I recently bought 2 set of very fine quality stones labeled as
"vesonite" or “vessonite” garnets. Totally transparent - none over
about 0.75ct. Good crisp facets - almost no noticeable inclusions.
There’s a hurricane coming and my refractometer is hidden under
piles of stuff…
Although I’m an FGA I can’t find out much about them. They’re
certainly not hessonites!
Anyone got any info on this type of garnets - are they just
mis-labeled
Tony Konrath
Key West Florida 33040
Tony, here’s what I could think of:
‘Vesuvian Garnet’ is one of those sketchy ‘trade names’ for Leucite,
‘Vesuvianite Jade’ is Californite, & ‘Vesuvianite’ is Idocrase.
Hope that helped (?)
Taylor in Toronto
I recently bought 2 set of very fine quality stones labeled as "vesonite" or "vessonite" garnets. Totally transparent - none over about 0.75ct. Good crisp facets - almost no noticeable inclusions.
Hi Tony…
The only thing I’ve ever seen is a reference to a type of
grossularite garnet known by the unimaginative name of “leuco
garnet”…which is literally “white garnet”… Maybe somebody’s
given it a romancing tag…?
Picture of one in Schumann’s “Gemstones of the World”…RI and
stuff like the rest of the grossular…out of Canada, Mexico and
Tanzania…
Dunno if that helps…
Hope yer ducking Charlie…
Gary W. Bourbonais
AJP (GIA)
I recently bought 2 set of very fine quality stones labeled as "vesonite" or "vessonite" garnets. Totally transparent - none over about 0.75ct. Good crisp facets - almost no noticeable inclusions.
If by “transparent” you mean colorless, chances are you have another
member of the grossular family (hessonite grossulars are
browinsh-orange to peach in color generally). The green grossulars
like Tsavorite and Merelani Mint grade into a near-colorless type,
usually with a very faint greenish tint. Several garnet species end
members would be colorless if pure, but in nature grossular is about
the only one to produce near-colorless stones. Grossulars also occur
in yellow and golden colors.
While refractive index often is not helpful with garnets, colorless
grossular can have a readable R.I. in the 1.731-1.736 range (Bank).
R.I. seems to decrease with purity (higher vanadium content results
in stronger green tints and higher R.I.) You might use your
spectroscope to check for vanadium or chromium. The name “vessonite”
is not indexed in either Rouse’s “Garnets” or Shipley’s “Dictionary
of Gems & Gemology” which often lists archaic or obscure names.
Of course if by “transparent” you mean something else, none of the
above applies, LOL. I hope you survived Charley unscathed and can
eventually find your refractometer!
Rick Martin
MARTIN DESIGNS
Hi Tony,
I couldn’t find a reference to them anywhere either. As a last
resort, I did a search on eBay to see if anybody was hawking them by
that name. Of course, we all know about eBay; there are sellers, and
there are sellers. There are probably more gemstone misnomers there
than in all of the industry combined, but at least I found one
person selling beads under the name “Vesonite.”
I clicked on the “Ask seller a question” link and got this response
from the seller, a Mr. Singh:
It is green garnet but deeperin color and much more clear than Grossular garnet
My guess is that it is a new or obscure trade name or misnomer. I
hope you weathered Charley well Tony, and that you find your
refractometer soon!
James in SoFl who was lucky enough to miss Hurricane Charley
completely.
The stones are almost the precise color of good quality peridots.
I’ve posted a pic of them at
http://www.goldandstone.com/orchid/vessonite.jpg
Charlie missed us by 75 miles.
Friends are salt water flooded, trees are down and there are some
very astonished cats wandering around - but otherwise we were safe.
I would bet the stones being called “vessonite” are Idocrase, which
is also known as vesuvianite, especially because of the reference to
grossular garnet , which idocrase closely resembles.
Jerry in Kodiak