Frederick William Rudler

“ The Navajo Indians of New Mexico collect the garnet from the sands of the ant-hills and scorpion-holes. Very fine pyrope occurs in the diamond-fields of South Africa, having been derived from olivine-bearing rocks. It occurs in the blue-ground and in the detritus of the river-diggings. The Cape garnets have usually a rich colour, but some stones incline to an orange hue. The finest pyrope is often cut as a brilliant, and passes under the misleading name of “ Cape ruby.” A pyrope-bearing rock, rather like that of South Africa, occurs in Elliott county, Kentucky, U.S.A. ”

“ The pyrope is generally rose-cut or step-cut, and often mounted with a foil. Beads are faceted all over. Some pyrope is cut en cabochon, forming, like almandine, carbuncle, and if very dark the stone is hollowed at the back so as to form a “ garnet shell." The industry of cutting Bohemian garnets is centred in Turnau on the Iser, near Reichenberg; but there are also works at other localities. Large stones are very rare, but a Bohemian pyrope as large as a hen's egg is preserved in the Imperial treasury at Vienna ”