Garnet

GARNET

There are many different types of Garnet, from Tsavorite, to Demantoid, Malaia, colour change Almandine, Rhodolite and others too. While it is fair to say that all gem quality Garnets are rare, some are very rare and others are super rare! Tsavorite Garnet, in its stunning green colour, is normally eye clean, free of inclusions and has a colour arguably comparable to, or even superior to Emerald. It is also 300 times more rare than Emerald!

Mined in Tanga, Tanzania, Malaia Garnet is an extremely unique and rare stone. Its stunning and romantic pale sunset hue, almost like Padparadscha Sapphires, bewitches many. Its name comes from the Swahili word for “misfit” because miners who were looking for the purplish red Rhodolite Garnet came across a pocket of these sparkling pinkish orange crystals they had never seen before. 

Demantoid Garnet is another exceedingly rare species which are most prized when they are a vibrant yellowish green as their colour is benchmarked against gems from the ‘original’ Russian mine in which they were discovered.  Demantoid featured in many of Fabergé’s important jewels and Objet d’art, but production from the original Russian mine ceased in the 1920s. Demantoids are so named because of their high refractive index which makes its ‘light scattering degree’/‘sparkle’ astonishing, surpassing that of Diamonds (‘demant’ meaning diamond in Dutch). These are one of the rarest stones, and are also one of the stone types that are valued even more if they contain visual characteristics (inclusions) called ‘horse-hairs’.

 

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