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 Scarlet ruby is rare in nature.
And throughout centuries
people longed to possess the miracle that blazes in hands. The charming luster of
flame and magic power of this precious stone were too far dominating then icy
diamonds. The demand for the ruby corundum or semi-precious stones was too high
and the scientists came with the idea to invent synthetic rubies. The jewelers
committed to the industry of making masterpieces and many jewelry collectors
looked at rubies at the other angle with the higher values.
Synthetic rubies
Fake rubies are believed to be one hundred percent imitation for many decades.
And the price for unnatural
looking stone evoked the thought of the dyed glass.
However,
the authentic rubies obtained in the industrial laboratories artificially are
kind of the «clone» of the red corundum grown in the depth of the earth. It has
the similar chemical and physical parameters though the purity is higher and
almost no defects are present. So, the hardness of the synthetic stone is the
same as that of the natural ruby, namely камня 9 points by the Moos scale which is one point
less than that of diamond’s. As for the fake stones, they also exist though
most of them have nothing to do with the glass. Thus, till the nineteenth
century a range of stones of red shade was called as rubies. However, that was erroneous
at all and the stone decorating the royal jewelry from the private collection
by Elizabeth II, the Queen of England, was discovered to be the trivial spinel,
though the noble mineral. Black Ruby is the pseudo-ruby at 352,2 carats that
tops the crown and the Timur Ruby at 361 carats decorates the breast chain.
This ruby is believed to be the imperial stone proved by the names of former
owners engraved on its surface, including Tamerlan or Timur. The same happened to
the crown of Elizabeth II where the gorgeous ruby-spinel is lustrous at almost
400 carats. The other stone, garnet, is usually confused with the ruby, even
the synthetic one, which seems to be the high quality and purity stone to
non-professional people.
Thus, rejecting
all fakes from semi-precious stones and glass, we only need to decide on what
is far more preferred, authentic rubies or artificially grown ones. And here the
choice is easy to take. Rubies of larger size and of higher purity are rare in
nature, as a fact, though the market price for them go till several hundred
thousand dollars for the carat which significantly exceeds the cost of similar
diamonds. Synthetic rubies are mass-produced and the weight of a single stone
does not matter, the weight of the total mass matters. Ruby at
30 carats is easy to grow.
For example, the weight of the
largest synthetic ruby is 250 carats obtained after it was faceted by diamonds.
So, the money we spend for the synthetic ruby is twenty times as less than the
price we get the authentic ruby.
Synthetic ruby origin
In the end of the nineteenth century the oriental culture and traditions seized the mind of theworld with the unique features,
wealth
and exotic features.
As the true decorative element
for the Indian jewelry, ruby was popular though it was too expensive for it was
rare and only wealthy people could afford it. So, this or other reasons caused many
scientists and chemists put high attempts to get synthetic red corundum. Auguste
Verneuil from France
was more successful in all those attempts and he obtained the first synthetic
ruby in his laboratory. The stone was similar to the real jewel and the reputed
jewelers acknowledged the high level of art. Verneuil kept his invention confidential
for about ten years though the intrusive colleagues off him including his
friends distributed the growing carats of ruby around the world. the European
markets as well as the countries of Middle East got full of synthetic red
corundum. When the secret was unveiled, the price for rubies fell drastically.
However, the
military period of the early XX century significantly changed the style
of all
life spheres, including production of jewelry. In spite of hard time,
the demand for jewelry wasstill high. The reputed designers and jewelers
considered the synthetic product morefavorably in the scarce of other
noble stones. Many French jewelry companies, including Van
Cleef&Arpels, manufactured massive jewelry with various curls from
gold
incrusted with diamonds and synthetic rubies.
The legendary
actress, Liz Taylor, once was shocked with a stunning ruby pendant by Van
Cleef&Arpels, after she acquired it for her amazing ruby collection by Cartier.
The Tuffany&Co
from America
caught the tendency up and announced that non-precious stones as rubies were
considered then were worth of special attention.
Synthetic
rubies, Sotheby’s and scandal
Once during
post-war period the famous Auction House Sotheby’s put to auction a luxury
necklace by the great jeweler from Italy, Hyacinto Melillo. The
anonymous retailer purchased the necklace and afterwards it was revealed that
rubies of lesser carats were synthetic not authentic. The special inspection
was made and the experts made their verdict that stones were not replaced. However,
it is still unknown whether the master knew of unnatural stones since the
necklace was made in the ears close to the World
War I.
Ruby cake
for Cinderella in ruby shoes
Synthetic
rubies were popular till the end of the twentieth century. And too many
techniques were invented to make more synthetic rubies, beautiful with the
effect of asterism that is the star or so-called cat’s eye inside the stone.
Today designers
tend to make people astonish while applying synthetic rubies for luxury women’s
bracelets, watches and necklaces.
So, the Japanese
jewelers, created the cake studded with red berries - 132 rubies weighing 90 carats while the creamy garlands successfully
replaced platinum chains. Such a sweet masterpiece for the solemn function was
left untouched for its beauty.
The shoe designer
Stuart Weitzman succeeded more and his luxury red shoes were bought by a Hollywood divas for 2.5 million USD. And the purest
rubies were taken for decoration purposes totaling 960 pieces.
Whether the
synthetic rubies fake or real, this is the individually taken decision. Though,
the play of ref flame, the magic power still commit to the wish to purpose the
gem.
Synthetic
rubies have no magic to apply in life, though authentic stones have particular
meanings specially for those who are born to wear rubies.
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