Bollywood actress Amrita Rao is the brand ambassador of the JJS Rubies are found in Pakistan in the Hunza Valley; other than that they are found in Laos, Cambodia, Nepal and lately in Afghanistan as well as several African countries like Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar. “In India, deposits with relatively large crystals were discovered in the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. These crystals have many inclusions, but they are, nevertheless, eminently suited to being cut as beads or cabochons. More recently, large ruby deposits have been found under the receding ice shelf of Greenland,” said Ajay Kala, a ruby dealer.
The Afghanistan ruby, which has been discovered just a few years, ago is also making its impact with its colour and lustre; but it’s available in small pieces only. It has beautiful red colour with a tinge of purple; this typical tone is the beauty of this stone. The mining of Afghanistan rubies is not organised well enough for it to make its mark in the international market.
Cut and carat (weight) are also an important factor in determining the price, and the world’s most expensive ruby is the Sunrise Ruby. “The price of ruby is primarily based on its colour. The brightest and most valuable ‘red’ called blood-red or ‘pigeon blood’, commands a large premium over other rubies of similar quality. Clarity like diamonds is the second important quality so a clear stone will command a premium. Diamonds are graded using criteria that have become known as the four Cs, namely colour, cut, clarity and carat. Similarly natural rubies can be evaluated using the four Cs together with their size and geographic origin,” said Shirish Poonglia, a diamond merchant.
The ruby should either be set in gold or bronze for best enhancement. Some rubies show a three-point or six-point asterism or ‘star’. These rubies are cut into cabochons to display the effect properly. Asterisms are best visible with a single-light source, and move across the stone as the light moves or the stone is rotated. Such effects occur when light is reflected off the ‘silk’ (the structurally oriented rutile needle inclusions) in a certain way. This is one example where inclusions increase the value of a gemstone. Furthermore, rubies can show colour changes — though this occurs very rarely — as well as chatoyancy or the ‘cat’s eye’ effect.
“The ruby must be worn by engineers, mineralogists, goldsmiths (jewellers), actors, dramatists, artists, government officials, politicians, diplomats, merchants and aspirants to fame, stock exchanges and dealers of cloth, cotton paper and flowers. Creative people, who want fame and good health, must wear the ruby,” said astrologer Anil Sharma.
There are techniques to enhance and treat the gemstone to meet the customer demand. Nowadays most rubies that are sourced are treated, heated or fracture filled. Finding natural, non-treated rubies is very rare and costly. Gemfields, a mining company dedicated to conquering the coloured gemstone market, has added a larger number and more consistent quality of rubies to the supply chain, from its Montepuez ruby mine in Mozambique. This new source is having a considerable impact on the global ruby market. Last December, Gemfields reported that its auction of Mozambique rubies raised $43.3 million — the highest in history.
The Alan Caplan ruby, named after the geologist who bought the 15.79ct during a trip to Burma in the 1960s. Also known as the Mogok ruby, it is widely considered to be one of the finest rubies ever seen. It set a world record per carat when it was sold at Sotheby’s New York in 1988 for $3.36m, which remained unbroken for 17 years.
The Graff Ruby, an 8.62ct cushion-cut gem, sold for $8.6m at Sotheby’s auction at Geneva in 2014, setting a world auction record for a ruby. That record was surpassed in 2015 by the Burmese 25.59ct Sunrise Ruby, which became the most expensive coloured gemstone ever sold at auction when it fetched $30m to more than $1m per carat — at Sotheby’s auction at Geneva.
Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, January 17th, 2016