The Royal Treatment: Sapphires
Long associated with nobility, sapphires are a regal gem that have traditionally symbolized wisdom, virtue, and sincerity. They’ve adorned ceremonial jewelry for royal families since the Middle Ages, with coronation crowns featuring large sapphires. They were a special favorite of Queen Victoria, who received a sapphire-and-diamond brooch set in gold from her betrothed in 1840, while the infamous Duchess of Windsor Wallis Simpson asked Cartier in 1949 to design a brooch composed of a diamond-and-sapphire dotted platinum panther atop a 152-carat cashmere sapphire.
More recently in 1981, the Princess of Wales and Prince Charles broke from tradition and, instead of a bespoke piece, purchased an engagement ring from the Garrard catalog. Worth $37,500 at the time, it featured a 12-carat sapphire from Sri Lanka set in 18-carat white gold and surrounded by 14 solitaire diamonds. Any member of the public could purchase the same ring, which supported Lady Diana’s sobriquet as “the people’s princess.”
Indeed, anyone can rock the rock; after all, it’s the birthstone of those born in September. Read on to learn more about this gemstone — its makeup, where to find it, what makes it special, and how to care for it.
A Dive into the Molten Core
Three types of rock make up the Earth’s crust, with pre-existing rocks like igneous and sedimentary transformed by intense heat, pressure, and chemical fluids deep in the planet’s core. Called metamorphism, the process alters the rocks’ mineralogy, texture (called foliation or layers), and chemistry, yielding new minerals like corundum.
A crystalline version of aluminum oxide, corundum is naturally transparent — until it interacts with transitional metals like titanium and vanadium. When aluminum oxide mixes with chromium, for example, it turns red, giving us rubies. When it mixes with other metals, we get sapphires.
But you’d be remiss in thinking that all sapphires are blue. Depending on the transition metal that mixes with aluminum oxide, corundum can produce yellow, green, or other colored sapphires. When a sapphire features two or more colors in a single stone, it’s known as a particolored sapphire. Particolored sapphires can’t be grown in a lab; they only occur organically — a mic drop from Mother Earth, if you will. When corundum is pink-orange, it’s known as a padparadscha sapphire, which is the rarest of all those that occur naturally. While they can be produced synthetically, padparadscha sapphires found in the wild fetch much higher prices.
Jewel of the Sahara, Jungle, and . . . Mountain States?
Because metamorphic rocks are found throughout the Earth’s mantle, sapphires can be mined in multiple countries from Afghanistan and Kenya to Columbia, Vietnam, and, in the United States, Montana.
The various geographies lend the sapphires their defining characters. For instance, in 1880, a landslide in India led to the discovery of some of the most beautiful blue sapphires formed by the collision of the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates, which birthed the Himalayan Mountains. From 1882 to 1887, the mines there were worked so hard that the sapphires were nearly depleted.
And in Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon, sapphires have been a staple since at least 1000 BCE, with other gemstones also found on the island nation. In fact, it has so many that it’s known historically as Ranadeepa, which means “Gem Island” in Sanskrit. The country is perhaps most famous for its padparadscha — Sinhalese for “lotus flower” — sapphires and is historically a leading exporter of the gem.
Today, Madagascar features the largest belt of sapphires. Discovered in the Illakaka region in the mid-1990s, the gemstone stoked an industry frenzy that grew Illakaka from a population of 50 to upwards of 30,000. Madagascar is now one of the largest producers of sapphires in the world.
Panning for gold in Madagascar
How to Care for Sapphires
If sapphires are best known for their blue hue, they may be least known for another defining characteristic: their hardness. In fact, sapphires are second only to diamonds on the Mohs scale, which measures the hardness of minerals, i.e., their ability to scratch softer materials. In the jewelry world, that means sapphires don't have what's known in the trade as "cleavage," so they're highly unlikely to break when struck. That characteristic makes them an excellent choice for rings that are subject to daily wear, such as our Sylvia Band.
Keep in mind, though, that sapphires are often treated to enhance their clarity or color. A common practice is heat treatment whereby the gemstones are exposed to temperatures over 1800° for several days. The process intensifies the color and heightens the gem’s clarity.
Treatments less accepted in the trade include lattice diffusion and fracture filling. When diffused, sapphires are heated and different elements introduced to impart greater color saturation. Beryllium, for example, can make a sapphire appear more orange or similar to the highly prized padparadscha sapphire. While the process may yield a deeper color to the eye, the diffusion is so shallow that what seems saturated could lessen dramatically if the stone is chipped or recut.
Fracture-filling sapphires, on the other hand, involves inserting oils, resin, and glass into the gem’s hollow spaces. It’s a less reputable treatment with no guarantee to last; they can be damaged by even mild acids like lemon juice.
Be sure, then, to ask if the sapphire you purchase is natural or synthetic, which will indicate its value, as well as how it’s been treated. Sapphires that have been heat-treated or subjected to lattice diffusion can take ultrasonic or steam cleaning, while fracture-filled or dyed sapphires should only be cleaned with a damp cloth. Warm, soapy water should be fine for all kinds of sapphires regardless of origin or treatment.
Saving the Best for Last
Sapphires are gemstones worth admiration, but it’s the star sapphire that really blows our hair back. They form when microscopic needles of titanium oxide called rutile grow within the crystal as it forms. The presence of rutile within the crystal bends the light, causing a star-like effect called asterism, which you can see in our Cielo Ring.
The first gemstone that our designer Rebekah Harris fell in love with was a sapphire. For her, the play of light on their surface is like a constant communication with the cosmos. Otherworldly, sapphires are so much more than just a beautiful gem, with luminaries such as silent film star Mary Pickford also in awe of their magic. She gifted the one given to her by husband Douglas Fairbanks to the Smithsonian, while actor William Powell gave jewelry featuring star sapphires to actresses Carole Lombard and Jean Harlow.
But perhaps the most well-known star sapphire is the Black Star of Queensland, worn by singer and actress Cher on The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour in 1971. The circular pendant hung from a tiered diamond necklace while Cher performed a cover of “Close to You” by The Carpenters. Draped in diamond-cluster drop earrings and sporting stacks of diamond rings and Art Deco-style diamond bracelets on each wrist, Cher had more than a million-dollars worth of jewelry on her — and looked like a million bucks herself.
