Home New Account Contact Search View Cart
GalleryInfo CenterPrivate Salon

LIBRARY

Sapphire, Blue
Sapphire, Padparaja
Sapphire, Pink
Sapphire, Star
Sapphire, Yellow
Sapphires, Fancy

Sapphire, Blue

Color: blue in various hues
Moh's hardness: 9
Refractive Index: 1.766 - 1.774
Countries of Origin: Sri Lanka (Ceylon) was the world's first sapphire source, widely used for jewelry in Greece, Egypt and Rome as far back as the 7th Century. In the 13th Century, Marco Polo lauded its beauty in his writings. Today it is considered by many to be the only steady producer of large, fine sapphires, with other sources either petering out (ie. Kashmir), having difficulty establishing themselves as mining centers (Pailin), or yielding lower quality goods (Australia). Look for: Ceylon blue sapphires have the greatest range of beautiful colors, from pale pastel to rich, resonant blue. Its transparency is among sapphires. The key to their crystalline brilliance is if they are cut to best advantage. Ceylon blues are the right choice for anyone seeking a bright stone. There are fine examples of every color category in the untreated Ceylons, with the finest one considered a cheerful, bright blue stone. Within the last 20 years, a method wherebye poor material called "geuda" can be heated to yield rich blue colors. These stones, while quite attractive, are not the same value as the untreated varieties. --Myanmar (Burma) has yielded sapphires in small quantity but of great quality and size for more than 500 years. Look for: Classical sapphires from "Mogok" are considered practically as rare as Kashmirs, and prized so highly in Burma that the finest examples rarely make it out of the country. The rarest of Burmas are a vibrant electric blue. Other fine examples are a rich velvety blue that can be brilliant but more often have coarse silk that softens the color. The best of these stones rarely seem watery even in the paler range. Their orientation also can bring out green as a secondary color. . Burmas can be deep blue, but should have sufficient brilliance and not be too dark. However, even over-color stones seem to retain some spark in these aristocratic sapphires. They are typically not heat treated. --Kashmir is the home of the truly extraordinary sapphire. It was over 100 years ago that large quantities of the stone were discovered there, in a far flung, treacherous region of the northwest Himalyas. At this time production is quite limited, and the stone is seen more mostly in antique pieces circa early 1900s. Look For: The characteristic color is a velvety, deep, glowing blue, which is often labeled "cornflower blue." This beautiful hue is what helps to establish its origin, plus straight color banding, and powdery silk that results in a slight cloudiness; they are rarely brilliant but their color more than compensates. They are typically cushion-shaped. Not all Kashmir sapphires are attractive and at worst can seem blackish or opaque, or severely color-zoned with large colorless areas. Misoriented stones can appear quite green. --Yogo in Montana had a beautiful yield of violet-blue sapphire in the early 1980s, but the high cost of mining in the United States made people shy away from buying American. The stones tend to be smaller and flatter than those mined abroad, and its vibrant hue is sometimes viewed as somewhat pale and "watery" next to the deeper blue sapphires that are currently in vogue. Tiffany's legendary gemologist George Kunz, however, hailed the Yogo sapphire for unparalleled beauty. --Australia is currently the world's largest largest supplier of commercial sapphires. The colors are typically not very vibrant and tend to be grayish, very dark or greenish blue. With the exception of some smaller stones of a lighter hue, these stones are the lowest quality. --Pailin (Cambodian) sapphires are rare in large sizes and, in fact, make particularly fine smaller stones. They are usually over-rich in color (sometimes mimicking Kashmir and Burma stones in this characteristic) but their use as small stones reduces their thickness and brings out the color. --Kanchanaburi in Western Thailand is a source of dark, somewhat "inky" blue sapphires, most of which are used for commercial jewelry. Almost always heat-treated, they lack the pure blue color of the other varieties. --Madagascar and Tanzania (the Tunduru mine) are also known as sapphire centers of attractive blue stones that are typically heat-treated. More and more materials are emerging from these regions, with the full range still to come.
History, Literature and Lore: The name sapphire comes from the Latin "sapphirus," which means blue. In ancient times and into the Middle Ages, all blue stones were described as "sapphire," including lapiz lazuli. In the 7th Century B.C. sapphire was popular with the Etruscans, and there is later documented use in Greece, Rome and Egypt. In the 11th Century it was a celebrated stone used by both kings and clergy. By the Renaissance, it was popular among the wealthy elite. Sapphire was said to protect kings from jealousy and danger. In the 13th Century it was said to possess the power to prevent poverty, and improve people's temperaments and intellects. Truly large sapphires are quite rare. In the United States, the heads of presidents Washington, Lincoln and Eisenhower are carved out of three sapphires, each weighing approximately 2000 carats. Two noted sapphires are also part of the English crown jewels.
What To Look For: Regardless of country of origin, blue sapphires usually run the full gamut of color from near colorless to blue black. The more vibrant the color, the more merit the stone has. Richer color is not necessarily better. The best blues should become more vibrant from a distance, while the stones of less merit will seem dull or black.

