Edward Charles Richard (Graf von) Taaffe (1898–1967), known as Richard, was an Austrian-Irish

gemmologist Gemology or gemmology is the science dealing with natural and artificial gemstone materials. It is a geoscience and a branch of mineralogy. Some jewelers (and many non-jewelers) are academically trained gemologists and are qualified to identify a ...

who found the first cut and polished taaffeite in November 1945.

Biography

Taaffe was born and grew up on the Bohemian estate of Ellischau (today

Nalžovské Hory Nalžovské Hory is a town in Klatovy District in the Plzeň Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 1,200 inhabitants. Administrative parts The municipality is made up of villages of Krutěnice, Letovy, Miřenice, Nalžovy, Neprochovy, Otěš� ...

), the family seat. For a short time, the composer Ralph Benatzky was his tutor. He was the son of Count

Henry Taaffe, 12th Viscount Taaffe Heinrich Graf von Taaffe, 12th Viscount Taaffe (22 May 1872 – 25 July 1928) was an Austrian landowner who until 1919 held hereditary titles from two different countries: he was a Count (''Graf'') in the nobility of Austria and a viscount in the ...

, an Austrian landowner, and Maria Magda Fuchs; his grandfather was the Austrian Prime Minister

Eduard Taaffe Eduard Franz Joseph Graf von Taaffe, 11th Viscount Taaffe (24 February 183329 November 1895) was an Austrian statesman, who served for two terms as Minister-President of Cisleithania, leading cabinets from 1868 to 1870 and 1879 to 1893. He was a ...

. His father had once held

hereditary title Hereditary titles, in a general sense, are nobility titles, positions or styles that are hereditary and thus tend or are bound to remain in particular families. Though both monarchs and nobles usually inherit their titles, the mechanisms often d ...

s from two different countries: he was a Count ('' Graf'') of the Holy Roman Empire and a viscount in the Peerage of Ireland. Richard Taaffe, however, inherited neither the viscountcy, which was suspended by the

Titles Deprivation Act