Garnet, or rather garnets, form a large family of minerals whose colors vary according to their chemical composition. Thus, garnets come in shades ranging from green, through yellow, orange, pink to deep red.
Varieties are numerous but we can mention rhodolite garnets (pinkish red), spessartite (orange-brown), tsavorite (green to emerald green) and malaya (orange pink). The name garnet comes from the Latin granatium which means pomegranate inspired by the burgundy red color of this fruit and from the Greek puropus since garnet was compared to eyes of fire.
Garnet is found all over the world, in Europe (Czech Republic), Africa (Tanzania, Namibia...) and Asia (Sri Lanka and India).
The hardness of garnet is between 7 and 7.5 and it has been used in jewelry for thousands of years. At first considered as a tool to polish or engrave other gems, it experienced a boom during the fall of the Roman Empire and was used by the so-called "barbarian" jewelers.
Today, it is widely used in the manufacture of jewelry and many famous creations include garnets. For example, this hair comb is anything but ordinary! It dates from the Victorian era. Each of the pyrope garnets is rose cut, a popular cut at the time. From the mines of Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic, this beautiful piece is completely covered with them.
Discover without delay our collection of garnets, available on Nascendi Paris.
