Hello my lovely! So in an earlier blog post called The Enchanting Birthstones of June, I mentioned a gemstone called Alexandrite, but I didn’t have a photo to show you at the time. Well, the other day a stunning Alexandrite and diamond cluster ring did a short stint in the antique shop, so I took the opportunity to take a couple of two photos of it for you.
The spectacular thing about this gem is that it appears to change colour when viewed in different light: green in daylight and red/purple in incandescent (electric) light:
The Alexandrite displays a purple hue when viewed in the shop lights…
… and then it turned green when I helped it up in the daylight that came through the window
Alexandrite was first discovered in 1834 in the Ural Mountains in Russia, and legend has it, that it was called Alexandrite because it was found on the same day that the Russian tsar Alexander II came of age. Because it displayed the colours of old Imperial Russia, red and green, it soon became the national stone of tsarist Russia.
An Alexandrite with great colour and that is finely faceted, is one of the most valuable gemstones around; often surpassing diamonds, sapphires and rubies in price. They were very much sought after as they came out of the Russian mines, but when the supply diminished, so did demand. However, in the late 1980s an Alexandrite mine was discovered in Brazil, and there was another surge in interest for the gemstone. The Russian stones are however still the most valuable ones, so all you lovely June babies, this is your birthstone – and if you get your hands on one then hold on tight, as the ones with great colour change seem to be very rare to find these days!
There were two antique jewellery dealers in the shop when this ring appeared, and one of them asked the other one whether he would choose a three carat diamond ring or this Alexandrite, if he had the choice. The other dealer didn’t hesitate for a second, but answered the Alexandrite, as it would make such an interesting piece of jewellery, although the diamond ring would potentially be a better investment. The first dealer agreed with him and would also have chosen the Alexandrite. And I couldn’t have agreed more – I definitely would have picked the unique Alexandrite!
Decades of Elegance 