925 sterling silver ring and necklace with tanzanites

Tanzanite is one of the most treasured and rarest gemstones in the world, and its meaning and properties are a mystery to many people. Its origin, its unique color and its magical qualities make it attractive not only to collectors, but also to those who believe in the power of stones. In this article we will look in detail at what tanzanite is, what its properties and meaning are, and why it is so popular in jewelry. Tanzanite, named after Tanzania, its country of origin, was first found on 7 July 1967 by Manuel de Souza. Called by some Mad Manuel, this colorful figure was famous for his passion for travelling through the African bush in search of the unknown or even the undiscoverable, as he liked to describe his pursuits. Born in Goa in 1913, at the age of 20 de Souza moved to Tanganyika, where he qualified as a master tailor. An adventurer by nature, he quickly grew tired of this trade and began his life as a prospector in the gold fields near Lupa in western Tanganyika, but moved to the Shinyanga diamond mines after post-war conditions made gold mining unprofitable. This venture became unprofitable in the 1960s, when a monopoly made it almost impossible to obtain permits for diamond prospectors, which led Manuel to move to the Kilimanjaro region, where he went on prospecting around Lake Victoria, supplementing his income with tailoring. Around Easter in 1967 his restless spirit made him hire a pickup truck, which left him in the bush in the area south-east of Arusha. As chance would have it, the driver refused to go further than the Maasai village of Mtakuja; with no way to move his equipment any further, Manuel was forced to look for gemstones in that area. After hiring four Maasai as porters, he set off on an expedition, and around noon on 7 July he found a clear blue stone which he at first took for a sapphire. After testing its hardness, he immediately realized he had not found a sapphire, but he took the stone to Arusha anyway, where he tried to identify it by checking a small volume on mineralogy, which was the only reference book he had. The closest match for this stone that he could find was olivine, and so the first tanzanite was registered in his name on 25 July 1967 - only as olivine. It soon became clear that this gemstone was not olivine or peridot; dumortierite, cordierite and zoisite were also ruled out. In the end the stones were sent to the Gemological Institute of America, where they had the equipment needed to identify the stone accurately as zoisite. At about the same time samples were identified at Harvard University, the British Museum, Heidelberg University, and by a geologist from the Tanzanian government named Ian McCloud, who was the first to identify it correctly. Although beautiful jewelry was made from these stones, there was still no established market for this material; the head of the jewelry department of "Saks" in New York refused to sell the stone. Finally two rings made from the original find were shown to the vice president of "Tiffany", who was so struck by the beauty of the stone that he named it tanzanite. And so a new market was created. It is very unusual for a recently discovered gemstone to have an effect on the world gemstone market. This happened with Paraiba tourmaline in the 1990s. But the case of tanzanite in the 1960s is even more intriguing. Tanzanite, a rare violet-blue form of the mineral zoisite, was found in 1967 in Tanzania. East Africa remains the only source of tanzanite and the reserves are extremely limited. The limited reserves, together with the increased demand, have caused lastingly high prices. The enormous popularity of tanzanite is not at all surprising.