Chrome Tourmaline is a special variety of Green
Tourmaline that owes its vivid green colored
hue to trace amounts of chromium and vanadium. These are the same
elements that also impart to emerald and tsavorite garnet their distinctive pure green
colors. It should not be surprising, therefore, that the finest loose
chrome tourmaline gems tend to resemble the finer green examples of emerald and tsavorite.
Chrome tourmaline is actually a distinct green
tourmaline variety called chrome dravite, found in East Africa.
Chrome tourmaline is often associated with tsavorite garnet. Like the green of emerald and tsavorite garnet, fine
chrome tourmaline is a visually pure “forest” green with slightly yellowish to bluish colored secondary hues. The blue will normally show itself in incandescent light, the yellow will be more visible in daylight. The same criterion applied to tsavorite garnet and emerald is applicable to
chrome tourmaline. A blue secondary hue is preferred to yellow.
loose Chrome tourmaline, unlike emerald, can never be said to be too blue. A visibly pure to slightly (five to fifteen percent) bluish green colored gem between seventy and seventy-five percent tone is the most desirable.
