What is the true color of sapphire? All the curiosities...

"Royal Blue". It is one of the watchwords when we talk about sapphire, being one of the varieties most precious of this gem which is an expression of the mineral corundum, chemically a strongly allochromatic aluminium oxide.

So, you are wondering what color sapphire is ?

Blue. A pure or slightly purple blue, neither too light nor too dark but very uniform and vivid. Sapphire stone in nature covers a wide range of colors but it is also true that blue remains the most widespread and valuable.

From light blue to dark blue to black, its color is closely related to the combination of iron, titanium and chemical elements.

It must also be said that, often, when we talk about the sapphire stone we also talk about "fancy-color" and that is all those colors that are different from blue. There are, in fact, chemical elements that can generate sapphire in pink, green, orange or yellow. And it is precisely when orange mixes with pink that a very rare variety of sapphire is born called "padparadscha", a word that in Sinhalese means "lotus flower".

But where is sapphire found in nature?

If we take a leap into history, we can say that Sri Lanka is the country where the oldest deposits are found and is famous for sapphire stones that exceed one hundred carats. It is, in fact, from Asia that the best quality sapphires come .

From Burma, instead, come the Royal Blue but if we move to the heart of the Himalayas, at over 4,500 meters above sea level, we find the deposits of Kashmir. Here, over time, the most beautiful sapphires in history have been extracted for their intense, brilliant and velvety blue but today they are found much less.

Other countries where sapphire deposits dominate are Cambodia, Thailand, Madagascar, Vietnam, Tanzania and Australia.

What is the classification of sapphire stone? In nature there are sapphires from Cashmere which are considered the most valuable for their purest blue. There are also sapphires from Burma (Myanmar) which have an intense blue, a little dark in the evening light. Then we find sapphires from Sri Lanka between blue and purple and, finally, there are sapphires from Thailand , Cambodia and Australia which are famous for their blue color tending towards green.

What does sapphire mean?

The origins of sapphire are very ancient. Numerous myths and legends have followed one another over time. The etymology of its name is Latin and the word sapphire derives from “sapphirus”, which in turn goes back to the Greek “sappheiros”, meaning “blue stone”.

Always associated with paradise and the color of the sky, symbolizing kindness, sincerity and fidelity. In the past, nobles and ecclesiastics preferred it because they believed it could represent their royal power and divine selection. Today, however, it is the symbol of faithful love as well as being considered the birthstone of those born in September.