color of sapphires

[biblobaggins23]

i was told by a good friend that the darker the sapphire is, the better. is this true? hers were almost black blue and she said they were perfect sapphires b/c of the color. so my question is, can someone post an ideal ceylon blue sapphire? 6/6? 5/5? just for reference if you own one?

 

[innerkitten]

I suppose it''s a matter of taste. But I''ve never heard anyone say hat the nearly black ones are ideal in color. As far as blues go I think the midnight blue and cornflower blue colors are sought after Not super dark or too light tone wise. I don''t have any pics to post but I''m sure someone has.

 

[chrono]

I have posted my sapphire pics here before but the picture is pretty lousy. That said, my personal taste runs about 4/5. To me, anything higher than that is too dark. I''d like to be able to appreciate the blueness of the stone, so I don''t like dark sapphires.

 

[zoebartlett]

Date: 3/14/2007 3:30:31 PM
Author: innerkitten
I suppose it''s a matter of taste. But I''ve never heard anyone say hat the nearly black ones are ideal in color. As far as blues go I think the midnight blue and cornflower blue colors are sought after Not super dark or too light tone wise. I don''t have any pics to post but I''m sure someone has.

I''ve never heard of that either. I would think if you stayed with the medium shades (of blue anyway) and not go too light or too dark, you should be good.

 

[jeffwhite]

I''m afraid your friend is incorrect. It is certainly a matter of personal taste, but when it comes to rarity and value, the medium "cornflower" blues are at the top of the food chain. The darker, "inky" blues are much less valuable. Pala has a good article on sapphires here.

 

[bar01]

Did you browse through the Colored Stone Eye Candy folder ? Lots of really nice sapphire pictures in there with wonderful color.

 

[bar01]

It is very difficult to photograph sapphires to show true color -lighting has a big influence - but there is another picture of my wifes ring from Richard Sherwood that recieved a GIA 5/5 rating.

 

[Pandora II]

No way!

Sapphires should basically be the colour that you like, but the most sought after are a vivid bright blue.

This is what I would consider to be the perfect blue... but other people may feel their perfect shade is a bit lighter or a bit darker.

Very dark, black looking sapphires are useful for designs where you want a black/white look especially in pave and they are much prettier than black diamonds. Other than that I wouldn't give a black looking sapphire houseroom.

ETA: and this 4ct beauty can be yours for a mere $24,180 at the NSC

 

[Catmom]

I''m sure some people may agree with your friend but I don''t agree. I have plenty of almost black sapphires bought before I knew any better. That is why I am in the process of replacing them all right now. I think Pandora''s sample is very close to the perfect color blue but it really depends upon your individual taste.

 

[JohnQuixote]

(beautiful photo Bertrand)

Biblo, what is best for you is the amount of tone, hue and saturation that pleases your eyes the most.

Dark blue sapphires are easy to come by and don’t cost much. On the other end of the spectrum you have the Kashmir with cornflower blue but not all Kashmir sapphires have the cornflower blue color. A nice cornflower blue Kashmir can cost in the 6 figures while an inky blue will cost in the 3 figures. Bob Hoskins, our local guru (who was once a colored stone instructor for the GIA) advises shoppers to be aware that the term cornflower blue is much overused. We’ve heard of people describing sapphires as “cornflower blue” who have never seen or owned one, so due diligence is important.

 

[elmo]

Cornflower blue: https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/cornflower-blue.12625/ in valeria101's second post. The photo of a real cornflower. It's a truly great color for blue sapphire but not quite as deep as what I think folks on average folks regard and charge for most highly, which is more along the lines of the stones that Pandora and Bertrand posted.

Example of what I think of as cornflower blue (also noted as such on the GRS report): http://thenaturalsapphirecompany.com/nscnet/expandedstones.aspx?stoneid=B1069

Pandora's example: http://thenaturalsapphirecompany.com/nscnet/expandedstones.aspx?stoneid=B742

None of these are "dark" - more like medium-dark otherwise called 70-80% tone.

 

[elmo]

As good as it gets

 

[Anastasia]

Date: 3/14/2007 9:30:12 PM
Author: elmo
As good as it gets

Ooh - that one made my heart skip a beat!

 

[riogems]

I was taking pictures of some sapphires yesterday. I took 3 pictures of very different Ceylon sapphires and cropped them into one picture (I couldn''t figure out how to attach more than one image).

If I had some more time I could put together a whole range from very light blue to black.

Like everyone said, personal preference is going to dictate what color you should buy. The medium blue will be the most valuable. Black blues are definitely not the most valuable (however, whomever sold them to her probably told her that). I find many people like lighter colors as well.

 

[mightysatchmo]

I just picked my ring up and picked out my sapphire out of the 4-5 they showed me at the jeweler. You want a medium blue, you want brilliance and depth. I learned that after seeing them all. Heres the ring I picked, like they said its hard to photograph and get the true feeling of one. This is a princess cut square and when lite hits it it looks amazing. Good Luck to you, I know the feeling.

