Enjoy our guide to where the best sapphires come from with expert advice about how to place value on the origin of sapphires.
Best sapphires come from.
Sapphire is a precious gemstone a variety of the mineral corundum consisting of aluminum oxide α al 2 o 3 with trace amounts of elements such as iron titanium chromium vanadium or magnesium it is typically blue but natural fancy sapphires also occur in yellow purple orange and green colors.
Sapphire is generally known as a blue gemstone but surprisingly it comes in a wide range of colors and quality variations.
So a top quality sapphire from ceylon can easily sell for more than a mediocre kashmir stone.
Choosing the color of your sapphire.
Montana sapphires come in a rainbow of colors.
The first question to ask when searching for a sapphire is what color do sapphires come in this may be the most important attribute to consider when purchasing a sapphire.
You may have heard of kashmir or ceylon sapphires how legendary they are but is that origin the most important.
When looking at the color of a gemstone there are three main things we must take into consideration.
Saturation tone and hue.
Blue is of course the most popular variety of sapphire and also the most common derived from the word sapphirus which literally means blue in latin.
Is there one sapphire origin that is better than another.
Heat treated cut montana sapphires.
Parti sapphires show two or more colors.
The best untreated blue sapphires will look virtually the same as a top quality heated blue sapphire.
One of our stunning sapphire rings featuring a cushion cut blue sapphire in a halo diamond setting.
It is very important to note that a gemstone value is based on it s quality and that all sources produce a range of material.
While some of the most valuable sapphires in history were mined in kashmir and myanmar burma these days most of the world s sapphires come from sri lanka and australia says douglas hucker ceo of the american gem trade association.
Color is the single mos.
Where do sapphires come from.
After decades in this business i have seen mountains of top quality color heated blue sapphires and handfuls of top quality color in untreated.
The gem gallery can offer you the best of these stones totally natural yogo sapphires and treated and untreated fancy colored montana sapphires.
Sapphires that are not blue are known as fancy sapphires and may be any color except red which is a ruby.
In general the more intense and uniform the color is the more valuable the stone.
At the end of the day it doesn t really matter what type of sapphire you have as long as you are happy with the color.