Nine minutes on how the Ural demantoid is found, cut and valued — with geologists of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Ural Geological Museum.
Russian Demantoid
Demantoid is the green garnet of the Ural Mountains, and Russia remains its classic source. The stones in this catalogue come from the Korkodin deposit in the Middle Urals - the same field that supplied the material Russian jewellers worked with at the end of the nineteenth century.
Two things separate Russian demantoid from demantoid found elsewhere. The first is colour: the chromium that gives the stone its green also gives it the particular grass-to-emerald tone collectors look for. The second is the horsetail inclusion, a spray of fine chrysotile fibres that is read as the classic marker of Ural origin.
Every stone is listed with its own photograph, weight, dimensions, colour and clarity, so a stone can be judged before you ask about it. Single stones, matched pairs and sets are kept as separate sections.