Turquoise (pronounced tur-koiz or tur-kwoiz)
(1) A fine-grained secondary opaque mineral, a basic
hydrous copper aluminum phosphate often containing a small amount of iron,
sky-blue to greenish-blue in color (also as the rare form turquois). It occurs, usually in reniform
(kidney-shaped) masses with surfaces shaped like bunches of grapes, especially
in aluminum-rich igneous rocks such as trachyte. In its polished blue form (it occurs also in a
yellowish-green hue) it is prized as a gem. Formula: CuAl6(PO4)4(OH)8·4H2O.
(2) A color in the blue spectrum, described usually as bluish
green or greenish blue and known also (for commercial purposes) as turquoise
blue.
(3) A gemstone (categorized as a semi-precious) made of
the mineral, the hues tending to blue traditionally more valuable than the greens.
(4) One of the birthstones for the month of December and associated
with the zodiac signs Sagittarius and Capricorn.
1300s or 1600s:
The origin is contested. Some
etymologists trace it from the seventeenth century when it was picked up from the
Middle French turquoise, from the Old French (pierre) turquoise (Turkish (stone)), the construct being turc (Turk) + -oise (the feminine of -ois and the suffix used to form adjectives related to a
particular country, region or city, their associated inhabitant names, and the
local language or dialect), simply because the mineral
( mined near Nishapur in the Khorasan region of
Persia) first reached Europe in
the hands of the Turkish traders (from the modern-day Republic of Türkiye) of
the Ottoman Empire (thus essentially the same manner in which the bird known as
the Turkey gained its name) . Others
claim it dated from the fourteenth century as an adaptation of the Middle English
turkeis & turtogis (Turkish) which in the 1560s was replaced by the French turqueise. Those supporting the later etymology claim
the gemstone was first brought to Europe from Turkestan or another Turkic
territory. Pliny the Elder (24-79) called
the mineral callais (from the Ancient
Greek κάλαϊς) and to the Aztecs it was chalchihuitl. It was cognate with the Spanish turquesa, the Medieval Latin (lapis) turchesius, the Middle Dutch turcoys, the German türkis and the Swedish turkos.
Adjectival use began in the 1570s and it
came to be used a colour name in the 1850s.
The use of the spelling turkies is archaic and turquois is rare. Turquoise is a noun & adjective ane turquoisish,
turquoisey, turquoisy¸ turquoised & turquoiselike are adjectives; the noun
plural is turquoises.
Turquoise
is often used in jewelry although some pieces sold as “turquoise” can be artificial
and actually only turquoise-colored (with the dual meaning of the word it’s
essential to read the small print). Turquoise
used in jewelry is often cut in the form of a cabochon (an oval shape polished
but not faceted) and these, in a variety of sizes, are popular for pendants,
broaches and earrings. Turquoise was
mentioned in the writing of the Venetian merchant Marco Polo (circa 1254–1324) who saw examples while in
China and in the US, turquoise jewelry is especially associated with Native
American artisans, particularly from tribes of the south-west including the
Navajo & Hopi.
Lindsay Lohan rendered with turquoise hair (left), in turquoise blue waters (centre) and wearing turquoise blue (right).
As a descriptor of color, turquoise is commonly used but it’s inexact, even by the standards of commercial color charts and what some call turquoise others might describe as teal or cyan and the mineral itself exists in quite a range. The various shades of blue anyway exist in quite a spectrum including: Alice blue, aqua, aquamarine, azure, baby blue, beryl, bice, bice blue, blue green, blue violet, blueberry, cadet blue, Cambridge blue, cerulean, cobalt blue, Copenhagen blue, cornflower, cornflower blue, cyan, dark blue, Dodger blue, duck-egg blue, eggshell blue, electric-blue, gentian blue, ice blue, lapis lazuli, light blue, lovat, mazarine, midnight blue, navy, Nile blue, Oxford blue, peacock blue, petrol blue, powder blue, Prussian blue, robin's-egg blue, royal blue, sapphire, saxe blue, slate blue, sky blue, teal, turquoise, ultramarine, Wedgwood blue & zaffre.
The vivid color range of turquoise must have attracted the eyes of humans as soon as they discovered the stone; it is one of the gems with the longest history of decorative use and while it’s not certain how ancient is the tradition, the archaeological record has revealed the upper classes of ancient Egypt wore turquoise jewelry more than 4000 years ago and it’s clear Chinese artisans were carving objects from the stone by at least 1000 BC. The national gem of Tibet, it has long been valued as a stone which will bring the wearer wealth, health and protection from evil. It assumed also some military significance because certain tribes of the Apache in what is now the south-western United States believed turquoise attached to a bow or firearm increased a hunter’s (or warrior’s) accuracy of fire. More pragmatically, the stone also was used as a medium of exchange for among many Native American tribes although being relatively plentiful, as a form of currency its utility was limited and it was valued more for its attractiveness.
Being relatively soft turquoise can be easy to carve but that very attribute can also induce fragility so the selection of a stone for this purpose is best allocated to an expert. Like most materials, it's a patchwork of strengths and weaknesses: With a Mohs hardness typically between 5-6 it's softer than quartz (rated at 7) but harder than most organic materials like bone or ivory. That means most standard lapidary tools can be used for carving but does render it susceptible to scratching. Additionally, many turquoise deposits are porous and often contain inclusions or matrix (ie the host rock) which makes it prone to chipping, crumbling, or breaking along weak spots if too much pressure is applied.
1962 Ferrari 250 GT SWB (short wheelbase) California Spider.
In March 2023, at the annual auctions on Amelia Island, Florida (the old four-day Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance) a 1962 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider sold for US$18,045,000, passing under Gooding & Co’s hammer. The SWB Spiders have for years be prized but this one attracted a premium because of aspects which attested to its particular rarity, being one of only 37 (some say 47) of the 106 made with the (soon to be unlawful) Perspex-covered headlights and the only one the factory finished in azzurro metallizzato, an eye catching turquoise. In the way the Italian language manages like no other, azzurro metallizzato sounds much better the the literal translation “metallic sky blue”. The car was prepared especially for the 1962 New York International Auto Show and remarkably, after being damaged in an accident in 1971, was sold the following year for US$2400 (around US$18,000 adjusted for inflation), so in fifty-odd years it has appreciated around a thousand-fold. There was of course a repair and restoration bill to be paid in 1972 and the many costs of ownership since but however it’s analyzed, the thing has proved a good investment (although there will be accountants anxious to prove the same US$2400 invested in the right stock index or whatever would have been more lucrative still). While in the public imagination Ferraris are most associated with red (and the classic rosso corsa (racing red) is just one of many reds the factory has offered), shades of blue have always been popular and over the years there have been dozens.
Ms Justine Haupt with custom rotary-dial cell phone in turquoise.
Ms Justine Haupt (b 1987), an astronomy instrumentation engineer at New York’s Brookhaven National Laboratory took a step backwards (or perhaps sideways, some might suggest) and built a rotary-dial cell phone from scratch because of her aversion to what she describes as “smartphone culture and texting”, something to which many will relate. In what proved a three year project, Ms Haupt used a rotary-dial mechanism from a Trimline telephone (introduced in 1965 and produced by Western Electric, the manufacturing unit of the Bell System), mounted on a case 4 x 3 x 1 inches (100 x 75 x 25 mm) in size with a noticeably protuberant aerial; it used an AT&T prepaid sim card and had a battery-life of some 24-30 hours. Conforming to the designer’s choices of functionality, it includes two speed-dial buttons, an e-paper display and permits neither texting nor internet access.
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