Malaya Garnet

Item Description

Here we have attractive Malaya Garnet gem from Tanzania. The term Malaya comes from Swahili, and is given to Garnet gems which are a mixture of different species i.e., Grossular, Spessartine, Almandine, Pyrope and Andradite creating a stone that carries certain elements/aspects from two or more species. The word "Malaya" literally means "out of the family" or "bastard", and was used to describe these Garnets because they had no distinct genetic makeup. When these stones were first found in the 1960's they were thought to be Spessartine. After extensive testing they were found to be not Spessartine, not Grossular nor Pyrope but somewhere in between. This gem, like many from this area is a combination of two or more species (my guess would be Spessartine and Grossular). The color in this gem is almost a "copper" hue, which is not common for any species of Garnet. The stone is virtually eye clean and has a very attractive "Round Brilliant" cut. This is a lively and uniquely colored gem from one of the most active gem producing countries in the world. This material is becoming more rare on the market, as the dried up river beds that produce these gems have been harvested again and again, each time producing less and less material.