28 Sep Spessartine Garnet

Inspired by the spectacular ‘supermoon’ total lunar eclipse visible early this morning, our gemstone expert will highlight another magical natural phenomenon; the dazzling and beautiful orange gemstone Spessartine.

Spessartine or spessartite is one of the lesser-known, bright orange varieties of garnet, also called ‘mandarine garnet’. It is said that Spessartine garnet is a stone that provides attraction and creativity and that it is the birthstone to those born at the end of summer.

The magnificent and radiant colour and its high brilliance are quite unique. Typical inclusions of spessartine are wavy feathers, consisting of liquid droplets, often showing a characteristic and hypnotizing ‘shredded’ appearance.

Boucheron used spessartine garnets in their famous Adam Bracelet. The snake holds 548 spessartine garnets, 248 red and pink spinels, yellow sapphires, 6 emeralds and 26 diamonds set on pink gold.

The name, “Spessartine” comes from the Bavarian word, “Spessart”, which means “forest”, referring to a mountain range in Germany where Spessartine garnet deposits were found in the 1880’s. Spessartine was not often seen in jewelry until deposits were mined in Namibia in the 1990’s.

These orange beauties are currently found in Brazil, Madagascar, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia and Sri Lanka.