Twenty-eight years after it was discovered in 1868, gemology ‘veteran’ Max Bauer wrote that demantoid garnet would probably never earn full-fledged gem status. Much as he admired the stone, Bauer thought it was too small, soft and rare to merit anything more than curiosity. Just about the same time, the late 19th century’s other great gemology pioneer, George F. Kunz, was in the Ural Mountains of Russia, demantoid’s prime source, buying every piece of demantoid he could find. Kunz, on leave from his father, returned as he stored the cache of gem, was financed by banker/tycoon J. Pierpont Morgan, an…
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