Facts:īesides blue Sapphire and Ruby, the corundum family also includes so-called “fancy sapphires.” They come in violet, green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, and intermediate hues. Padparadscha Sapphires A rare and valuable pinkish-orange sapphire named from the Sinhalese for lotus blossom. The World’s most famous engagement ring - Kate Middleton’s and Princess Diana’s is adorned with flawless 18 Carat Blue Sapphire. Vivid And Saturated - Sapphire’s blue can be vivid and saturated like it’s lit from within.ĭelicate Silk - Sapphire often contains delicate intersecting needles of rutile that gemologists call silk. Then an even larger Kashmir sapphire cushion - 42.28 carats - was sold for $3.5 million by Christie's in Hong Kong in November 2008, setting yet another record. Some of the best Burma, Ceylon and Madagascar sapphires come close, but Kashmir sapphire continues to have a nearly mythical reputation in the gemstone world.

A cushion cut 22.66 carats Kashmir sapphire, set in a pendant surrounded by diamonds, was sold at Christie's auction in 2007 for $3,064,000, setting a new record for the highest price paid for a sapphire. Kashmir sapphires are so scarce that they rarely appear even at auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's though they draw records prices when top stones come on the market. Kashmir sapphires are so highly valued because the finest specimens have a superb royal blue color and a velvety texture due to fine silk inclusions. The mine was mainly productive during the period between 18, yielding sapphire crystals of exceptional size and quality. Sapphire was first discovered in Kashmir around 1880, high up in the Himalayas at about 4,500 meters. Most jewelry customers think all sapphires are blue, and when gem and jewelry professionals use the word “sapphire” alone, they normally mean “blue sapphire.

Its name comes from the Greek word ' sappheiros', which probably referred to lapis lazuli. In folklore, history, art, and consumer awareness, sapphire has always been associated with the color blue.

Kashmir The Bluest Blues comes from Kashmir Intensely saturated and velvety, rare sapphires from Kashmir set the standard for blue Facts:

Sapphire stone birthstone