Our selection of the best January birthstone jewels to buy now. Celebrate a new year birthday in style with these colourful garnet gemstones. From Van Cleef & Arpels through to Cartier, Chaumet and Dior,
By Kim Parker
You’d be forgiven for automatically associating garnets with all shades of red. After all, January’s birthstone takes its name from the Latin word ‘granatum’, which means ‘seed’, and refers to the gemstone’s striking resemblance to the scarlet-coloured arils (edible seeds) of the pomegranate.
It’s certainly true that fiery-hued garnets have been favoured for millennia. Egyptian pharaohs wore garnet necklaces to channel their supposed healing properties and the ancient Romans used carved garnet rings to seal the wax on important documents. Both the Anglo Saxons and the Celts adorned themselves with the stone, believing it protected them from harm, as did Native American healers. In China, where the colour red is considered particularly auspicious, garnets were considered the crystalised form of a tiger’s soul. Even Noah is said to have chosen to bring a glowing red ‘carbuncle’ – a name commonly associated with garnets – into the ark to act as a source of light, when neither the sun nor the moon was visible during the flood.
But garnets are actually composed of a range of chemical compositions. As such they can also be found in a veritable rainbow of shades including violet, blue, green, orange and even colour-changing species. During the 19th century, rare green demantoid garnets were discovered in in the Russian Urals and became highly sought after amongst jewellers including Peter Carl Fabergé. Mandarin-coloured spessartite garnets were unearthed in Namibia as recently as the 1990s. Yet their vivid colour and intensely refractive properties ensured they rapidly became one of the most brilliant and valuable gems in a jeweller’s repertoire.
Garnets also make the perfect gift for anyone born during the first month of the year. Indeed, in European folklore, this birthstone has been regarded as a symbol of friendship, vitality, and trust. Whilst in Indian astrology, the gem is said to boost positivity and confidence, and encourage creative thinking. Colour, light, vigour, and friendship – what more could one want during the dark days of winter?
Here we’ve selected 20 of the loveliest garnet jewels available to buy now – at all price points.
A week on from the Paris Haute Couture shows, Dior launches its latest demi-fine jewellery collection, Dioramour, reimagining the house’s signature graphic in sinuous gold thread
Courbet is the first lab-grown diamond jeweller to present high jewellery at Paris Couture. Here, we discover the maison’s new showstopping duo, the Constellation earrings and necklace
Now 2022 is behind us, what can we expect the major diamond jewellery trends to be this year? Read on as Rachael Taylor of diamond magazine Rappaport gives us her expert opinion
At Paris Haute Couture Week, prestigious jewellery maisons and designers unveil their new high jewellery masterpieces in the showrooms of the Place Vendôme. Here, we round up the most dazzling collections, spanning Cartier and Dior to Gucci and Graff
Gaia Repossi, the creative director of Italian jeweller Repossi, plays with the brand’s signature pear-cut diamonds in bold, new ways for her latest high jewellery collection, La Ligne. Here, we take a closer look…
Sign up for our newsletter for the best stories and ideas straight to your inbox, carefully curated by Something About Rock's editors.
From latest collections, extraordinary designers and celebrity trends, we'll keep you up to date with today's ideas and stories.
Sign up for our newsletter for the best stories and ideas straight to your inbox, carefully curated by Something About Rock's editors.
From latest collections, extraordinary designers and celebrity trends, we'll keep you up to date with today's ideas and stories.