Important Facts Worth to Know When Choosing a Ruby
Faidee Jewellery House is the only company on the globe dealing exclusively with Burmese rubies for over 100 years. Ravi Lunia, the owner, is revealing the essential points we need to know before purchasing rubies. When you are buying jewelry, you need to follow specific rules that will help you not only to get the beautiful jewelry piece but also to do an investment by choosing the right gem. The investment aspect is particularly true for the rarest and most expensive colored gemstone in the world – “Pigeon Blood” Burmese Ruby.
The word from ancient Indian manuscripts describing the ruby was ‘ratnaraj,’ which translates to ‘the King of Gemstones’. Monarchs of every culture and country during history have regraded the ruby as a regal symbol of everlasting beauty, wealth, and power. In the Orient, the ruby was held to be a good luck talisman, possessing special powers. The gift of rubies was also an expression of love and lasting devotion.
Purchasing a ruby, you should, first of all, find out the origin. Then inquire about the color and only after considering the clarity. Of all the ruby-producing origins, one country and one country only eclipses all others and continues to capture the imagination of travelers, explorers, and entrepreneurs: Burma (present-day Myanmar), Mogok.
So as the origin is defined, color is the second essential factor in determining a ruby’s value. Typically, a Burmese origin is considered the most quintessential as they have such intense colors (often described as ‘pigeon-blood’) coupled with resplendent luster and fluorescence (fire). Fluorescence is a phenomenon that occurs when a ruby is exposed to sunlight. Fine-quality rubies from Burma have the strongest fluorescence, making them appear as if they are glowing from within and heightening their value.
Speaking about clarity, Burmese rubies are rarely clean, and even very expensive stones can be slightly included. Mineral inclusions present inside a ruby are tale-telling features enabling lab gemologists to separate natural from synthetics, to determine if the ruby was heated or not, and to identify its probable origin.
Ruby measures nine on the Mohs Scale of Hardness, second only to diamond, and matched with sapphire. It means that the gem is powerful and will not break easily. Ruby is one of the most durable materials on Earth – it melts at 2040˚C. It is second in hardness only to diamond (that will burn at 850˚C).
Fine-quality rubies over 5 carats are very rare, and rubies over 10 carats are vanishingly unique and command record prices at world-famous auctions. The increase in the index price of rubies has been exceeding that of the Dow Jones for the better part of the last decade. They also have a greater rate of increase in their price index than all other gemstones aggregately, and it continues to go up due to the scarcity and running out of gems in the mines.
Nowadays, Faidee is the only Jewellery House specializing in creating jewelry with Burmese rubies, so rare and sought after that they have created such fervency in auction salesrooms, headlining Christie’s and Sotheby’s sales. Founded in the early 1900s by Roop Chand Lunia, a gemstone dealer, who was known as the “King of the Burmese rubies” for his astonishing collection of rare and exceptional gems, the company is led now by his great-grandsons, who continue the tradition with even more passion and perfection in bringing out the very best in Burmese rubies.
