12 facts about Mandarin garnet
- Mandarin garnet is also called spessartite, from the city Spessart in Bavaria where it had originally been found.
- Garnets have been known to man for over five thousand years. The spessartite garnet is the new kid on the block, only having been discovered during the 1800's in Spessart, Bavaria.
- It was virtually unknown in big sizes until the beginning of the nineties when an important source was discovered in Namibia.
- Until recent years spessartite garnet was not a gemstone that was well known except to gem collectors, and the price was prohibitive.
- Garnet was known thousands of years before our era, and is mentioned in early biblical writings, where it was called «carbuncle», meaning «little spark» although it should be noted that in Pliny’time all glowing red gems were referred to by this name.
- In 1991 there was a deposit found in Namibia, a southern African country which borders Angola, and just before the year 2000 there was another very abundant find in Nigeria.
- The name garnet comes from the Latin «granatus», meaning «seed like» and was held to symbolize faith, constancy and truth.
- Mandarin spessartite is from the Namibia find and got it's name from it's brilliant orange color.
- Garnet was also supposed to have strong curative powers. In powder, it was used as poultice to relieve fever.
- Spessartite is a reasonably hard gemstone and is usually favored by an oval or emerald cut.
- As an amulet, garnet was favored among travelers for it was said to protect and preserve health and honor, cure the wearer of any disease and guard him from all the perils of a journey.
- Garnet is the birthstone for January.
