Star Sapphire - a magically beautiful stone

Starry sapphire is a kind of corundum, aluminum oxide, which has an asterism effect. This phenomenon is due to the presence in the stone of tiny minerals that can reflect light and create a rare pattern in the form of a star. Most often it is six-pointed, but there are stones and stars with twelve rays. They are blue, pink, smoky brown and transparent. The latter are the rarest and most expensive.

In general, the classical sapphire in our view is an exceptionally blue shining stone. Actually, its name comes from the Greek word "sappheiros" - "blue stone". But its color is not always the same. In fact, the range of shades is quite diverse, and you can find not only purple-blue or colorless, but also green, orange, pink, yellow sapphire.

Since ancient times, sapphires have been used to decorate crowns. The rings with this stone were worn at the time by the brave Alexander the Great and the womanly Maria Stewart. According to legend, it also cut out the famous ring of King Solomon. The Egyptian high priest wore a large sapphire on his chest, which was called "Truth".

It is believed that this stone of peace of mind, inner harmony, trust, poise and virtue, it protects against excesses, gives decisiveness and courage, promotes the appearance of friends and repels enemies. Girls promise happiness in marriage.

Starry sapphire has special properties. The three intersecting lines on its surface are considered the embodiment of the three main senses: hope, faith and love. Such stones are quite rare, and therefore highly appreciated. Recently, however, it became possible to find products with such sapphires at quite affordable prices. The fact is that there were technologies for obtaining the asterism effect in minerals. Of course, artificial stones will be much cheaper than natural ones. But it is easy to distinguish them: the star's rays are static, regardless of the angle of the incident light, unlike natural stones.

The famous star sapphire "Star of India" has a long Istria, which is known, however, to us not completely. It was mined in Sri Lanka in the 18th century. Its peculiarity and uniqueness is that the 6-beam star can be seen immediately on both sides of a stone cut by a cabochon.

Quite recently, in 1996, a surprisingly beautiful star sapphire of 63,000 carats was found in Myanmar.

An amazing story happened in Australia. One of the inhabitants pushed the door for a long time with cobblestones. When he learned that sapphires are black, he took his stone to the examination. It turned out that the backup was a rare sapphire of 1156 carats. In 1947, for 18 thousand dollars it was bought by the goldsmith Harry Kazanyan. He was able to identify in the stone the signs of asterism (the appearance of a star on the surface). In 1948, the "Black Star of Queensland" attracted the attention of journalists. Sapphire, whose price has already reached 300 thousand dollars, has become a focus of special attention. For him, a white gold frame was made and surrounded by 35 small diamonds. In 2002, the world's largest star sapphire again changed its owner. There are rumors about its possible sale for 88 million dollars. Where he is now, it is not known.