Garnets... A Procession Of Noble Vassals

The garnet family consists of an impressive variety of stones. Despite the numerous kinds of colours, a classic garnet is red. The Latin "granatum malum" indicates the pomegranate fruit, whose seeds are pink-red, similar to tiny, unused in jewellery crystals, studded densely in the mother rock of mica schist under Manhattan in New York. However, there are also different coloured garnets. Under the grouping name of garnets there is a group of minerals, known under their own names, with different appearance and colour. Despite the fact that the structure of the mineral determines its external form (garnets always crystallize in the regular system), but its colour - due to the mutual exchange of ions (cations) – is a subject to change. In result, completely new types of stones are formed:

PYROPE

Pyrope is a complex aluminum silicate, in which chromium, being an allochromatic pigment gives the mineral a fiery red colour. It is widely known and used around the world. The “fiery eye” (Greek: pyropys) is suitable for jewellery manufacture and can be found in the Czech Republic, southern and eastern Africa, and Arizona. Pyrope is a typical representative of mafic formation of minerals, formed together with a diamond. Therefore, diamond searchers really appreciate it as a leading mineral. Its popularity was enforced by Queen Victoria of Britain.

ALMANDINE

Almandine is a silicate of aluminum with iron, which – being an idiochromatic element – tints the mineral brownish red to reddish violet. Wherever iron appears in the chemical composition of a precious stone, it causes greater colour saturation and overall improvement of its the properties, therefore almandine is ranked higher than pyrope. Almandines were formed in different rock-forming processes, they are minerals of sea-bedrock, contact rock and rocks and crystalline schists. Plinius reasoned the name carbanculus alabandicus from Alabandy, a city in Asia Minor, famous for stone cutting workshops.

RHODONITE

Rhodonite is an intermediate link between pyrope and almandine, with which it creates a series of garnets called PYRANDIN. Magnesium and iron balance each other and give the rhodonite a valued pink-red colour and lively gloss. Most of the garnets regarded as gemstones are rhodonits and are therefore most common in trade. The most productive deposits are in Kenya, Madagascar, Zambia, Tanzania, Brazil and the United States.

SPESSARTINE

Spessartine is an aluminum silicate idiochromaticly tinted by manganese. Its warm orange colour resembles the Earth's core fire. Large, clear, richly facette cut is one of the best garnets and one of the curiosities among precious stones, also because of the strong refraction that gives sparkling glitter. Sri Lanka, where spessartine occurs along with hessonite in precious clastic deposits, was the center of spessartine mining up to the half of the 20th Century. Particularly beautiful are found in the Gulf of California, in Mexico, Virginia in the United States.

GROSSULAR

Grossular is a calcium-aluminum silicate. Garnets are known by that name - with one exception – they don’t leap to the eye much, even though they are characterized by great diversity. The first discovered hessonite (cinnamon stone) is coloured dark brown to dark reddish-brown, originating from Sri Lanka, Brazil and Madagascar. In the mid 20th Century the grossular group was contributed with a transparent, shiny, copper-gold Quebec variety. At the end of the 20th Century, in Sri Lanka, a new hessonite variety was discovered, this time - golden coloured. Its high refractive index and low splitting make it a serious competitor for topaz of the same colour. A very unusual coloured grossulars have been discovered in the Tsavo national park in Africa, ranging from light to saturated green, which is an exceptional phenomenon. In Poland grossulars occur in open pit of nephrite in Jordanow, in limestones near Klodzko and in granites near Swidnica.

ANDRADITE

Andradite is a calcium-iron silicate, and his most unusual variety is green and shiny demantoid. Chromium gives the demantoid that desirable, light glowing beauty. Demantoid could even pose a threat to the great emerald, if it wasn’t for the fact, that it’s much softer and very rare. It’s taken from the earth in only three locations: south of Ekaterinburg in the Ural, near Kunene in Namibia and Val Malenco in Italy. Just before the end of the millennium, two previously unknown sub groups of andradite aroused great interest. One of them, found in Mali, consists of excellent transparent stones ranging from greyish green to greenish-yellow and from yellowish-brown to brown. A completely different kind are andradites from Hermocillo in Mexico. The surfaces of these crystals, black and opaque by nature, swirl with a rainbow of colours.

Garnet is a patron of people born in January; symbolises love, friendship and consistency.