hey say you never forget your first love. Gemologically speaking, blue sapphire was mine. I remember my first date with a Kashmir . . . ah! that velvety blue, that sleepy bedroom glow. It was in Bangkok that I met my first Burmese sapphire, a saucy royal blue, deep hued with just a touch of violet. That vivid saturation gave me a thrill. I didn’t know just how lucky I was; it took me ten years to find another as fine.

By the early 1980s sapphires were mostly from Australia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. Kashmir stones were a fading legend, and except for a trickle across the Thai border, Burma blues just a pleasant memory. Thai stones were available but were dark or black, often opaque. Australians were greenish; Sri Lankans were the best: heat treated, it’s true; but the finest–just a step in saturation below Burmese–and with sleepiness, occasionally, almost like a Kashmir.

Beautiful sapphires are still to be found, but the cast has changed. Sri Lankan stones are still in reasonably good supply. Australia is reportedly producing better blues. Thai production, particularly at Kanchanaburi, is down significantly. Increasingly we hear about new finds in Africa, from places unknown just a few years ago. Madagascar is the new big name in blue sapphire.

Color: the two standards

Historically, blue sapphire has been judged based on two paradigms: the best stones from Burma and the finest of Kashmir. The best of Burmese sapphire has a pure dark blue primary hue with a secondary hue of ten to fifteen percent purple.

Jeff Scovil; courtesy of R.W. Wise, Goldsmiths, Inc. A 3.05-carat natural Ceylon sapphire with a very slightly purplish “Kashmir” blue key color. Tone is eighty-five percent.