Extraordinary Gemstones · 06
Tsavorite
Green, discovered yesterday
Tsavorite is the youngest aristocrat among gemstones: a grass green garnet discovered in 1967 in the hills between Kenya and Tanzania and named for the Tsavo wilderness. It offers what emerald cannot, brilliance, clarity and untreated colour, in a stone a fraction as old in human hands.
In barely half a century, tsavorite has moved from geological curiosity to the shortlist of every serious coloured stone collector.
From the House
Tsavorite, in the house's hands
The Science
What the earth had to do
A garnet, transformed
Tsavorite is grossular garnet coloured by vanadium and chromium. Garnet's high refractive index gives the stone a liveliness emerald rarely approaches, and its colour needs no enhancement of any kind.
Why size is everything
The deposits are geologically tortured; crystals shatter as they form. Clean tsavorites above three carats are genuinely rare, and stones above ten carats are counted among the notable examples of the species.
Provenance
Where the finest come from
The Merelani hills of Tanzania and the Taita Taveta district of Kenya, a single metamorphic belt, remain effectively the world's only commercial sources.
Collecting
How collectors judge it
Tsavorite is collected for vivid, open green, high clarity and honest colour. Its supply is narrower than emerald's, its treatment status simpler, and its story still being written: qualities that appeal to collectors who value scholarship over consensus.
The Genesis Perspective
Tsavorite at Genesis is no abstraction: the house's collection includes a 17 carat bluish green stone, far beyond the sizes in which the species is normally seen.
Further Reading
From the Genesis Journal
Continue
Jadeite →Private Appointments
Discuss tsavorite with the house
Whether you are searching for an extraordinary natural gemstone, commissioning a bespoke creation or seeking expert guidance, we look forward to hearing from you.