Description
One of a kind and gorgeous natural alexandrite and tsavorite garnet ring in 14 karat white gold. This alexandrite has strong and beautiful color change. The alexandrite weighs 0.79 carats and is accented by 0.62 carats tsavorite garnets and 0.07 carats of diamonds.
Natural Alexandrite is rarer than diamonds, and more costly than rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. Alexandrite is from the chrysoberyl family of minerals, but is highly desired among lots of people because of its “color change” effect; alexandrite is green or blue-green in daylight or under fluorescent lighting and morphs to shades of red when displayed in incandescent light.
Alexandrite was first discovered in the 1830s in Russia’s Ural Mountains and named after the future Czar of Russia, Alexander II. Red and green were Imperial Russia’s national colors, increasing demand for the gemstone and eventually depleting the supply found in the Urals.
Alexandrite has since been found in other parts of the world, including Sri Lanka, India, Madagascar, and Brazil. But it’s important to note that many of the newly found gems are not as vividly colored as the Russian gemstones and do not change color as dramatically. Gems from areas in Brazil exhibit better color changes than stones from other areas and are in most demand, but their colors differ somewhat from the Russian gems.
Alexandrite and pearl are both traditional birthstones for the month of June. The gem is also sometimes regarded as the gift associated with a 45th wedding anniversary.
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.
