GARNETS
The garnet family of minerals encompass a wide variety of related minerals. The name ‘garnet’ is derived from the old English word, ‘gernet’ which means dark-red, however, you can get garnets in many colours.
Garnets are probably best known as a brownish red stone, but, they come in many different colours and ,in truth, the often dark, brownish-red variety is probably the least interesting or attractive.
Garnets also come in red, pink, green, orange, yellow, and blue, though the blue variety is very rare and was only discovered as recently as the 1990s.
Garnets come in different colours because of chemical impurities, such as vanadium and chromium. These varieties have a few different names, some of which you may be familiar with and some you may not be. Below is a short list of the ‘trade names’ of different garnets and a description of the colours they are found in.
Demantoid Garnet - Bright green, olive green, browns, and yellow
Tsavorite Garnet - Light mint to intense emerald green
Spessartite Garnets - Orange
Rhodolite Garnet - Red/pink
Pyrope Garnet - Dark red, brownish red, and orange-red
Despite existing in all these colours, there are a couple of reasons that we think of garnets as dark red. Firstly, this is by far the most common colour and it has been used as a cheaper substitute for rubies in mass-produced jewellery for years. Also, most of the other varieties have only been discovered in the last 100 years or so and are very rare and, thus, expensive. Demantoid garnets were discovered in 1909, tsavorites in 1967, and blue garnets in the 1990s. Despite the relatively new discovery of some colours, jewellery and artefacts from throughout history have included garnets.
The excellent diagram above, by talented geological digital artist Lina Jakaite, shows the different varieties of garnet and the varying chemical composition that gives them their colour. Some of the varieties shown here also go by other names more familiar to the jewellery market.
For instance, the darker green variety ‘uvarovite’ is known as tsavorite, as it was discovered in the Tsavo national park in Kenya, one of only a few locations worldwide where it is found.
Some of the varieties of garnet are very rare, only being found in certain locations because of the unique geological conditions there. At the time of its discovery, tsavorite was only found at Lemshuku, in northern Tanzania, and in the Tsavo national park in Kenya. Since that discovery in 1967, it has been found in only a handful of other locations.
Similarly, demantoid garnets were first found in the Ural mountains in Russia and since then have been discovered in Namibia, Madagascar, Italy, and Iran. Demantoid garnets are another green variety of garnet and they have an intense sparkle, superior to even that of a diamond.
The more common varieties of garnet, mostly pyrope, are found on every continent on Earth.
Demantoid Garnets - Iran, Italy, Russia, Namibia, and Madagascar
Tsavorite Garnets - Kenya, Tanzania, and Madagascar
Spessartite Garnets - Namibia, Australia, India, Afghanistan, Tanzania, Mozambique, Myanmar, and Nigeria
Rhodolite Garnet - North America, Tanzania, Brazil, Kenya, and Greenland
Pyrope Garnet - North America, South Africa, Australia, China, UK, Czech Republic, Austria, and Germany.
Garnets measure 6.5-7.5 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, depending on variety, which means they are suitable for use in jewellery, though not in rings that will be worn continuously. This is because rings are more likely to come into contact with other objects and surfaces, so over time they will scratch and wear away.
Garnets’ relative softness is one of the reasons they have been seen as an inferior option to rubies. Rubies, which measure a 9 on the Mohs scale are far better suited to wearing in rings.
As garnets have been known about and used for millennia, there is a long history of their use in jewellery. Today they are as popular as ever and modern jewellery designers are embracing the more unusual varieties in their collections.
As it’s only in the last 100 years or so that some varieties have been discovered, all of the ancient jewellery that includes garnets have used the red stone. This, again, is why garnets are often associated with the colour red, despite there being many different colours
In the modern era, certain gemstones have strong associations with certain jewellers, particularly demantoids, which are heavily associated with legendary Russian jeweller Carl Fabergé and tsavorites which have an association with Tiffany’s.
Throughout history, many cultures and traditions have assigned different meanings to garnets. As garnets are found on every continent, there are a wide range of cultural beliefs attached to them. Today, garnet is the recognised birthstone for January and in tropical astronomy is associated with Aquarius. They even get a mention in one of the most famous bible stories, Noah’s Ark.
Noah bought a giant garnet aboard the ark as a source of light and the stone was said to shine ‘‘more brilliantly by night than by day, allowing Noah to distinguish between the two’’
Persian culture associated Garnets with powerful natural forces, such as lightning and thunderstorms, and Native American healers used garnets to protect against nightmares, cure depression, heal wounds, and prevent poisoning.
The earliest examples of garnets being used in jewellery and to adorn objects were in Ancient Eygpt. The Ancient Egyptians believe that the garnet was a symbol of life and they used the stone to honour the Goddess of war, Sekhmet. As there are no garnet deposits in Eygpt, they would have been obtained via trading, most likely from modern-day Isreal, the closest source of pyrope garnet.