Sapphire, Padparaja

color: a blend of pink and orange in varying proportions (orange alone does not qualify)
History, Literature and Lore: "Padparaja" comes from the ancient Sanskrit meaning the lotus flower and its color.
Countries of Origin: Ceylon is where the truly prized and authentic padparaja sapphires come from, There are African sapphires that are sometimes touted as padparajas, but they are much browner than the real ones. A pristine Ceylonese padparaja can be as valuable as the ultimate Kashmir sapphire.
What to Look For: The finer varieties have a primary color of pink with strong orange secondary colors, resembling Hawaiian sunset or raw salmon. Brown can be a secondary color instead of orange, but is not as highly valued.

Sapphire, Pink

Color: A range of pinks, from pale ice pink to bubble gum to "hot pink" and magenta
Countries of Origin: Sri Lanka produces many pretty shades of pink, tending towards the lighter side and some with tinges of violet and purple. The higher-intensity, higher grade of pink sapphire often come from Burma, though they do not always have the eye-pleasing clarity of the Sri Lankan stones. Other popular sources are Vietnam, Madagascar and Tunduru.
History, Literature and Lore: For hundreds of years, pink sapphire have been called everything but what they are, because people traditionally thought of sapphires as only being blue. In most of the Orient, in fact, there is no word for "pink"; pink is viewed simply a weaker gradation of red. Therefore, in other parts of the world, these stones are still considered rubies.
What to Look For: Sri Lanka produces the bulk of pink sapphires in the world and they also have the largest range in color the richest of which would still be characterized as Ceylon ruby. They are characterized by their crystalline quality and can occur in very large sizes. They tend to have a tinge of blue making them slightly more purplish. Burmese material is the most valuable of the pink sapphires. They have the purest pink-red color with no co-factor of blue. Large sizes are rare, and fine examples truly mark the borderline between pink sapphire and ruby. Often they are priced as rubies. There are also African varieties which run the gamut of color but large sizes are rare in Tunduru but many new pinks are coming from Madagascar, usually flat in proportion and shot with small crystals. This is new material and the full range is still to be explored.

Sapphire, Star

color: deep blue to powder blue to grey
History, Literature and Lore: The "star" was considered a phenomenon and referred to as "the stone of destiny," its crisscrossed lines representing hope, faith and destiny. In 17th-Century Germany it was referred to as the "siegstein," or "victory stone." Others believe this stone hearkens back to the Star of Bethlehem. Among the world's most celebrated star sapphires are the "Star of India" displayed in New York's American Museum of Natural History (536 carats), and the "Midnight Star" (116 carats). The 330 carat "Star of Asia" is at the Smithsonian in Washington.
Countries of Origin: Ceylon and Burma are the producers of these stones. The grey stone often has the more "even," strong, fully extended stars. Of all of the sapphires this is the most rare and esoteric, and extremely prized in the orient.

Sapphire, Yellow

Color: from pastel yellow to bright "canary" yellow, golden-yellow, orangy-yellow
History, Literature and Lore: In the 1980s a group of Thai dealers experimented with heating pale yellow sapphires. The vibrant canary hues that resulted were not as well-received in the gem world as the enhanced blue stones.
Countries of Origin: Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and Australia have yield of yellow sapphires.
What to Look For: Yellow sapphires are the most undervalued of the entire sapphire group. They occur from very small to hundreds of carats in size. The finest examples are natural golden in color, which are still very rare and have much more luster than their heated counterparts. Because their color so enhances blue and pink stones, they are used to great advantage in mixed color sets. The lemon-colored sapphires became more desired after heat treating became prevalent because most of the heat-treated stones resembled the golden varieties. Also, as yellow diamonds have become more and more valuable, yellow sapphire has been used in more important jewelry as a more affordable alternative that is no less beautiful...and in fact can be a good deal more intense. The three major types are Ceylonese, which tend to be the full range of color from pale yellow to golden; Australians, which tend to have a less desirable brown co-factor and sometimes stripes of blue that cast a greenish tinge; and Thai, which also have a bit of blue to give them a greenish character.

Sapphires, Fancy

Colors: Orange also primarily Sri Lankan where they are called "rajah" or "king" sapphires. At best they are a beautiful tangerine color-- very bright with no brown secondary color. There are heated varieties from Sri Lanka and Tunduru, but these normally are browner and lack the vibrant pure orange of the natural goods. --Green sapphires are primarily Australian. At best they are yellows with a small blue zone causing a chartreuse color, but more often they are dark and tend toward green-black. Ceylons also occur, and these are paler, an almost silvery grey-green. The Ceylons can occur naturally but the green sapphires are typically heat treated in Australia. --Violet occur in almost all the countries of origin. they can either be a pink-purple or blue-purple. Sometimes they are grouped with blues or pinks depending on hue, but in fact should be a separate category. There are some pure amethyst-colored sapphires primarily from Sri Lanka and Tunduru. --Color-change sapphires primarily occur in Sri Lank; they are blue in daylight normally, and change to a blue purple, almost grape, in incandescent light. the finest of these show a clear differentiation between he daylight and color change color. although Ceylon is a major source of these sapphires, they occur naturally in almost all the other countries of origin.