Magazine / Precious stones / Sapphire
Magazine / Precious stones / Sapphire
The Sky is a Sapphire at the center of which, setted, is situated the Earth.
This was the ancient vision, which today appears poem. The resplendent blue of a limpid and infinite sky: here's the color of the most fascinating sapphires. And our is in fact the blue planet..
Considered in ancient times as the stone synthesis of all the precious stones, of which it comprehended all the properties.
Was appreciated to the sapphires the particular predisposition to facilitate tranquillity, and even concentration; even today the blue is viewed as the characteristic color of calm and serenity.
Were associated to the sapphire great moral power, wisdom, justice; sympathy, harmony, friendship and loyalty.
In synthesis it expresses trust, at the same time of love and desire. Emotions characterized by reciprocal comprehension, and it is for this reason that the women of many world regions have a preference for the sapphire as the engagement ring.
It has ever been considered a royal stone par excellence, and utilized in the iconography of several religions both as stone and as color.
The Romans appreciated the sapphires for curative properties, specially against fatigue and ulcers. Plinio talked about it as a stone which was sufficient, by itself, to contemplate all the nature.
The stone is present in many other colors, from the blue gray to the sunset tonalities - yellow, pink, orange, purple; the sapphires of different color from blue are said "fantasy sapphires".
The concept of purity has often been associated to the sapphire blue. A gem among the most refined existing ones, from ever.
The charme of the blue stone joins company with an almost without equals hardness, which makes the sapphire unscratchable.
From the most valuable production zones come rare collection gems.
Mineralogically the sapphire is a corundum variant, an aluminium oxide crystallized in past eras at the high temperature and pressure conditions internal in the earth.
The color, in its varieties, is given by elements present in traces, as iron and chrome.
Characteristic peculiar of the sapphire is the elevated hardness: 9 in the Mohs scale. Seconds only to the diamonds, the hardest minerals of the planet!
This guarantees preservation facility: particular shrewdnesses are not necessary to wear the sapphires.
The elevated sapphires hardness implies also manufacture difficulty, which is increased by the fact that the obtained color changes in conformity with the cut; it needs to align the cut with experience, to obtain the best aesthetics.
The gem of sapphire can be both transparent and opaque (in the so-called root), in various gradations and corresponding values.
The best sapphires are only in few localities of the Earth.
The Cashmere sapphire is considered the most valuable: its own is the most pure and intense blue, and polished as the silk.
Ceylon is the most ancient production zone, Thailandia and Australia are the most numerically remarkable ones.
The value of a sapphire depends on dimension, color and transparency.
The inclusions, if not excessive and if they don't cause opacity, can result as pleasant and aesthetic irregularities.
The sapphire is also searched for hobby of collecting things.
Today 5 kinds of synthesis are known to artificially produce the sapphire; one recognizes the syntheticals from the naturals with microscopy and spectrophotometry examinations.
Often the natural stone is treated (as a rule thermically or by thermodiffusion); the treatments absence of a really natural stone increases its value.
