Garnet (Tsavorite) Turtle Necklace

Garnet (Tsavorite) Turtle Necklace

$575.00

Out of stock

Garnet (Tsavorite) Turtle Necklace

14 karat yellow gold “Hawaiian petroglyph” turtle necklace designed and made by Denny Wong with 0.18 cttw. tsavorite garnets.

Out of stock

Description

Garnet (Tsavorite) Turtle Necklace

14 karat yellow gold “Hawaiian petroglyph” turtle necklace designed and made by Denny Wong with 0.18 cttw. tsavorite garnets.

The shining green tsavorite is a young gemstone with a very long geological history. Its home is the East-African bushland along the border between Kenya and Tanzania. The few mines lie in a uniquely beautiful landscape of arid grassland with bare, dry hills. It’s dangerous country, the habitat of snakes, and now and then a lion patrols, on the lookout for prey. There, near the world-famous Tsavo National Park, that history began.

So why is the stone called a tsavorite or tsavolite when it is actually a green grossularite and comes from the colourful gemstone family of the Garnet? The nomenclature of gemstones follows certain rules. According to modern mineralogical methods, gemstones are given a name which ends in ‘ite’. In honour of the Tsavo National Park, with its abundance of game, and the Tsavo River which flows through it, the former president of Tiffany & Co. Henry Platt, who had followed the developments of the gemstone from the very beginning, proposed the name ‘tsavorite’.

Although Tsavorite is not considered by many to be on the verge of extinction as is commonly believed of the Tanzanite, it is and always has been, an exceptionally rare gemstone. Only a small amount of fine Tsavorite crystals are found each year and many of these are small. Good sized 1-2 carat fine stones are difficult to get and the 2+ carat fine Tsavorites are very rare indeed. This is definitely a precious stone of the caliber of which heirlooms are made.