The Bohemian garnet is only found in Bohemia and was valued for it's beauty and supposed curative and uplifting effects. Garnet jewelry is varied in style and garnets themselves range from multi-faceted reflectors of rich deep reds to cabochons, juicy as pomegranate seeds. They also come in almost all colors except blue.
Garnets were mounted in low and higher karat yellow gold, gold plate and mixed metal settings and more recently in sterling. The history of garnet jewelry goes back hundreds of years and it is no wonder when you see how glorious they are. Bohemian garnet jewelry is known for it's encrusted close-set stones which are often rose cut and sometimes combined with larger cabochons and faceted stones. (Bohemia became Czechoslovakia after WWI.)

Garnet as a gemstone had its heyday in the Victorian era when other dark "anti-gems" such as pyrite and jet were also popular. Garnets were thought to be a malady for blood disorders or anger. Pyrope is the name of the deep red, orange-red or purplish garnet. The major source of garnet gems from the Renaissance through the Victorian Era were the "Bohemian " pyrope deposits in the vicinity of Trebenice, Czechoslovakia, thus the name Bohemian garnets.

Bohemian Garnets are real garnets (often imitated in glass) that were mined from a certain mountain region in Bohemia, now long exhausted of its garnets, never to be found again. They are characterized by their intensely rich deep red color. Garnet jewelry, prolific during the Victorian era, has long been a favorite of antique jewelry lovers. These older garnets may also be referred to as Bohemian garnets because of their origin.

Today's garnets range mostly in the lighter orange reds to watery reds and come mostly from India. Garnets are very plentiful today but the quality of Bohemian garnets has never been matched. Learn about antique jewelry and period jewelry.