somewhat
inclined to purplish red and was not very bright. This unusually large
ruby fetched £8,000, or at least it was knocked down, or bought in for
that sum. It should be added that this stone was rather clumsily
mounted, with four fine large brilliants, as a brooch. Although Ceylon
does not produce many fine or large rubies, a very beautiful specimen
was lately found in the island. It weighed 4-1/4 carats, and was at
first thought to be an extraordinarily fine spinel. Its colour is
difficult to describe, but perhaps the phrase " deep dark scarlet "
indicates its hue.
Sapphires,
that is blue sapphires, are not only more abundant than rubies, but
they are more frequently found of large size. In Siam and Ceylon occur
the chief localities for fine sapphires, but inferior, or we should
perhaps say, less important, specimens are met with in many parts of
the world. An important locality is in the Zamskar range in Kashmir ;
several others have been discovered in the United States. One of these
is a comparatively new locality, some distance from the original
sapphire district in Montana. It now yields many small sapphires of a
uniform and fair blue colour. These stones have not the rich velvety
cornflower blue which is most esteemed, but they possess the merit of
remaining bright and glittering under artificial light. Now and again,
however, a specimen from the same locality, and of the same blue colour
by day, is found to present a purplish hue at night. In Australia,
especially in Queensland and New South Wales, sapphires occur in
several localities.
Sapphires,
even when of the finest blue, do not increase in value with their size
to anything like the same degree as rubies : indeed a sapphire of
perfect hue and tone shows to the greatest advantage when of quite
moderate dimensions ; if very large it may appear almost black,
especially at night. Again large sapphires are far more common than
large rubies. A fine sapphire of 1 carat is worth considerably less
than a perfect diamond of 1 carat ; its market value may be put down as
about £10. There are fine large sapphires
.
