Gemstones fit for an Empress: A brief introduction to tourmaline.

Welcome to the most thorough, yet concise and fun guide to tourmaline on the Internet. In the next few minutes you can gain enough information about these most colorful gemstones to shop with confidence or simply impress any jeweler over cocktails.

Tourmaline offers the widest array of color choices of any gemstone in the world. There are so many colors that tourmaline seems to lose track itself and shows up in multi-colored and even color changing varieties. They also are available in the largest price range of any gem. From under $50 to well over $10,000 per carat, these beautiful stones have been prized for their beauty for over 2,000 years. One type, rubellite, so closely resembles fine rubies, that it was mistakenly used in their place in 17th century Russian Crown Jewels.

Although nobody really knows the exact origins of the name tourmaline, Robert Webster, in his book Gems, posits that in 1703, stone dealers in Amsterdam received a shipment of what they thought were yellow zircon, which the Sinhalese exporters called turmali. The Dutch dealers dubbed the stones tourmaline, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Tourmaline gained international popularity in the mid-1800s when beautiful red and green varieties were discovered in Maine and California. The last Empress of China was so taken by the glorious pink stones from California that she bought almost an entire ton! Upon her death, she was laid to rest on a pillow carved out of pink tourmaline. (I've heard of firm mattresses, but this is ridiculous.)

For the better part of the 18th century, the United States was the major producer of tourmaline in the world. Now, however, Brazil is by far the top exporter of these precious stones.

Now, you can click on any subject from our center page, from color to value for an in-depth look at the many variations this amazing stone has to offer. We've even prepared a handy shopping checklist that you can print out and take with you when you go on your personal tour of the wonderful world of tourmaline.