Garnet (Mourning Garnet)
The garnet - above all the dark red pyrope from Bohemia - was in the 19th century the most important red gemstone material of mourning and half-mourning jewellery, above all in the Central European region, with Bohemian garnet jewellery as a jewellery tradition in its own right, peaking in the second half of the century.
Written by Dr. Helene Vasall
Garnet is the most important red gemstone substance of half-mourning jewellery. While black was reserved for full mourning in the 19th-century mourning dress code (see The Middle Classes and Mourning Jewellery in the Nineteenth Century), muted colours were permitted for the subsequent mourning phases - half-mourning and last mourning. The dark red pyrope garnet, above all in the specifically Bohemian pavé tradition, became the standard material of this phase and established itself in Central Europe as a distinct branch of mourning jewellery.
Material and mineralogy
Garnet is not a single mineral but a mineral group with a common crystal structure and variable chemical composition. The varieties relevant to the mourning context:
- Pyrope (Mg₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃) - dark red to blackish red, hardness 7–7.5; principal deposits in Bohemia
- Almandine (Fe₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃) - violet-red, somewhat darker than pyrope, distributed worldwide
- Rhodolite - pyrope-almandine mixture, pink-violet
- Spessartine (Mn₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃) - orange-red, rare
A hardness of 7–7.5 makes garnet suitable for everyday wear (scratch-resistant, not easily splintered). The typical refractive index (1.73–1.89) gives it a high brilliance potential in a faceted cut.
History
Garnet has been known since antiquity. Egyptian garnet finds are documented from the 3rd millennium BC. In the Roman Empire, garnet was a popular seal stone and was set in anuli (rings).
The Bohemian garnet tradition emerges in the 16th century. Garnet deposits in the Bohemian Central Uplands (today the Czech Republic) yield small, high-quality pyrope garnets which are set in regional workshops. In the 17th and 18th centuries (see Baroque (c. 1600–1750), The Georgian Era (1714–1837)) the specific pavé gold setting develops: hundreds of small garnets are placed cheek by jowl on a gold plate, so that the entire jewellery surface glows flame-red.
In the Victorian period (see The Victorian Era (1837–1901)), Bohemian garnet jewellery reaches its international peak. At the Vienna World Exhibitions of 1873 and the Paris World Exhibition of 1878, Bohemian workshops exhibit their parures - brooch, earrings, bracelet, ring and necklace as a matching set of jewellery. The pieces become popular above all among the German-speaking middle classes (see The Middle Classes and Mourning Jewellery in the Nineteenth Century) and establish themselves as regional half-mourning jewellery.
With the decline of ritualised mourning fashion after the First World War, Bohemian garnet jewellery also loses significance. The workshops in Turnov (Czech Republic) continue to produce, above all for the tourist market; the pavé technique is traditionally carried on to this day.
Garnet in the mourning dress code
In the strict Victorian mourning dress code, the transition between the mourning phases was regulated in detail:
- Full mourning / crepe mourning (widows: 1 year, others: 3–6 months): black exclusively (jet, vulcanite, bog oak, black enamel - see Whitby Jet, Vulcanite (Ebonite), Bog Oak, Black Enamel (Schwarzemail))
- Half-mourning (widows: 6 months, others: 3 months): a muted spectrum of colour - purple, grey, white, dark red; garnet appears here
- Last mourning (widows: 3 months, others: 1–2 months): lighter colours - light grey, mauve, pale pink; garnet recedes
Garnet was thus a clearly coded material of the middle mourning phase. In the first weeks a mourning woman wore Whitby jet (see Whitby Jet), later changed to garnet jewellery and then to pearl or pale enamel - a distinctly elaborate jewellery career which was strictly observed in wealthy families.
Working and cuts
Garnet can be used in various cuts:
Rose cut. The classic Bohemian garnet cut: a flat underside, a dome-like upper side with pyramidal facets. Appears especially fiery under candlelight. Standard in the 17th to 19th centuries.
Cabochon. A smooth, domed cut, polished to a gloss. Used for larger single garnets, less so for the Bohemian pavé tradition.
Brilliant cut. A modern cut with high light reflection; less usual with small Bohemian garnets, common with larger single garnets.
Table cut. A flat cut for garnets used as armorial or seal stones.
The Bohemian pavé setting is classically carried out on a gold plate (tombac, later 9 or 14 carat yellow gold) into which fine holes are drilled for the individual garnets. Each garnet is inserted individually and secured with a grain setting.
Garnet in the modern memorial market
Garnet is enjoying a quiet comeback in the modern memorial jewellery market - for several reasons:
Birthstone symbolism. Garnet is the birthstone of January and is therefore readily used in memorial pieces for persons born or deceased in January.
Family heirlooms. Antique Bohemian garnet parures are today often integrated into memorial pieces - for instance as the central stone of a new ash pendant or as an accent in a piece of fingerprint jewellery.
Symbolism of enduring fidelity. In medieval and Baroque symbolism, garnet counts as the stone of eternal fidelity and intense affection - a charge that is gaining significance in modern memorial contexts.
Price level. Garnet is markedly cheaper than ruby, yet visually similar. For memorial pieces with a red accent, garnet is the material of first choice.
