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Hi Yingh, I believe that orange sapphires are very rare, but not the ones that have been Be heated. Have you orange sapphires been graded by a reputable gem lab. such as AGTA, AGL, GIA, or some reputable Swiss labs? How do you know that your orange sapphires were heated only? Many Thai sellers claim that their orange sapphires were heated only, but in fact, they were Be heated. I experienced once with a Thai seller, he said that the Pad. sapphire was unheated, but in fact, it was Be heated with shallow color. Orange sapphires in today''s market have mostly been Be heated especially with red orange color hues. Without a gem lab report from a reputable lab., we must assume that all orange sapphires (orange, orangy-red, red-orange, orange-red, reddish-orange and red and some Pad. sapphires) have been Be heated.Date: 7/7/2005 5:26:26 PM
Author: yingh
colorchange, sorry for stealing your topic for a moment.
I bet your sapphire is lovely in person, just your photography skill needs improvement.(so do mine)
yes my sapphire is heat only. I guess I can call the color orange with red hue? I''ve seen people call that color parad. but aren''t orange sapphire more rare than parad?
Date: 7/7/2005 5:30:25 PM
Author: valeria101
The last newsletter from Cherrypicked.com had a nice overview of the state of affairs... now, where did I put it...
It sounds like a simple question. But the sound of "simple" things can be deceiving; especially when the leading labs in the marketplace can't agree. After decades of cutting, buying, selling and seeing some of the most legendary Padparadscha's even Richard and I are dumbfounded as to what the labs consider to be the type of gem that qualifies as a "Pad." So, if that makes you feel better, take comfort that we are all in the same boat adrift in confusion.
Before I tell you what I gleaned over the years as to what makes a Padparadscha a Padparadscha, let me recount my "Tale of 2 Pads" for your considerations.
Recently, I purchased 2 lovely Padparadscha's from one of my most trusted Sri Lankan sources whose reputation for honest above board dealing with us over the last 3 decades is beyond reproach. When he told me that the two Pads were both natural and Sri Lankan and that he had followed them both from the rough - and my examination of them concurred - I felt a sense of comfort and set off to re-shape these two native cuts into our trademark modern cut to bring out their best.
One gem showed a lovely bright medium to light pastel apricot tone with a discernible orange pink personality and no brown. The other gem was a more intense orangey pink with reddish highlights in a more spready shape.
When the gems returned from the lab, I gazed in amazement at the findings; yes both were natural untreated specimens. The brighter pastel gem received a Padparadscha type title while the more intense one was labeled "Natural Pink Sapphire." I thought this must have been a typo and called the lab to discuss their error.
The reply I received from the lab was unnerving; there was no error - the lab technician felt the gem to be too rich in color and that only pastel orange-pinks can be considered Padparadscha. If that lab technicians definition were the case that would mean that the world's most legendary Pads - like the one's in the museums and the one's sold at the world's most prestigious auction houses - would not qualify as Padparadscha by today's lab standards! The absurdity of the moment stood out for me as I shook my head and asked Esther, our office manager to go into the safe and bring out a tray of pink sapphires of all different tonal variations. Perhaps what I needed was a standard of comparison. Perhaps I was in need of some perspective.
As I placed the more intense gem amongst dozens of different pink sapphires of various hues and tonalities the one gem that stood out like a sore thumb amongst all of them was - you guessed it - the one the lab called a "Natural Pink Sapphire." There was nothing ""Pink Sapphire-ish" about this gem at all and any child could see that on a cloudy day.
What's going on? What is plain to see is that there is no real convergence of opinion at the labs as to what is a Padparadscha. At this time, allow me to take a stand and suggest the following standards for answering the question "What is a Padparadscha?"
TIER 1) TRADITIONAL COLLECTABLE NATURAL PADPARADSCHA (STRICTEST) An unheated Sri Lankan Sapphire which exhibits a color combination of pink and orange in any proportion as long as both colors are obvious and blend together. This would include the whole gamut of tones from pale apricot to deep Hawaiian sunset. The primary color could be either pink or orange but the secondary color must be clearly apparent. Too much brown would disqualify the gem from this category altogether.
TIER 2) COLLECTABLE NATURAL PADPARADSCHA (STRICT) Any unheated Sapphire regardless of country of origin that exhibits the color combination as stated above. I have seen many superb Madagascan, Vietnamese and African gems that hold their own next to Sri Lankan gems. I consider these gems to be valuable treasures unto themselves as long as they are a) beautiful and b) without enhancement.
TIER 3) PADPARADSCHA (INCLUSIVE) This category would include any sapphire that exhibits the color combination above including any country of origin. This category covers heat-treated gems but not those gems whose treatments are beryllium or diffusion based.
Most of the Be-diffused sapphires are very bright and attractive, but I don''t judge that the sapphire above is Be-diffused sapphire because heated only or unheated sapphires can come in bright color as well. Some Be-diffused sapphires have claudy looking (inside the stone) and some are really clean. I think the very high heat temperature can make the sapphires either claudy (which is the same look as flux produced synthetic sapphires) or very clean (melt all the cracks inside the stones). I believe it is very hard to detect whether a sapphire has been Be-diffused or not if there is not shallow color in the stone (I am talking about high heat temperature heated stones). And, I believe most of the gem labs require using SIMS to detect the treatment of the sapphires at this time.Date: 7/8/2005 8:46:43 AM
Author: valeria101
No.. I don''t know that much.
What is this ? I have yet to see a sample in person, but these hazy stones seem to glow in the dark. If these have no story as yet, perhaps they deserve one.
Madagascar, heat only at Imperialjewels.com.
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