This is a true story, retold as a tale. The young miner telling it is imagined, but the giant crystal, the day it broke, and the artist who carved it into the largest cut aquamarine in the world are all real.
"You want to hear about the luckiest accident in Brazil?" said JoĂŁo, leaning on his shovel at the end of a long day. The new boys at the mine gathered around. Everyone in the hills of Minas Gerais knew this story, but they liked to hear JoĂŁo tell it.
The Crystal in the Hill
"Back in the late 1980s, some men were digging here in the hills, the way we dig every day. And deep in the earth, they found something that made them drop their tools.
"It was an aquamarine crystal. Not a little one like we find most days. This one was as long as your arm, nearly two feet long, and it weighed about a hundred pounds. Pure, clear, glowing sea-blue."
The boys whistled.
The Day It Fell
"Now, imagine you're carrying the most beautiful crystal anyone has ever seen. You're careful. You're so careful."
JoĂŁo paused, and made a little crashing noise with his hands.
"And somebody dropped it."
"No!" the boys groaned.
"It broke into three pieces. Imagine those poor men. They thought they'd ruined a fortune. Two of the pieces were cut into smaller gems and sold. But the biggest piece, the most perfect part, was still enormous. About fourteen inches long. So they decided to keep it whole and wait for the right person."
The Artist
"That person was a German gem artist named Bernd Munsteiner. He wasn't an ordinary cutter. He was a sculptor who carved gems into works of art. When he saw the crystal, he didn't touch it for months. He just looked at it. He studied the light inside it, the way it moved, the way the color deepened.
"And then he began to carve. He cut deep grooves into the back of the stone, so the light would bounce inside it and glow from within. He worked on it for months. And when he was finished, it was a tall, glowing blue obelisk, more than a foot high, and over ten thousand carats. The largest cut aquamarine in the world."
Named for Emperors
"They named it the Dom Pedro, after the first two emperors of Brazil, Pedro I and his son Pedro II. And in 2011, a generous couple gave it to the Smithsonian museum in Washington, so anyone in the world could come and see it."
One of the boys frowned. "So the accident was lucky?"
JoĂŁo grinned. "If they hadn't dropped it, it would have been cut into a hundred little stones and scattered all over the world. Because it broke, the most perfect piece was saved. Sometimes the worst moment turns into the best one."
He picked up his shovel. "Now get back to work. Maybe one of you will find the next one."
The Legend and the Truth
The Dom Pedro aquamarine was carved from a huge crystal found in the late 1980s in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The crystal, which weighed about 100 pounds, was dropped and broke into pieces. The largest piece was carved by German gem artist Bernd Munsteiner in the early 1990s into an obelisk about 14 inches tall and over 10,000 carats, the largest cut aquamarine in the world. Named for Brazil's emperors Pedro I and Pedro II, it was donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 2011, where it is on display at the National Museum of Natural History.
đź’ˇ Read more legends and true stories of aquamarine in The Legends of Aquamarine.
🛍️ A Little Brazilian Sea, for You
Explore vintage and antique aquamarine jewelry at 322 Royal Street or online.
