Sapphire shares a special relationship with another gemstone; Ruby. The main difference between the two is their respective colours. The usual colour associated with sapphire is blue but it can also be other colours. The most popular and desired sapphires are those of an intense blue colour, which also have individual sparkle and brilliance. The sparkle of a sapphire is helped by clarity and expert cutting.
The term ‘corundum’ is the mineralogical name for aluminium oxide. It can be colourless or a wide variety of colours such as red, pink, blue, black etc. Corundum is very hard, which makes it a popular feature in a gemstone.
Pure corundum is colourless (white) and is quite rare. However, this does not make it more valuable as its quality is not brilliant. Blue is called sapphire and other colours are also called sapphire. An example of this is ‘Orange Sapphire’. Brilliant orange sapphires are sometimes called ‘padparascha’.
It is known that the best sapphires originally came from Burma, where they are believed to have been mined from prehistoric times. Kashmir is another source of sapphires, which is famous for its blue stones. Thailand is another source for sapphires. They are also found in the USA (Montana and Colorado) and India.
