Bohemian garnet cutting shops – II.
The Gemcutter and Driller Guild of the royal town of Nový Kolín, sometimes referred to simply as the Garnet Guild, was established on 11 March 1774. In 1786, it included 15 Christian master gem- cutters with 7 journeymen and 3 apprentices, 4 Jewish gemcutters, 4 Christian master gemdrillers with 1 apprentice, and 6 Jewish gem- drillers. There were also 9 registered Jewish garnet traders, whose customers were mostly from Prague. Later, the number of Jewish garnet processors outside the guild decreased, but the number of Christian cutters was still more or less the same in 1812, when, however, imported raw material was processed in Kolín. However, mention of garnet cutters gradually disappears. Their decline is also documented by the sad statement that in 1858, at the age of 43, the last member of the Guild and of an ancient garnet family Josef Čuřík died in prison.
Probably one of the oldest objects decorated with Kolín garnet is an oval monile (K 204) made in the first half of the 18th century, now part of the St Vitus treasure. This monile is exhibited at Prague Castle.
Kolín garnets were also certainly used to make other, as yet unex- plored objects and jewellery, maybe even of a very old, pre-Romane- sque origin, because the Kolín region had been extensively settled much earlier than the other source areas of Bohemian garnet.
The area below the Krkonoše foothills (“Podkrkonoší”) includes several isolated sites with greater or lesser amounts of garnets. It is also in these places that Bohemian garnets were mined with varying difficulty. In many areas throughout the Podkrkonoší region, especially in the Bohemian Paradise, garnets were histori- cally cut, and among the most important sites were Rovensko pod Troskami, Turnov and Jičín, as well as many other towns and villages. One of the earliest written reports on Bohemian garnet cutting is a note in the town’s books in Rovensko pod Troskami from 1599, mentioning a Tadeáš Mendik who carried garnets to Nuremberg for lapidary, i.e. cutting. In the same year, he also brought a table with a horizontal cutting wheel, a novelty for the local region at that time. This cutting technology has remained in Bohemia to this day. Tadeáš Mendik reportedly prospected for garnets in the Jordán stream, now known as Veselka.
The last mining area in the Podkrkonoší region was Vestřev, used for mining in the period from 1995 to 2009. Apart from high-quality Bohemian garnets, other stones such as blue sapphires, orange zircons, colourless topazes, gold and even platinum can also be very occasionally found in this deposit.
Oval monile from the 18th century, decorated with Bohemian garnets from Kolín, now part of the St Vitus treasure.
Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Baroness Ulrike von Levetzow’s friend who reportedly gave her jewellery with the largest Bohemian garnets. Baroness Theodore Ulrike Sophie von Levetzow, owner of jewellery with the largest Bohemian garnets.
Baroness Ulrike von Levetzow’s jewels. The set contains the largest Bohemian garnets used as part of jewellery.