it was once a source of peridot, which was confused with topaz before the development of modern mineralogy.) Some scholars trace the origin back to Sanskrit (an ancient language of India) and the word topas or tapaz, meaning “fire.”

The ancient Greeks believed that topaz gave them strength. In Europe during the Renaissance (the period from the 1300s to the 1600s) people thought that topaz could break magic spells and dispel anger. For centuries, many people in India have believed that topaz worn above the heart assures long life, beauty, and intelligence.

The name for imperial topaz originated in nineteenth-century Russia. At the time, the Ural Mountains were topaz’s leading source, and the pink gemstone mined there was named to honor the Russian czar. Ownership of the gem was restricted to the royal family.

Today, topaz is one of the US birthstones for November. The other is citrine quartz.

Topaz Journey

Few people outside the gem industry realize the true nature of a gemstone’s journey from the mine to the counter of a store. Whether the gem is being offered to consumers at a traditional jewelry store’s counter, an internet shopping site, or a television broadcast the journey always involves a great deal of effort. Tons of earth and countless hours of labor are needed to being a gem from mine to market.

TREATMENTS

There are a number of processes used to alter the color, apparent clarity, or improve the durability of gems.

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SYNTHETICS

Some gemstones have synthetic counterparts that have essentially the same chemical, physical, and optical properties but are grown by man in a laboratory.

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