Austy Lee celebrates morganite’s storied past with The Poetry of Art

The Caesian on the Pink necklace from Austy Lee’s The Poetry of Art collection draws its narrative from a moment of quiet generosity and scientific recognition. In 1910, when a new locality for rose beryl was discovered in Madagascar, the American mineralogist George Frederick Kunz stood before the New York Academy of Sciences and proposed a name for the stone that would endure: morganite, chosen to honour his patron and friend J.P. Morgan, whose financial support sustained both the arts and sciences across two continents. Morgan’s legendary gem collection, assembled partly through Tiffany and Company and their chief gemmologist Kunz himself, shaped the collecting tastes of an era.

Held in 18K rose gold, the necklace pivots on a commanding morganite cabochon, its warm honey tones and translucent depths immediately engaging the eye. The stone sits cradled within a frame of Sri Lankan pink and purple sapphires, their saturated hues creating an intimate conversation with the morganite’s softer palette. Fancy colour diamonds punctuate the composition, catching light with a restrained brilliance, while similar sapphires climb the chain in graduated steps, descending into teardrop accents that add movement and grace. The geometry feels deliberate, each stone placed as though continuing a thought begun centuries ago by collectors who understood that gems tell stories of discovery, patronage and the human desire to preserve beauty.

Morganite itself carries aliases across its history: pink beryl, rose beryl, pink emerald, and caesian beryl, each name a thread in the stone’s own journey from Madagascar’s earth to the hands of those who recognise its particular luminescence. The necklace exists as a singular work, a meditation on art history rendered in gemstone and precious metal, belonging to that rare category of jewellery where technique serves sentiment.

Imagery courtesy of Austy Lee (@austy_lee).