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Sapphires are 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, copper, or magnesium. It is typically blue, but natural "fancy" sapphires also occur in yellow, purple, orange, and green colors; "parti sapphires" show two or more colors.
In October 2014, Sotheby's Hong Kong achieved consecutive per-carat price records for Kashmir sapphires – first with the 12.00 carat Cartier sapphire ring at US$193,975 per carat, then with a 17.16 carat sapphire at US$236,404, and again in June 2015 when the per-carat auction record was set at US$240,205. [39]
The Star of Bombay is a 182-carat (36.4-g) cabochon-cut star sapphire originating in Sri Lanka. The violet-blue gem was given to silent film actress Mary Pickford by her husband, Douglas Fairbanks. She bequeathed it to the Smithsonian Institution. It is the namesake of the popular alcoholic beverage Bombay Sapphire, a British-manufactured gin. [1]
The 423-carat (85 g) blue Logan Sapphire. Sapphire is a saturated shade of blue, referring to the gemstone of the same name. Sapphire gems most commonly occur in a range of blue shades, although they can come in many different colors. Other names for variations of the color sapphire are blue sapphire or sapphire blue, shown below.
A 0.37-carat (0.074 g) brilliant cut purple Yogo sapphire. Only about two percent of Yogo sapphires are purple. The Yogo dike is a narrow subvertical sheet-like igneous body. It varies from 2 to 26 feet (0.61 to 7.92 m) thick and extends for 5 miles (8.0 km), striking at an azimuth of 255°.
A ruby is a pink to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum (aluminium oxide). Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapphires. Ruby is one of the traditional cardinal gems, together with amethyst, sapphire, emerald, and diamond. [1] The word ruby comes from ruber, Latin for red.
The carat (ct) is a unit of mass equal to 200 mg (0.00705 oz; 0.00643 ozt), which is used for measuring gemstones and pearls. The current definition, sometimes known as the metric carat , was adopted in 1907 at the Fourth General Conference on Weights and Measures , [ 1 ] [ 2 ] and soon afterwards in many countries around the world.
The five cardinal gems. Clockwise from top: sapphire, ruby, emerald, amethyst, diamond. Cardinal gems are gemstones which have traditionally been considered precious above all others. The classification of the cardinal gems dates back to antiquity, and was largely determined by ceremonial or religious use as well as rarity. [1]