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Colour appeals to our feelings directly. It makes us happy and cheerful, livens us up or calms us down, and has a magical or liberating effect. And where is colour more lastingly and more beautifully captured than in a gemstone? In the fascinating world of precious stones, emeralds glow in the fieriest green imaginable. Aquamarines sparkle in a whole range of blues – from the light blue of the sky to the deep blue of the sea. And the charming pink of morganite puts a spell on women the whole world over. Aquamarine, emerald and morganite are all beryls – just like golden beryl, yellowish-green heliodor, colourless goshenite and the rare red beryl. Whether blue, green, yellow, colourless or pink, their chemical and physical properties essentially correspond; it is only in their colours that they differ from one another so much.
Beryls are beryllium-aluminium-silicates. As pure beryl, they are colourless, but they are able on account of their structure to store various foreign substances, and it is these which give rise to the various colours, turning a plain, colourless gemstone into a green, yellow, pink or blue treasure.
Now and again, beryl is found which lacks these colouring substances. In such cases it simply remains a 'mere' colourless beryl. In the trade, it is more often referred to as goshenite after the place where it was originally found, Goshen, in Massachusetts. Colourless beryl is rare, and has little significance as a gemstone. It does, however, have some historical importance, having been the forerunner of today's spectacles. Even in ancient times, beryl was used to make glasses.
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