kristin
07-14-2006, 10:37 AM
Through out history garnets have been used in jewelry in many different cultures and civilizations. In ancient Egypt they were used in the jewelry of the pharaohs, in ancient Rome signet rings with carved garnets were used to stamp the wax seals of important documents, during the middle ages red garnet was favored by cleargy and nobility and remained popular through the late 1800's. Since then red garnets have fallen out of fashion and they've generally been less highly valued. Red garnet is one of the most common gems, found in metamorphic rocks on every continent. But not all garnets are red, and not all garnets are as abundant as the red ones.
There are more than twenty garnet species, but only five are commercially importance as gems. Those five are pyrope, almandite, spessaritie, grossularite and andradite. A sixth, uvarovite, is a green garnet that usually occurs in crystals too small to cut, but it's sometimes set in jewlery. Gemologists further subdivide some garnet species into varieties depending on their color. Many garnets are mixtures of two or more garnet species. Mixtures are possible because chemical elements can substitute for one another in a mineral's crystal structure.
There are more than twenty garnet species, but only five are commercially importance as gems. Those five are pyrope, almandite, spessaritie, grossularite and andradite. A sixth, uvarovite, is a green garnet that usually occurs in crystals too small to cut, but it's sometimes set in jewlery. Gemologists further subdivide some garnet species into varieties depending on their color. Many garnets are mixtures of two or more garnet species. Mixtures are possible because chemical elements can substitute for one another in a mineral's crystal structure.