What does sapphire look like?
What does sapphire look like?
Sapphires have an absolutely stunning color scheme and a diverse structure of the stone structure - from an absolutely transparent to a dense, non-translucent crystal.
Instructions
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What does sapphire look like? If a similar question were asked of a jeweler living in the 19th century, the answer would be unambiguous: "Sapphire is a precious stone of blue color." In principle, many of our contemporaries would have responded in exactly the same way. But, it turns out, not everything is so simple and obvious.
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The fact is that the gem of sapphire isone of two varieties of noble corundum. The second representative of a group of corundums is ruby. The color of stones belonging to this noble caste is quite diverse: it can be colorless, red in different shades, blue or blue of varying intensity, pink, purple, green, orange, brown and yellow.
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Until the nineteenth century, sapphires included all stonesblue color, including lapis lazuli. But, since 1800, the right to be called sapphires is recognized only for the blue representatives of the family of corundums. The green stones were called the precious peridot, the yellow ones were called the precious topaz and so on. Modern classification of all these color variations fixed for sapphires. That is, with the exception of red shades, indisputably belonging to ruby, all other colors of corundum indicate their belonging to sapphires.
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The most valuable specimens arecornflower blue sapphires produced in Kashmir, Burma and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Legendary Kashmiri stones are among the rarest and most expensive crystals, because due to the tense situation in the area bordering on Pakistan, geological exploration and extraction of these valuable minerals is currently impossible. Some small amount of Kashmiri sapphires are mined by artisans by local residents and small groups of enthusiasts, but these volumes can be compared only with a drop of supply in a huge sea of demand.
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Burmese sapphires from the Mogok valley, which is closed for visits, are considered next in value. They are darker and more transparent than Kashmiri stones, and have a "midnight blue" tinge.
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The so-called "Kashmiri" color is also characteristic forminerals from Sri Lanka. On the deposits of the southwestern part of this island sapphires are produced of excellent quality and various shades, often not inferior to crystals from Kashmir; but, nevertheless, valued by an order of magnitude lower. In addition to blue crystals, yellow, green, brown, pink and even colorless stones are also found here. Colorless corundums are called leucosapphires and have, as a rule, a small color (shade), since absolutely colorless specimens are extremely rare.
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Australian and Kenyan corundums havegreenish shade and have a strong pleochroism ("multicolor", manifested when considering the stone in different directions). These characteristics significantly reduce the value of sapphire. Thai minerals of deep blue also shine with a greenish tint and are cheaper than Kashmirian, Burmese and Ceylon stones with a purple hue.
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Rare blue starry sapphires enjoyspecial demand and are much higher than conventional minerals. The unusual nature of such stones is due to the manifestation of asterism, an optical effect that forms a star-shaped figure when the sapphire is illuminated. By the way, spectacular starry black sapphires have recently been found on Australian deposits.
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To rare crystals are, also, Lankanpinkish orange sapphires "padparadzha." The name of this stone is translated as "lotus flower", but in fact, the color of the beautiful crystal "padparadzha" tends more towards the orange palette than to the pink one. More accurately conveys a combination of shades in this unusual stone, its poetic comparison with the tropical sky at sunset or with molten gold.
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As you can see, sapphires are a whole world of diversecolors, gloss and fascinating depth of color. But it is worth remembering that at the present time, in addition to the officially permitted methods of ennobling natural stones and growing artificial corundums, there is a large number of fakes for precious minerals. Sometimes these fakes are so indistinguishable from real sapphires that only an experienced gemologist can recognize the deceit.
