Sapphire, blue sapphire, red sapphire, Sapphire in matrix, Star sapphires

Blue is the most popular color for sapphire but sapphires can be found in nearly every imaginable color:

Sapphire is the gemstone trade name for the gemstones issue from the mineral corundum species with colors different than red. Red corundum is "ruby" Sapphire used alone means in fact "blue sapphire"

Fancy sapphires is the gem trade name for corundum with other color than blue or red. They can come in shades of purple, green, yellow, black, all colors except red, as "red sapphire" again is ruby.

Padparadsha sapphires are the most valuable of all fancy sapphires is their color is close to the color of a lotus flower. In fact, it should be a delicious mix of pink, orange and yellow. Padparadsha are typically coming from Sri Lanka, but natural padparadsha from Mogok in Burma are also known.

Royal blue is the typical color of Burmese sapphire from Mogok it is slightly violetish blue to true blue.

Cornflower blue is more velvety and typically from Kashmir (India), but is also found in Mogok, especially in the Thurein Thaung mine which is famous in Burma as several of its best stones were identified by some major laboratories as being of "Kashmir Origin".

Even after agreeing that origin is not a measure for quality when dealing with gems, the fact is that top quality Burmese sapphires, along with some Kashmir stones, are considered to be the finest quality for sapphire.

In the better qualities, determination of origin for these sapphires is a difficult task. Nowadays production from Mogok is scarce and production in Kashmir is very weak. Most of the sapphires currently in the market are coming from Madagascar and Sri Lanka but Thailand (Kanchanaburi), Cambodia (Pailin), Australia and China are also important producing areas.

Like ruby, many sapphires in the market nowadays owe their beautiful color to heat treatment, and some yellow stones get their color from irradiation.

Chanthaburi in Thailand is the world center for the heat treatment of gemstones which is something of a semi-scientific alchemy. This treatment ensures a steady supply of fine stones at affordable prices for gem-lovers the world over. In fact it has become such an industry standard that "unheated" rubies and sapphires are considered collectors items. They are still the gemstones of the very wealthy as they can attain really very high prices.

Sapphire can present many interesting particularities that make it one of the crystal and mineral collector favorite: their shapes cigars like or bi-pyramid are very attractive as sapphire comes in many colors. More rare but much appreciated are the hexagonal columnar crystals.

Sapphire in matrix can make very fine stones for displays, but such stones are rare and difficult to find in the market as most of sapphires are coming from alluvial deposits. These deposits can be from former metamorphic or basaltic weathered rocks. Most sapphires in Mogok were formed in feldspar (metamorphic origin) in the west of the Mogok valley near the Kabaing granitic dome. Some sapphires are also found sometimes in the north east of Mogok in strange iron rich matrix or also even stranger completely covered by spinel. Going further north near the Momeik city igneous sapphires are also found showing the incredible geologic complexity of the Mogok area.

Star sapphires are one of the gemstone collector favorite. Star in sapphire can result of 2 kinds of inclusions:
Rutile needles reflecting light as mirrors and that cross each other with 60 degrees angles are the reason of the moving 6 ray star effect.

Hematite platelets give the 6 rays stars in black star sapphire
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HISTORY OF CHANTHABURI – PART 3

After this, Burma lent its hand to the Chanthaburi gem scene, with a new source of ruby from Mong Hsu. This new source, one of the largest deposits of ruby in recent history, produced Burmese ruby with one problem, most of the red crystals had a bluish core which would make the cut stones look purplish. Once again, the Chanthaburi burners came to the rescue. With a new technique to heat the blue core out of the stone, which would leave some silk in its place, the “new and improved” Mong Hsu rubies were a hit, quickly dominating the market.
Rubies and Sapphires from Madagascar began to appear in large quantities on the market in the 1990’s. These gemstones, combined with Thai heat treatment again proved to be a winning combination.

In 2001, Chanthaburi began producing large amounts of the lovely padparadscha sapphire. Markets such as Japan when wild for the stone, and dealers began to ask where the stones were coming from. After much discussion, the Chanthaburi dealers admitted that the stones were being beryllium treated. This caused a shockwave throughout the international gemstone trade as many said that this beryllium treatment was a type of diffusion and not simply a form of heat treatment.

Chanthaburi has over time weathered many storms, and has repeatedly come out on top, still retaining its place as a center of the international gemstone scene. Thought the weekend gemstone market is currently slower than it has been in the past, anyone can still go and sit down at a dealers table and see a wide variety of stones from around the world.

HISTORY OF CHANTHABURI – PART 2

In the 1950’s with the closure of the Mogok mines by the Burmese government, Chanthaburi’s stature grew even greater as massive supply shortages developed. The mines within Thailand and around the city of Chanthaburi quickly stepped up to meet market demand, with control over a large portion of production and increasingly developed heat treatment techniques, Chanthaburi increased its standing in the international gem industry

In the late 1960’s, Chanthaburi began to look outward for sources of gemstones. The first major source on which Chanthaburi set its sights were the Sapphire mines of Australia. Australian blue sapphires are darker in color than their Asian counterparts; however, due to new heat treatment techniques developed in the furnaces of the burners in Chanthaburi, who were able to “burn out” the rutile silk in the stones, the Thais were able to produce an attractive blue sapphire.

In the 1970’s, Chanthaburi made an even bigger name for itself with the heat treatment of the Sri Lankan geuda sapphire. Geuda sapphires, which due to their high rutile silk content are a milky, diesel color had previously had no place in the marketplace. However, once the Chanthaburi burners began to experiment, they developed a heating technique to turn these worthless stones into gem quality material. This development left the world in wonder as dealers tried to determine all this new blue sapphire material was coming from.

HISTORY OF CHANTHABURI – PART 1

The small town of Chanthaburi, nestled in southeastern Thailand on the border with Cambodia, is undisputedly the center of the world’s gemstone trade. Although the Mahesak area in Bangkok is seen by many as the center of Thailand’s gemstone district, the real footwork is done 4 hours bus ride to the southeast.

Chanthaburi, a name derived from Sanskrit and literally means city of the moon, has long been a center for the trade of gemstones. As early as the 14th century, Chinese travelers wrote of Chanthaburi as a gem market where brightly colored gems were bought and sold. In these early days, much of the gemstones which were sold in Chanthaburi were mined locally. Ruby and sapphire mines were scattered around the city, and by the 18th century were producing fine rubies and sapphires in addition to black star sapphires. These Chanthaburi gems formed the foundation of the Chanthaburi gemstone market.

The first country which began to bring its gemstones to sell in Chanthaburi on a large scale was Cambodia. The mines of Pailin, just over the border from Chanthaburi, produced large amounts of quality blue sapphire in addition to ruby, yellow sapphires, zircon, and garnet. These were then brought to what had become the largest gem market in the region.

Soon the Burmese would follow, with Shan traders from Mogok bringing their gemstones to sell in Chanthaburi. These Shan traders, in addition, brought more effective mining techniques which they had over time developed in Mogok, thus increasing the quantity of rubies and blue sapphires produced in the area and increasing an already growing gemstone market.