Pink Sapphires Versus Rubies

[AGBF]

I was looking through Richard Hughes' website for the passage on color being comparative which has eluded me, and came upon this. (The passage I am still looking for relates to my own thread on my search for a red stone.)

I have admired Dick Hughes for years. I really think he is brilliant. Sometimes I forget how much I admire him and how much he knows. This link will take you to a page on pink sapphires and rubies that is fascinating!

http://www.ruby-sapphire.com/ruby_sapphire_borders.htm

Deb/AGBF


Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

 

[hannaht]

Thanks for posting. I thoroughly enjoyed the article.

 

[movie zombie]

i miss richard. his knowledge is vast [and politically we are on the same page]. i love his writing style. he makes color stones "accessible" to those not in the business.

and how about that pad towards the end?! i personally have not liked pads.....but that is one stellar stone and i see in it what he describes as a true pad....and a true pad is few and far between.

deb, how goes the search? did you see that ed has listed some new things? most are too pink or too orange, i think, for you......

MoZo

 

[AGBF]

deb, how goes the search? did you see that ed has listed some new things? most are too pink or too orange, i think, for you......

Where, MZ? Do you have a link? (I'll answer the first question in my thread. Thanks for asking!)

Deb/AGBF


Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

 

[AGBF]

This morning I had hoped to quote a few lines from Richard's website, but I didn't have the time to do so before I had to leave the house. One of the points that he made, which I found interesting, was that in the past rubies and pink sapphires were not separated into two categories. He writes about why they should not be (from some vantage points) at length in his article. This is but one tidbit about the past:

"Today it is the fashion of our land to refer to the pinks as something other than reds. But it wasn’t always that way. In days gone by, pink corundums were termed female rubies, as opposed to the deeper red male stones. Witness the following:

'Rubies, for which Ceylon was renowned at a very early period, are seldom found at present of any considerable size; and are not often larger than particles of gravel or grains of barley: The Indians speak of them as more or less ripe, which means more or less high-coloured.'"

A.M. Philalethes, 1817



Deb/AGBF


Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

(edited repeatedly for typos)

 

[movie zombie]

http://wildfishgems.com/

i'll post it in your other thread as well.

MoZo

 

[texaskj]

Deb, thanks so much for posting this. Colors are amazing things.

 

[chrono]

Since pink is really a light toned red, in reality, they are all the same other than in terms of tone, so a pink sapphire is a light toned ruby. It is only that there is such a word as pink in English for a light red, whereas there is no separate word for light blue to differentiate that from just “blue”. I believe that “pink sapphire” could well be another marketing term to help with the sales of light toned rubies.

 

[sparkle-magpie]

This article was very helpful, thanks for posting!

 

[LD]

I appreciate that my opinion will not be welcomed with open arms. I used to have the utmost respect for Richard Hughes but I find it completely unfathomnable that he now works with GemsTV. They sell highly treated junk. I don't think GemsTV would know an untreated Ruby or Sapphire if they fell headlong into one.

 

[T L]

I don't think GemsTV would know an untreated Ruby or Sapphire if they fell headlong into one.

Oh LD, they would know, they just don't want the consumer to know.

 

[stci]

Excuse my for a newbie question but I always thought that a ruby was a red sapphire? True or totaly false?

 

[T L]

Excuse my for a newbie question but I always thought that a ruby was a red sapphire? True or totaly false?

Ruby is the red color of the mineral corundum. All other colors of corundum are called sapphire.

 

[AGBF]

Excuse my for a newbie question but I always thought that a ruby was a red sapphire? True or totaly false?

Not that tourmaline _lover is wrong in what she says, but in response to your question, I would answer: true. If we are calling a spade a spade.

Deb/AGBF


Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

 

[Largosmom]

Yes, a ruby is a red sapphire.

The article discusses that in America, we call a light red sapphire not a ruby....but instead, we call it a pink sapphire. In some places in the world, any shade of red sapphire is called a ruby, including what we Americans would call a pink sapphire.

 

[Arkteia]

I wish I ever saw a live padparadscha...