Purple Sapphire
Purple sapphire are a beautiful example of Nature mixing colours! The combination of blue (sapphire) and red (ruby) in the one gemstone creates the vibrant purple colour. Purple Sapphires are part of the mineral group known as corundum and are found around the world with the most important deposits including Burma, Sri Lanka and Madagascar. Other well known deposits include Thailand, Tanzania and Columbia.
Purple sapphires tend to vary in colour depending on their origin though there is vast overlap. Due to the colour coming from trace ions in the crystal lattice the colour saturation can be anything from blue purple through to red purple, mauve, lavender, lilac and plum.
Loose Purple Sapphires
We have a large range of sapphires in stock at any one time. Many are loose and you can help design your own jewellery, but also many are already made up in to stunning jewellery. Come in to any of our stores to have a look!
1.32ct $2450
3.10ct $11400
1.05ct $1980
Purple Sapphire Jewellery
Facts and Lore
| Mineral \ | Corundum |
| Hardness \ | 9 |
| Lustre \ | Vitreous |
| Cause of Colour \ | Transition Chromium, Iron, Titanium |
| Density \ | 3.98 – 4.06 |
| Birthstone \ | September |
| Wedding Anniversary \ | 45th & 65th |
The word sapphire originates in French, Latin, Greek and Hebrew and has been a historically significant gemstone for thousands of years. In its most pure form sapphire is perfectly colourless but takes on transitional elements during formation to give it various tones of colour – blue being the most common.
Sapphire is commonly synthesied in a number of common techniques and is often used for commercial purposes like watch glasses, coatings to increase durability of products and in electronics. Synthetic sapphire for jewellery is very inexpensive and has been used for a century.
Purple sapphires are prized for their vivid purple colour and the most exquisite examples are a royal purple hue with no eye visible inclusions, bright and well saturated. Unusual forms of sapphire like cats eyes, star sapphires, colour change sapphires and bi-coloured (parti-sapphires) are also found.