Sapphire Gems
In ancient times it was believed that the sky is a giant sapphire. Actually the comparison ti blue sky is the best to describe the pure sapphire color in all its shades – from the evening deep blue to the bright and of a clear and beautiful summer sky which really charms and warms all the people. However you can meet other colors of sapphire gems, but they will not be as clean, deep and vivid as blue shades. Besides blue there are the bright fireworks of sunset colors: yellow, pink, orange and purple.
The name "sapphire" is believed to come from Greek word sappheiros that meant "blue". It is known that the word sapphire was first applied to Afghanistanian laps lazuli. According to ancient Oriental beliefs sapphire is the gem planet Saturn (Indian astrologists said so) and also is the birthstone for September.
The popularity of sapphire is quite normal. Blue is its main color and blue actually is the most favorite color of the half of the men and women in the whole world. Through the ages the main associations with this stone were sympathy and harmony, friendship and loyalty. No wonder it was always a desired stone for everyone.
Talking about purchasing sapphire gems we should know values of such things as color, lighting, clarity, cut, sizes and lot more. As I have mentioned before the blue color is main for sapphire gems, so for it the intensity of blue is the primary value factor. Only deep blues are in value. If the stone is too dark or too light it costs less. Not as rubies sapphire gems like intense daylight. The best view you can obtain looking at them right after sunrise or before sunset. Speaking of rubies again – sapphire gems are much cleaner then rubies. The amount of different eye- visible inclusions is lesser. It is interesting that you can enhance value of some gemstones using fine silk throughout the stone.
Though in the markets there are a great variety of cutting styles and different shapes the most common sapphire gem cut types are the following: ovals, cushions, emerald cut (this is round shaped one) and cabochon cut. The sapphire price of course does depend of the gem stone size. Blue sapphires are met in larger sizes than rubies and diamonds. For example Sri Lanka is the home of most of the faceted sapphires of quality in the 100-ct. plus range.
Nowadays the great majority of sapphires are heat-treated to improve their appearance. Such enhanced stones are more stable in color. However if untreated stones have fine quality they fetch a premium that can be 50% or more if compared with the treated stones of the same quality. Other treatments such as dying, oiling and surface diffusion are used on occasion.
Sapphire mining industry grows from day to day. So, "heavenly" gems with the fine color spectrum will be available in the nearest future in normal amounts. But unfortunately for now top quality Sapphire gems remain rarity in the gemstone mines all over the world.
