Story of sapphire
Type: corundum
Mohs hardness scale: 9
Color: blue, yellow, pink, orange, green
ORIGIN AND PROVENANCE
Sapphire is a colored, mostly blue variety of corundum. It owes its blue color to its composition of aluminum oxide mixed with titanium and iron.
Corundum in its purest form is colorless and rare. Colorless sapphire was once considered the equivalent of a diamond.
Since sapphires are more commonly found in larger stones than rubies (rubies weighing over 2 carats are extremely rare), sapphires are not as valuable as rubies.
COLOR
Most sapphires range in color from light blue to gray, which is why they are heat-treated to bring out their blue color. Colored sapphires are much rarer.
A padparadscha sapphire is a sapphire ranging in color from orange-pink to salmon. The most beautiful padparadscha sapphires come from Sri Lanka and are the second most valuable type of sapphire after blue sapphires.
The Kashmir sapphire is the name given to sapphires from the Kashmir region on the border between India and Pakistan. Its color is a rich, intense, velvety blue. Due to its rarity, it is the most valuable and sought-after sapphire. The mine has been in operation for over a century and no longer produces sapphires.
A star sapphire is formed by rutile needles that create a six-pointed star. The most famous star sapphire is the violet-blue Bombay Star from Sri Lanka, weighing over 180 carats and cut in a cabochon shape.
Weighing 1,405 carats, the Adam’s Star is the largest asteric sapphire in the world.
The largest cut sapphire is the blue “Giant of the Orient,” which comes from Sri Lanka and weighs just under 487 carats.
ORIGIN
Sri Lanka (“Ceylon sapphires,” the highest-quality sapphires), Myanmar (the world’s largest producer of sapphires, the Mogok region), Madagascar, Tanzania, Australia.
USES
Sapphire has been popular in jewelry for several centuries.
Synthetic sapphire is used to manufacture so-called “blue glass” (displays, monitors, watches, scanners).