Summer Sparkle at the Maine State Museum

 

Summer visitors to the Maine State Museum in Augusta have a rare opportunity to view an exquisite and dramatic piece of jewelry, the Maine tourmaline necklace, which is the spotlight of a recently installed exhibit. The exhibit commemorates the 30th anniversary of the necklace’s presentation to the State of Maine by the Maine Retail Jewelers Association.

As the donation specified, Maine’s first ladies, beginning with Helen Longley and including current First Lady Karen Baldacci, wear the necklace on official state occasions. The necklace features a twenty-four carat pink tourmaline at its center, accented by pink, green, and blue-green supporting tourmalines. Addison W. Saunders of Ellsworth, Maine designed and crafted the necklace.

According to Maine State Museum Curator of Geology David Work, the necklace and its presentation to the state are tributes to the pride and excitement generated by the 1972 discovery of an exceptionally large and rich source of tourmaline at the Dunton quarry in Newry, Maine. “The Dunton quarry produced a truly vast quantity of gem quality pink and green tourmaline. This necklace is the most spectacular single piece of jewelry featuring tourmaline that came out of that find,” Work said.

The large amount of high quality tourmaline found at the Dunton quarry created a sensation on the worldwide gem market , prompting a grassroots collaborative effort to celebrate the bounty of Maine’s state mineral. With the guidance and support of the Maine Retail Jewelers Association, this important and unique Maine resource was commemorated in perpetuity by the Maine tourmaline necklace. Completing the necklace’s Maine origins, the chain is made from gold nuggets panned from Oxford County’s Swift River.

The Maine tourmaline necklace is on exhibit at the Maine State Museum through Sunday, September 9, 2007.