Featured Gemstone : GARNET

Featured Gemstone: GARNET

When most people think of Garnets a deep wine red gem comes to mind. The truth is that Garnets are a whole family (group) of gemstones that forms naturally in a wide range of colors including green, orange, yellow, purple, red and even black! While all varieties of Garnets have the same crystals structure, the component ingredients are variable, which is responsible for the array of different colors. The most iconic (and the most common) of which is the red Garnet called Pyrope.

Red Garnet has been popular throughout the ages, and troves of garnet ornaments were unearthed in Britain with the excavation of the Sutton Hoo ship burial of an Anglo Saxon King. These elaborate gold and garnet items date from the 7th century A.D, illustrating how long these stones have been valued for their beauty.

Garnets were once again at the height of popularity in the 1870s-1890s when Queen Victoria when into mourning, and dark colored clothing and jewelry became all the rage in England and America. The source for these garnets was in Bohemia, a region of eastern Europe (now part of the Czech Republic) which pioneered a style of jewelry which came to be known as ‘Bohemian Garnet Jewelry’- still very collectable today!

Garnets have a long history of use in jewelry, and were even touted to have curative powers and protect the wearer from lightning strike! I hope you have learned a little something and enjoyed this brief look at Garnets!

-Clare Thanhauser, GG