A maiden born when September leaves
Are rustling in September’s breeze,
A sapphire on her brow should bind
`Twill cure diseases of the mind.
Bailey Banks Biddle for Tiffany & Co – a late 1920s diamond and sapphire bracelet from Moira Jewels at Richard Ogden in Burlington Arcade
Oh you lucky September children, you get the beautiful Sapphire as your birthstone! The word Sapphire itself is derived from the Greek word Sappheiros, which means blue stone. Through history sapphires have been such treasured gemstones that they have been assigned all kinds of different properties, for example truth sincerity, constancy, dignity, loyalty, serenity, faith, purity and wisdom. What a wonderful stone to carry around indeed! Sapphire was the gem of Apollo, the Greek God of light and the sun, truth and prophecy, healing, plague, music, poetry and so much more – and his worshipers would wear sapphires when they visited his shrine in Delphi to seek his help. (1)
Loose Sapphire and a Sapphire Diamond Ring
As we already know, sapphires and rubies are closely related, as they are both a form of the mineral corundum, and while red corundum is called a Ruby, all other forms are called Sapphires (except the pink/orange version: Padparadscha, which is very special and deserves its own blog post!).
I do wish that I had taken a better picture of this stunning selection of sapphires but at least you can see that they come in a rainbow of different colours!
Blue sapphires are the most well known ones, but sapphires do come in all other natural colours as you can see above: colourless, brown, purple, green, orange, pale pink, yellow, and are then referred to as fancy sapphires. These various colours are caused by different chemical elements appearing in corundum, so if there for example is a presence of vanadium we will get a purple sapphire, whereas iron will bring us a pale yellow to green gemstone.
Grays Antique Market, Sapphire and Diamond Rings
The most sought after colour in sapphires is a medium-deep cornflower blue (a little bit lighter than the sapphires in the photo above) but I think that it is just such a personal preference when it comes to deciding one which one is the most beautifully coloured sapphire. I have seen so many people come into the antique jewellery shop and fall in love with a completely different colour – everything from a very pale blue to one that takes on a purple hue and resembling a Tanzanite (here is a previous blog post that will remind you what a Tanzanite looks like: You Brilliant Tanzanite). Personally I just adore the deep blue sapphires, that create such a beautiful contrast to all the white dresses that I always wear – and the combination in turn reminds me of my beloved Finnish flag in white and blue!
Sapphires can be found in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Kasmir, Australia, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, China and the US.
A Sapphire and Diamond Ring from the Jewel Tree in Cape Town – sapphires are so beautiful when joined with diamonds in various jewellery designs!
A dear happy birthday to all you lovely September children!
Sources:
(1) Earthsky.org
Decades of Elegance 