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.

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.

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