Oh I have been so envious of my colleague who is a gemstone specialist and has just returned from her trip to Burma! She brought back these stunning star sapphires, spinels and garnets and we have been ooh’ing and aah’ing over them here in the shop for weeks now. Burma is well known for its fine quality rubies and sapphires but it is less well known for being a source of spinel in a wide range of colours: red, pink, grey, blue and black.
Now, just on a note that in case you lose your heart to one of these gemstones, please know that they are all for sale, price on application as my colleague told me:
Grey Cushion Cut Spinel from Burma
On of my favourite colours in the whole wide world is taupe – you know that luscious blend of pink and grey that is set off so beautifully against white? Well, seeing this grey coloured spinel definitely made me think of the colour taupe, but my colleague didn’t agree with me, so you can draw your own conclusions of the colour. I think it was just divine, either way! It also happens to be my favourite cut: cushion, so getting to see it at close up was just such a treat!
Pink Spinel from Burma
Pink Spinel from Burma
Then there was this lovely, bright pink spinel, again in a beautiful cushion cut. The second photo is more true to the colour of the stone in real life, I am not sure how I managed to get it so intense in the top photos – sorry about that!
Spinels are very interesting gemstones and have been mistaken for rubies for centuries; it wasn’t until 1783 that spinels were officially differentiated from rubies. In fact, the Queen has a spinel in her Imperial Crown, which for many years was thought to be a ruby and still bears the name Black Prince’s Ruby. However, when it was tested it transpired that it was in fact a red spinel! It weighs 170 carats and is set just above the Cullinan II diamond at the front of the crown. Spinels have a hardness of 8, which makes them more durable than emeralds and consequently very wearable gemstones.
Star Sapphire from Burma
And then there was this star sapphire; another one of my favourite gemstones. You might remember from the blog post A Star Ruby Romance that out of every 100 mined corundom (rubies and sapphires) only three will show this star pattern – and only one out of these three will have a good star and good colour!
Grey Star Sapphire at Richard Ogden
Last but not least, there was this parti coloured star sapphire (top gem in the photo above), which means that part of it is one colour and part of it another, which you can see quite clearly in the photo above.
Which one is your favourite?
Decades of Elegance 