A brief introduction

The secrets of one of the most fascinating gemstones in the world world: ruby. Mankind has used, sought and traded gems for thousands of years. One of the most valued over the centuries it has been the ruby .

This stone was for a long time called & laquo; anthrax & laquo ;, and it was confused; with spinel red and garnet. It was not until 1800 that it was joined, together with the sapphire, to the group of corundum .

His name, derived from the Latin word & laquo; ruber & raquo; with which the color red was called, makes direct reference to the hue of these gems: oddly, that's the only thing that differentiates them from sapphires, as all the others are called varieties of corundum.

In fact, the most appreciated rubies are the red ones. more intense, which receive the peculiar name of & ldquo; pigeon blood & rdquo;: Its tonality is of a pure red with just a hint of blue. This type of ruby found only in the mines of Myanmar (ancient Burma), whose deposits of ruby are the most appreciated in the market, along with those of Madagascar, India and China. For its extraction, the same traditional method is still used already used centuries ago.

Qualities of ruby  

Rubies and sapphires are the hardest stones after of the diamond.
Corundum is standard No. 9 on the hardness scale from Mohs , which goes from 1 to 10, and in which the diamond is number 10. Its excellent hardness, combined with the rich warm color and intense shine, makes these gems very valuable stones: thus, together with the diamond, sapphire and emerald form the so-called 'four stones precious. '

Not for less: a ruby natural of more than 10 carats it is one of the most expensive stones, more Hard to get - even more than diamonds from the same size-, and therefore more desired by collectors of all the world. Not surprisingly, many of them are an essential part of royal insignia and other famous jewelry. Already in India, during the period Mogol, his princes bought most of the most beautiful rubies from Burma, which they even used to embed in the hilts of daggers and cover their thrones. When a Ruby of these characteristics appears in traditional auctions or online auctions it tends to accumulate a large number of bids.

Ruby is famous

The larger found to date was discovered; in 1961 and weighed 3,421 carats. It broke to carve it, and still its fragment plus Big still weighed 750 carats.

The Crown of Saint Wenceslas , the most important and oldest of the crown jewels of Bohemia , currently preserved in Prague Castle, has a stone not faceted weighing 250 carats.

We can also highlight pieces such as the Edward , 167 carat, housed in the British Museum of History Natural in London; the Rosser Reeves , 138 carats, exhibited at the Smithsonian in Washington, the Star-Long 100 carats that we can find in the American Museum of History Born in New York, or the ' Ruby de la Paz ', 43 carats, as well called because it was found in early 1919, shortly after from the end of World War I.

Not only has royalty been infatuated with this magnificent stone: celebrities like Elisabeth Taylor, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis or Marlene Dietrich have also been possessors of lavish stones of exorbitant prices, which have subsequently reached very high prices at auction.