 

[Pandora II]

Date: 3/15/2007 1:09:42 AM
Author: riogems

If I had some more time I could put together a whole range from very light blue to black.

That would be so cool.


I would love to see a range of say 10 stones from light to dark in blue sapphire, ruby and tsavorite.

It''s so subjective as to what is the "best" colour - I know when I was tsavorite hunting I read everything I could find on them and had a certain colour in mind that was perfect for me. I was so pleased that Wink found exactly that shade for me - but mine seems to be quite a bit deeper in colour than those that other people have been posting recently. Is my shade "THE BEST" - I don''t know, but for my eyes: yes!

It''s going to be the same for you Bilbo - you have to go with the colour that makes your heart beat a bit faster.

 

[Kismet]

Date: 3/15/2007 8:59:07 AM
Author: mightysatchmo
I just picked my ring up and picked out my sapphire out of the 4-5 they showed me at the jeweler. You want a medium blue, you want brilliance and depth. I learned that after seeing them all. Heres the ring I picked, like they said its hard to photograph and get the true feeling of one. This is a princess cut square and when lite hits it it looks amazing. Good Luck to you, I know the feeling.

Satchmo that is one stellar ring! Love the all princess setting.

 

[LdyNghtWng]

A couple of years ago I bought a nice two carat plus emerald cut cornflower blue sapphire with trillion side diamonds, a lovely ring, with the electric blue of a bunson burner. I thought this was the ultimate blue. Recently I bought a three stone ring with a deep Kashmiri blue stone, 3 ct. round with .55 ct side round diamonds. That one is dark but deeply saturated, i.e. an absolutely pure deep blue, like velvet.

If you asked me before, I would have said I like cornflower blue better, but I am actually getting more wear out of the darker stone. Maybe just because it''s new...but I think because, like denim or navy blue, it goes with more clothing. And the shocking intense blue depths are somehow more entrancing than the cornflower, which is just so...there. I think if it were my e-ring, I''d like the deeper one now. But I love them both, and wouldn''t part with either

 

[LdyNghtWng]

Just one more comment..a deep blue tone stone is NOT the same as black blue. Most commercial grade sapphires look black, and you are lucky to see any blue at all, maybe with strong illumination. A dark Kashmiri blue should be a beautiful intense colour that is
definately blue; that''s the colour I think your friend might have heard was valuable. If her stone looked black to you, it likely wasn''t that shade.

 

[Richard M.]

Date: 3/14/2007 3:30:31 PM
Author: innerkitten
I suppose it''s a matter of taste.

How logical! Be warned: you''ll never get away with simple old logic in a world where some people think they''re qualified to judge which colors are "best!"

In the strict sense, supply and demand assign the highest prices to certain colors. That means people are willing to pay more for certain colors which seem the "best" to them. Anyone can quickly discover which colors those are by looking over offerings at, say, the Natural Sapphire Company''s site or any other sapphire seller''s.


Richard M.

 

[politely]

Not to make things more complicated, but I guess I will. Whether something that''s "black blue" is valuable, depends on, among other things, how blue and how black it is. Based on a lot of factors (lighting, gem setting, perception and subjectivity of the viewer, etc.), something may seem very dark to the person viewing the gem, but it may still be very valuable (conversely, a lighter stone may not be valuable). It''s what keeps appraisers in business. Whether you like the color or not, is a different question.

Also, I found that seeing pictures of gems on the internet doesn''t really correlate well to seeing the actual stone in person, consequently you may think you know what a stone will look like because of the color rating/value applied to the picture, but when viewed in person, it may turn out to be quite different. A better approach may be to first view a few stones with known color ratings in person, so you''ll have some real reference points.

-P

 

[leggs]

I bought a 10 carat black blue sapphire in ebay for less than $10, if that tells you how valuable blackish sapphires are worth.

I must say I wear a light blue sapphire every day,it sparkles and has so much life I look at every day it''s so special.

 

[Richard Sherwood]

extremely light.......very light.......light.......medium light.......medium.......medium dark.......dark.......very dark.......extremely dark
.........1........................2................3.................4.......................5.......... ..........6....................7................8........................9...........

 

[diamondfan]

I am not a gemstone expert but I do not think that is necessarily true. Cornflower blue sapphires are NOT super dark. To me, when a sapphire is that dark it can almost look black and I do not find that appealing, nor do I think it is more valuable this way. It is personal taste to a degree, but I think something in the mid range that is vivid is most valuable from a selling standpoint.

 

[Madam Bijoux]

A GG once told me that the best color for a sapphire is the color of a South American blue Macaw.

 

[Pandora II]

That''s a pretty fine sapphire coloured bird there!