Care
Garnet is comparatively robust:
- Hardness 7–7.5 - suitable for everyday wear, scratch-resistant against most everyday materials
- Low cleavage - not prone to splintering, well suited to use in rings
- Lightfast - does not discolour under UV
- Cleaning: with a jewellery cloth, occasionally with warm soapy water; ultrasound is usually unproblematic, but should be avoided with pieces that have a black-enamel accent
In storage, garnet should not lie in direct contact with softer gemstones (pearl, amber, opal) - the hardness of garnet can scratch them. Antique Bohemian pavé pieces should not be cleaned aggressively - the fine grain settings can work loose.
Questions about this entry
- Was garnet a mourning stone?
Garnet was not a material of full mourning - that phase demanded black exclusively (jet, onyx, black enamel). In half-mourning, the second and third mourning phase in the 19th century (see The Middle Classes and Mourning Jewellery in the Nineteenth Century), a muted spectrum of colour was permitted: dark purple, grey, white, dark red. Here the garnet - above all the dark Bohemian pyrope - was the most important red material. Garnet brooches and garnet necklaces were an established component of the jewellery toilette in Central European half-mourning.
- What is "Bohemian garnet"?
A jewellery tradition in its own right, which arose from the 16th century onwards in Bohemia (today the Czech Republic). The small, darkly fiery red pyrope garnets from the deposits near Třebenice, Podsedice and Měrunice are set in a dense arrangement (pavé) on a gold ground. A parure - brooch, earrings, bracelet, ring - is covered all over with small garnets; the typical appearance is a flaming, luminous expanse of red. In the 19th century, Bohemian garnet jewellery was known internationally and was traded throughout the German-speaking lands as a regionally specific form of half-mourning jewellery.
- How do the garnet varieties differ?
Garnet is a mineral group with several varieties. Pyrope - dark red to blackish red, the classic "Bohemian" mourning garnet material. Almandine - violet-red, somewhat darker, occurring in India and Sri Lanka. Spessartine - orange, rare in the mourning context. Rhodolite - pink-violet, a mixed crystal of pyrope and almandine. Tsavorite and demantoid - green, not used in the mourning context. Almandine and pyrope varieties were the relevant mourning stones of the 19th century.
Further reading
- Böhmischer Granat - Geschichte einer Schmucktradition - Karel Tucek (1976)
- Sentimental Jewellery - Shire Library - Ann Louise Luthi (2007)
- Mourning Dress - A Costume and Social History - Lou Taylor (1983)
Related entries
- Core conceptsMourning Jewellery
Mourning jewellery is body adornment that signals a death, binds the memory of a deceased person, or does both at once - since the 17th century a jewellery type in its own right, with a material language of its own.
- Core conceptsMemorial Jewellery
Memorial jewellery is jewellery that deliberately binds itself to one particular person - through an inscription, a photograph, hair, ashes or, the defining medium today, a digitally captured fingerprint.
- Core conceptsSentimental Jewellery
Sentimental jewellery is the jewellery of the age of sensibility between 1760 and 1840 - pieces in which love, friendship and grief share the same imagery, and in which hair, miniature painting and personal inscriptions first become the load-bearing form.
- MaterialsGold in Mourning Jewellery
Gold is historically the most dominant carrier material of mourning and memorial jewellery - usually in muted alloys, often contrasted with black enamel or as a restrained gold setting around a dark principal material such as jet, onyx or a plait of hair.
- MaterialsSilver in Mourning Jewellery
In the 19th century silver was the popular mourning carrier material of the bourgeois middle class and is today the most widespread material of modern memorial jewellery - cheaper than gold, more precise to engrave than stainless steel and with a long symbolic tradition as a material of purity and of memento mori iconography.
- MaterialsBlack Enamel (Schwarzemail)
Black enamel is a glass frit coloured with manganese oxide and fused in thin layers onto gold or silver - the most expensive variant of Victorian mourning jewellery and the preferred carrier ground for inscriptions.
- Jewellery formsMourning Ring (Memorial Ring)
A mourning ring - also called a memorial ring - is a finger ring that carries the memory of a deceased person, usually in the form of an inscription, an image, a lock of hair or a fingerprint.
- Jewellery formsMourning Brooch
The mourning brooch is the central women's jewellery form of Victorian mourning wear - a brooch, often the size of a palm, pinned to dress, collar or veil, and today an almost exclusively historical field of collecting.
- Jewellery formsMourning Necklace
The mourning necklace is a chain worn at the neck in black or muted material which, in the second half of the nineteenth century, became the standard daytime wear of the mourning period, and which lives on today as a reduced remembrance variant with a pendant.
- People & cultural historyThe Middle Classes and Mourning Jewellery in the Nineteenth Century
The rising middle classes of the nineteenth century were the principal bearers and principal consumers of the era's mourning and memorial jewellery - a social stratum that took over the aristocratic model of court mourning, gave it symbols and materials of its own, and in the course of industrialisation turned it into a mass market.
- People & cultural historyMourning Rituals in the German-Speaking World
German-speaking mourning rituals differ perceptibly from the English court-mourning tradition - shaped by confessional division (Catholic / Protestant), middle-class sensibility, Biedermeier domesticity and an independent culture of memorial jewellery which carried different emphases in Vienna, Berlin and Munich according to region.
- PeriodsThe Victorian Era (1837–1901)
The Victorian era is the heyday of mourning jewellery - a period of more than sixty years in which court mourning codes, industrial mass production, new materials (jet, vulcanite, Berlin iron) and Queen Victoria's personal widowhood combined to produce a system of public and private mourning visibility without precedent in European history.