Gemmologist's Corner - Ruby

Ruby can be one of the rarest and most expensive gemstones and high-quality stones only come up occasionally at O’Reilly’s, so when we have a beautiful ruby to offer for sale it needs to be celebrated!

Ruby is a real beauty of nature, its hexagonal crystals are formed deep within the earth at high temperatures and pressure – it has been highly prized throughout history for its rich red colour that symbolised wealth, power and love – it is a variety of corundum which is the same mineral as sapphire, the only difference being in the impurities that colour the stone. The more ‘blood red’ the colour the better and the more transparent and inclusion free the stone, the more valuable it will be. Burmese rubies are the most sought after as they provide the most intense red colour. They have been mined there since 600 AD

Low quality ruby is in abundance and therefore it is also one of the most treated stones in which enhancements are used to improve its appearance, heat treatment is stable and indistinguishable from natural processes and therefore a common industry accepted practise other treatments such as glass infilling, dying and diffusion colouring are less stable, are not industry accepted and must be disclosed. Synthetic ruby is sometimes used to imitate the natural stone.

Here at O’Reilly’s our in – house gemmologists ensure the authenticity of every stone and carefully examine them to make sure that no unacceptable treatments have been performed.