Thursday, September 10, 2009
This third part in the series explores the relationship between country of origin and the color of blue sapphires. We focus on the “classic” sources for the best blue sapphires, including Kashmir, Burma, Ceylon, and the new kid on the block, Madagascar, discussing quality of color, heat treatment, and values plus information about the geology […]
Filed in Gemstones
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Also tagged alluvial deposits, artisanal mining, Ceylon, county of origin certificate, GIA, GRS, heat treatment, Kashmir, Madagascar, Mogok, Sri Lanka
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Thursday, September 3, 2009
Don’t miss this 4 part series on the blue sapphire. We’ll discuss gem grading and market preferences for blue sapphire, the physical characteristics of natural sapphires that affect their color, some of the characteristics of stones from classic sources of sapphire including Ceylon, Burma, Kashmir, Madagascar, Thailand, Australia, and Montana, and the various methods of […]
Saturday, August 29, 2009
One crucial skill in dealing with colored gemstones is to know the range of color each gem specie can display. I firmly believe many folks “don’t like peridot” because they’ve only seen commercial grade material or the more “chartreuse” rather brassy colors. Many jewelers sell the peridot short by only stocking lower grade material. I’ve […]
The jeweler who hears a statement like this should take up the challenge— be prepared to show a beautiful peridot like this one. People who haven’t seen a good peridot will appreciate the experience. It’s a gem you can stock in top quality and good size for not a lot of money. Great stones are […]
The best rubies from Burma have long been designated as Pigeon’s Blood red, a rather poetic descriptive term that has come to be an actual grading term, signifying the most sought after color in ruby. Below are photos of some other Pigeon’s Blood stones we have known! In the second of several blogs on the […]
We sold this fine and rare 4 ct. Burma ruby, documented by the GRS lab in Switzerland as Pigeon’s Blood Red- it’s value has increased about 50% in 4 years, even in today’s turbulent economy. Great stones like this are now very difficult to find- not only are they increasingly rare in nature, but mining […]