Norwegian colophonites were of low quality and found almost no jewelry or trade use, but the name, published at the beginning of the 19th century and accepted by the scientific world, was temporarily assigned in European mineralogy to brown or red-brown varieties of ferruginous garnets.

In the end, the confusion of concepts led to the fact that colophonite gradually became outdated and became relegated to the terminological history of European mineralogy, finally giving way to hessonite in trade and jewelry practice, and in some cases began to be considered its complete synonym.

The first known chemical analysis, carried out by a certain Simon in 1807 on crystals described in the most general sense as the mineral "colophonite" from the "Scandinavian lands",[10] was not distinguished by either the specificity of the place or the clear typology of the sample itself.

[2] Based on Simon's research, René Haüy in 1809 identified the Norwegian colophonites as ″similar″ to garnet (grossular), but then published an analysis of its composition in another section of the book devoted to vesuvianite, probably suggesting, for his part, that the mineral was originally studied and is not completely defined.

In terms of chemical composition, colophonite is a low-quality variety of mixed hessonite; it is a complex silicate of calcium and ferric iron Fe3+, rich in many impurities and inclusions, with the addition of divalent manganese.

In addition to associated rocks (vesuvianite or wollastonite), most mineral samples contain large amounts of impurities and small foreign inclusions, including zircon, diopside and apatite.

It is formed as a result of contact-metasomatic and metamorphic processes, it can be found in skarns in association with vesuvianite, wollastonite, magnetite, epidote, chlorites, dolomite, diopside, calcite, etc.

[13] The Arendal ore deposits contain parent rock (apatite-collophonite) up to 20 meters thick; these are loose granular masses of yellow, brown, gray or almost black color, with a greasy lustre.

[14] Shortly after the publication of Simon-Gaüy, in 1817-1818, a new mineral was discovered on the island of Pargas (near the city of Turku) in southern Finland, described by the young Finnish-Swedish mineralogist, chemist and mining engineer Nils Nordenskiöld as a new, previously unknown variety of colophonite (hessonite).

[15] Like colophonite, not distinguished by high quality or large crystals, the mineral was also opaque, translucent only at the edges or in thin chips, the color was mixed and inexpressive: brown, brownish-reddish to brownish-pink.

Named in honor of the State Chancellor of Russia N. P. Rumyantsev and without receiving any noticeable use, rumyantsovite [ru] existed as a separate regional form of colophonite for about a hundred years, until it turned into a pure artifact, an event in the history of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and European mineralogy.