Ceylon Star Sapphires

Star Sapphires from Ceylon (Sri Lanka)

Among all sapphire-producing localities around the world, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) is the most eminent. Ceylon has been especially famous for producing beautiful large-sized star sapphires. The largest asteriated corundums showing excellent stars owe their origin to Ceylon. Star Sapphires from Ceylon come is a variety of color like Dark Blue, Cornflower Blue, Blue, Bluish Grey, White, Greyish White, Pinkish White and many more colors. Greyish to greyish blue star sapphires of large quantities and sizes are found mainly in Elahera.

Chemical Composition of Ceylon Star Sapphires

In general Ceylon star sapphires have two major chormophoric impurities to which they owe their colour. One is iron oxide, which is seen as a brownish haze when the corundum crystal is seen against light. Iron oxide is mainly present as streaks or bands. Other is Titanium oxide in the form of thin rutile needles which causes the star effect. In addition to this, titanium oxide may also be present in form of tiny dust-like particles in various gray sapphires.


Famous Ceylon Star Corundums

Occasionally Ceylon has produced some very exceptional and large star rubies and sapphires which have made their place in history. One of this is the Rosser Reeves Star Ruby which is a staggering 138.70-Carat stone and is placed at the Smithsonian. Also a 392-carat star sapphire owned by the State Gem Corporation of Sri Lanka is one of the finest in existence. Another beautiful star sapphire is the 193-carat "Star of Lanka" at the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada.

Heat Treatment

Many of the wonderful asteriated sapphires have been heat treated in various Thai facilities to increase their colour to a darker blue. However heat treatment of such stones causes the star effect to disappear and be replaced by a weak Schiller effect. Also the presence of liquid inclusions in most of the sapphires from Ceylon causes heavy fracturing and cavity formation when they are heated to a high temperature.

Our Inventory: Ceylon Star Sapphires