Edwardian California Garnet Specimen
An interesting little oddity that took me an age to figure out... but I got there. It's a rough, uncut spessartine garnet crystal from the Little Three Mine in Ramona, California. This pendant dates from the very early days of mining in Ramona. The crystal weighs 16.4 carats and it's mounted in a yellow gold cage - likely a souvenir recovered by one of the pioneer miners.
Spessartine garnet is an orange coloured gemstone named after the Spessart mountain range in Bavaria, Germany, where it was first found and described in the 1830s. Further deposits were discovered in California in 1903, and it's here that the bulk of the gem-grade crystals were mined during the 20th century:
"For most of the 20th century, the principal source of fine spessartine was the area around the Little Three mine near the town of Ramona in southern California. Two pegmatites—the Hercules-Spessartite and the Spaulding dikes—yielded most of the estimated 40,000–50,000 carats of facet-grade rough mined from 1956 to 1994. Prized for its bright orangy yellow to yellowish orange color, Ramona spessartine has similar R.I. and S.G. values to those of most other pegmatitic gem spessartines. Typical internal features are wavy two-phase partially healed fractures, negative crystals, needles/tubes, growth patterns, and anomalous birefringence; mineral inclusions are rare. The composition of four samples (ranging from light orangy yellow to yellow-orange) was Sps 94.8–88.8 Alm 4.7–11.0 Gro 0.5–0.2 , and the absorption spectra of all samples showed strong peaks for Mn 2+ and subordinate Fe 2+ bands." - Source: GIA
Era: Edwardian, circa 1903
Stone: Spessartine Garnet
Size: 16.7mm by 14.8mm by 13.0mm
Marks: Tag etched: 16 40/CTS
Condition: Great antique condition; light wear consistent with age
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[Last updated: 28th February 2026]
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