The most colourful gemstone in the world of antique jewellery is the tourmaline. It is rarely single-coloured. Tourmalines form an own mineral group and show a unique variation and colour variety. About 100 different tones are known. They range from slightly pink to yellow-brown up to green, blue and black. The tourmaline justifies its name 'stone with different colours” in an amazing manner. Its pleochroic qualities have made it popular with jewellery lovers and feared by gemmologists.

The possibilities of confusion of the tourmaline are gigantic. The rubellite, for example, resembles very much the ruby and amethyst, the indicolite resembles very much the sapphire and the dravite the citrine, on the other hand. A fantastic curiosity occurring among tourmalines is lovingly called ‚water melon‘. On this occasion, it concerns of the real existing phenomenon of tourmalines with a red core followed by layered colours such as white and green.
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