Edward Charles Richard (Graf von) Taaffe (1898–1967), known as Richard, was an Irish gemmologist who found the first cut and polished

taaffeite Taaffeite (; BeMgAl4O8) is a mineral, named after its discoverer Richard Taaffe (1898–1967) who found the first sample, a Cut (gems), cut and polished gem, in October 1945 in a jeweler's shop in Dublin, Ireland.Dept. Mineralogy, British Museum, ...

in November 1945.

Biography

Taaffe was born and grew up on the Bohemian estate of Ellischau (today Nalžovské Hory), 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, an Austrian landowner, and Maria Magda Fuchs; his grandfather was the Austrian Prime Minister Eduard Taaffe. 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 (; feminine: ) is a historical title of the German nobility and later also of the Russian nobility, usually translated as "count". Considered to be intermediate among noble ranks, the title is often treated as equivalent to the British title ...

'') of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

and a

viscount A viscount ( , for male) or viscountess (, for female) is a title used in certain European countries for a noble of varying status. The status and any domain held by a viscount is a viscounty. In the case of French viscounts, the title is ...

in the

Peerage of Ireland The peerage of Ireland consists of those Peerage, titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lordship of Ireland, Lord or Monarchy of Ireland, King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great B ...

. Richard Taaffe, however, inherited neither the

cy, which was suspended by the

Titles Deprivation Act 1917 The Titles Deprivation Act 1917 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which authorised enemies of the United Kingdom during the First World War to be deprived of their British peerages and royal titles. Background The British royal fami ...

in 1919, as his father had served on the Austrian side in World War I, nor the title of

Count Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

, as Austria had generally abolished titles of nobility in 1919. Taaffe was nonetheless almost always referred to in English-speaking countries as ''count''. In the years after World War I, Richard Taaffe emigrated to the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...

and worked there as a gemologist. In October 1945, he discovered the very rare mineral

Taaffeite Taaffeite (; BeMgAl4O8) is a mineral, named after its discoverer Richard Taaffe (1898–1967) who found the first sample, a Cut (gems), cut and polished gem, in October 1945 in a jeweler's shop in Dublin, Ireland.Dept. Mineralogy, British Museum, ...

(Mg 3 Al 8 BeO 16, also known as Magnesiotaaffeite, 2N'2S ), which was later named after him: Taaffe had a large number of old cut gems obtained from the Dublin jeweller Robert Dobbie, extracted from old jewellery. Upon close examination, Taaffe found that a

spinel Spinel () is the magnesium/aluminium member of the larger spinel group of minerals. It has the formula in the cubic crystal system. Its name comes from the Latin word , a diminutive form of ''spine,'' in reference to its pointed crystals. Prop ...

-derived purple stone originating from

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

had a

birefringence Birefringence, also called double refraction, is the optical property of a material having a refractive index that depends on the polarization and propagation direction of light. These optically anisotropic materials are described as birefrin ...

that was absent in a spinel. Unable to explain this phenomenon, Taaffe sent the stone to B. W. Anderson in the London Chamber of Commerce's laboratory. After extensive analysis, it was finally recognized that the stone was an unidentified mineral, which was confirmed in 1949 by the discovery of a second specimen. With Richard Taaffe's death in 1967, no heirs to either title remained and both the Austrian and the Irish titles became extinct.

References

1898 births 1967 deaths Gemologists Austrian mineralogists Irish mineralogists People from Klatovy District Austrian emigrants to Ireland Heirs apparent who never acceded {{Austria-bio-stub