Richard Taaffe

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edward Charles Richard Taaffe (born March 20, 1898 at Ellischau Castle in Bohemia , Austria-Hungary as Eduard Karl Richard Graf von Taaffe , † 1967 in Dublin , Ireland ) was an Austro-Irish gemologist and collector.

Life

Richard Taaffe came from the originally Irish Taaffe family, who had lived in Austria for centuries. His parents were Heinrich Graf Taaffe and Maria Magda Fuchs , his grandfather the Prime Minister Eduard Graf Taaffe . Richard grew up on the Bohemian estate Ellischau , the seat of the family. For a short time, the future composer Ralph Benatzky was his tutor.

Taaffeite

In the First World War his father fought for Austria and therefore lost his British-Irish nobility title Viscount Taaffe through the Titles Deprivation Act 1917 . Two years later, with the complete abolition of the nobility in Austria, he also lost the title of count once granted to his family by Maria Theresa . Neither Heinrich Taaffe nor his son ever made use of the theoretically given possibility of asking the British crown to restore the Irish title. With reference to the Austrian title of Count, Richard was later almost always referred to as Count in English-speaking countries .

In the following years Richard Taaffe emigrated to Ireland, which had become independent, and worked there as a gemologist. In October 1945 he discovered the very rare mineral taaffeite (Mg 3 Al 8 BeO 16 , also known as Magnesiotaaffeite-2N'2S ), later named after him, by chance : Taaffe had a large number of old cut gemstones for the Dublin jeweler Robert Dobbie that had been broken out of jewelry. Upon closer examination, Taaffe found that a violet stone from Ceylon that was regarded as spinel had a birefringence that does not occur in a spinel . Since he could not explain this phenomenon, he sent the stone to BW Anderson in the laboratory of the London Chamber of Commerce . After a detailed analysis, it was finally recognized that the stone was a new mineral, which was confirmed by the discovery of a second specimen in 1949.

Richard Taaffe died childless in Dublin in 1967, with his death the male Taaffe family died out.

References and comments

  1. ↑ Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of count houses: [1]
  2. ↑ Thomas Just, Austrian State Archives : Unknown letters from the composer Ralph Benatzky (Signature: AT-OeStA / HHStA SB FA Taaffe)
  3. ↑ BW Anderson, CJPayne, GF Claringbull: Taaffeite, a new beryllium mineral, found as a cut gemstone , 1951
  4. ↑ Rudolf Bulant: taaffeite - something rare? , In: Austrian Gemmological Society: Gemmo News, issue 28, 10/2010 ( Memento from December 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Taaffe, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Taaffe, Edward Charles, Richard; Taaffe, Eduard Karl Richard Graf von (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-Irish gemologist (gemologist) and collector
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Nalžovské Hory , Bohemia , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH 1967
Place of death Dublin , Ireland