Gemologist Dr. A. Peretti reports on the sensational sales of two rare and historical jewelry pieces recently auctioned in Sotheby’s New York and Phillips Geneva

This article appeared in the Mouawad Group magazine, Monemtum International, volume 5, no. 14
March-May 1997, pp 26-27
Reproduced with kind permission of Mouawad

The most exceptional sapphire mine in the world is situated in the grate Himalayan Mountains in northern India, at an elevation of 4,500 meters above sea level. The birth of the gemstones found here is related to the transformation of rocks which were formed during the formation of the Himalayan Mountains in the past 100 million years; this involved rocks once formed in the ocean, old continental rocks, melts that were formed more than 15 kilometers in the earth’s crust and high rock-forming forces typical of the Himalayan region.

Such an environment cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Here, along a 500-meter long ridge, 4,500 meters above sea level, near the Zanskar region of northern India, lie the world’s best sapphires.

When sapphires were first discovered here by local miners, their value was not fully realized; they were traded for salt in equal weight. At the turn of the century, when the value if the stones became clearer, north India’s maharaja took control of the miners. Later, when professional miners and gemologists became involved, the rarity and quality of these sapphires were acknowledged and reported.

Early geologists described how difficult it was to work in such an inaccessible place where oxygen deficiency and a harsh climate took their toll; indeed the mines were only worked during the few ’summer’ months.

The visual inclusion patterns of the Kashmir sapphires are characterized by minute whitish particles arranged in a variety of ways. These patterns have a great bearing on the color of the gems. By chance, the inclusion patterns resemble the clouds and streamers of the Himalayan blue sky, seen at the high altitudes where the mines are situated.