Royal Kings Plain Sapphire®
Can you tell us a little about the source of this material?
Australia has been a major world source of sapphire for over fifty years. For many years Australian Sapphire was thought to only include very dark blue to near-black colors when in reality it produces a wide range of qualities and colors.
In the mid to late 1900’s the name ‘Australia’ even became a term used as a sapphire quality grade rather than simply a way to identify its origin. If a cutter had any extreme dark blues or near-black sapphires, it was labelled and sold as Australian Sapphire. Then the more open and bright (meaning more light is able to pass through the gem) blues from Australia were sold as sapphires from other more desirable origins, which translated to a higher selling price.
While it is true that you will find those dark to near-black blues in Australian material, we also see and produce a full range of beautiful deep greens, yellow-greens, olive tones, teals, denim, and even bicolor gems. Very different from what was labelled Australian fifty years ago!
Produced in several states within Australia, the most well-known and longest producing location is the area around Inverell, in New South Wales. This area produces nearly all blues, and they tend to be smaller size stones. The second major producer is near the towns of Emerald and Sapphire, which are in the state of Queensland. While there are some quality blues from this location, you will generally find more denim, teal, green, bright yellow, and some of the most beautiful bicolor sapphire gems. Since the gems from this area tend to be more open in color, it is also common to see somewhat larger stones come out of Queensland than the New South Wales deposits. This is true because, generally, darker rough material requires smaller stone cuts for adequate light transmission to discern color, whereas lighter material, such as that found in Queensland, allows for larger cuts while still showcasing the gem’s color effectively.
When sapphire was first found in Australia, it was primarily produced by fossickers, akin to the American term rockhounds, who individually pursued weekend gem-hunting excursions. They would often sift through deposits by panning or screening to uncover their treasures. While various producers now exist, fossicking remains a prominent leisure activity in Australia, mirroring the popularity of rockhounding in the United States.
What kinds of sizes, shapes and cutting styles can be found?
Australian Sapphire is basaltic and found in alluvial deposits, which are ancient stream beds. As a rule, Australian Sapphire crystals are ‘chunkier’ than the sapphire crystals you would find in Montana. At times, they are also found in longer pointed crystals which are often called dog teeth.
Traditionally, you would find Australian Sapphire cut in rounds, ovals, a few pear shapes and emerald cuts. But we think the long dog teeth crystals lend themselves to shapes like marques, long kites, and long pear shapes. So, today we cut an exciting array of shapes that include those traditional rounds and ovals, but we also cut pear shapes, emerald cuts, baguettes, tapered baguettes, hexagons, kites, triangles, trillions, tablets, lozenges, rose cuts, cabochons, as well as our signature GeoCuts™ and Arch Cabs.
Is this material typically enhanced in any way?
It is common for Australian Sapphire to be heat-treated, mainly to enhance the blues and pull out green tones, or in some cases to remove rutile inclusions. Our Australian Sapphires are heat-treated, we conduct this process in-house with no synthetics or additives used; it is truly heat-only.
Over the years, our team has developed one of the most advanced heat-treating systems in the world. The ‘norms’ we saw in the industry for sapphire heat-treating inspired us to create this system because we believe if a sapphire is to be heat-treated, it should truly be heat-only. It is common for others to heat in flux borax, which fills internal fractures and creates an illusion of a cleaner stone when in reality it is still as fractured as it was before, it’s just more difficult to see. Pretty deceptive, right? Other strategies you will find common in the industry include lead glass filling, beryllium diffusion, and titanium diffusion, all of which are used to create the illusion of a color or quality grade that does not actually exist in the original gemstone. These are forms of synthetic additives that present the gems as more valuable or higher quality than they really are. These methods do not align with our ethics as a company, and they are extremely difficult to track if you are not conducting the treatment yourself. This is why we created our own system that allows us to guarantee the materials we heat are nothing other than just that; heat-only.
With decades of research and development, we have found that high temperature heat is all you need to enhance natural color in Australian Sapphire. We believe any treatment to the gemstones you buy should always be disclosed - so that’s exactly what we do, and we feel good about openly sharing that.
All that said, in today’s market there is a lot of interest in teals, greens, and bicolor gems, so we do keep some of our Australian Sapphire material entirely natural as well. Ultimately, it depends on the expert eye of our gemstone and heat-treating team to assess the rough and determine how to best utilize the raw material to give our customers the best colors possible.
Are there any unique characteristics you can share about this material?
Sapphire is one of the most popular colored gemstones because of its wide array of colors and because it’s second to diamonds in hardness. But in addition to these characteristics, one unique aspect is that Australian blue gems hold their color much better than other origins when it comes to cutting small stones. If you’re new to cutting: the smaller you cut, the less saturated color (or lighter in color) your eye may see because there is less mass for light to reflect any color back to your eye. So, that means we can cut as small as 1mm in Australian Sapphire and still end up with rich bright blue gems. A very versatile gem that can be anything from a center stone to a small accent stone. Or both!
What color range do you offer?
Australian Sapphire comes in a wide range of colors. Blues, teals, greens, yellows and even bi-color. The colors below make up our blue-to-green color control set and are generally the most common colors you will find in our inventory.
Color can be very subjective and what one person sees as blue, may not be what the another sees as blue. Because of this, we have provided descriptions for our colors to offer a little more objective understanding of what we mean when we say blue, denim, teal, or green.
Blue: Blue primary color with little to no secondary color.
Denim: Blue primary color with a slight green or grey secondary color (green or grey undertone).
Teal: Green primary color with a strong blue secondary color (blue undertone).
Green: Green primary color with little to no blue secondary color.
You will also find a fair number of fancy colors such as kaleidoscope, yellows, and vivid lime to chartreuse greens. Our color control set to showcase these colorways is coming soon.
What are the gem specs of this material? How do we know if it is authentic?
The material we source at Columbia Gem House is backed with our Gem Trust guarantee. This means you know it’s an authentic gemstone and that we will share all available information with you. You can find additional gem specifications below:
How do I care for my gemstone?
Sapphire is a type of corundum, which is very hard and durable. It can easily be cleaned in an ultrasonic or steam cleaner and is not susceptible to thermal shock. You may also clean your Montana Sapphire with warm water, detergent, and a soft brush. If you keep your sapphire clean and bright, it will last you a lifetime!
