Tsavorite has a beautiful, vivid green colour and is a bright, lively gem with a high refractive index. It belongs to the Grossular group within the Garnet family and has to be seen to truly appreciate how radiant it is.
Tsavorite is considered amongst the most desirable of all Garnets and until its discovery in the 1968, no other gemstone except Emerald could offer such a rich green colour.
The first deposit was discovered in Tanzania by Scottish gemmologist Campbell R Bridges, who later traced the gem to the Tsavo National Park in Kenya, from where its name is derived.
Just as they had done with Tanzanite, in 1974 the famous jewellery company Tiffany & Co. started heavily promoting the gemstone in the USA. In fact, it was the company’s president Henry Platt, who (together with Campbell R Bridges) decided to give this green Grossularite its own name.
Tsavorite is said to comfort and warm the heart and also stimulates the immune system. It has also been said that Tsavorite can be used as a gentle pain reliever and can sometimes treat problems with eyesight.
Sources of the gem are becoming rapidly depleted in Kenya, with some reports stating that during the last decade, yields are down by 80%. However, there is some good news for the many fans of this gemstone: a new deposit was discovered in Madagascar in 1991, and although small in terms of the carat weight found, the quality of Tsavorite from this mine is equally as impressive as that from Kenya.
