Historically, Spinel has always been misunderstood as Ruby. Many famous red colored stones on antique crowns and jewels thought to have been ruby were actually found out to be spinel. Moreover, this gem got its own beauty and merits which makes it stand out yet it has long been under appreciated and undervalued in the market. It is now starting to be recognized as a true treasured gem as it comes with phenomenal brilliance, “neon” shades, saturated yet not dark tones and spectacular range of colors.
Is Spinel appreciated enough in the market?
Spinel is a beautiful gem which comes in variety of hues from intense “ruby” red to hot pinks due to the traces of chromium in it, higher the chromium content stronger the intensity of red in the spinel. They also come in colors like orange, purple and low saturated yet pretty Lavender colored which is quite popular amongst the millennials.
Spinels are mined from various sources like Tajikistan, Burma, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Mozambique, Madagascar and Tanzania. All the sources have different features and beauty which helps to identify the source of the Spinel on the basis of intensity of color, neon like appearance, perfect octahedron crystals and inclusions.
Tajikistan is a country in central Asia, which is surrounded by countries like Afghanistan, China, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Pamir mountains in Tajikistan is one of the oldest sources of Spinel. They often come in alluring low saturated shades of pinks. It is one of the most important sources of spinel historically also. The black prince’s Ruby set above Cullinan II diamond on Britain’s Imperial state crown is in fact a large 170 carat of Tajik Spinel. The famous Queen Victoria’s necklace a 361 carat “Timur Ruby” is also a Spinel from Tajikistan, there are in fact a lot of jewels from the ancient treasure which were thought to be a Ruby but are Spinel actually.
The rich beautiful pink hue of Spinel from Tajikistan will catch anyone’s eye.
Rough (290 Ct)
Tajik Spinel
Tumble (220 Ct)
We Prismatic Gems are a second-generation Jeweler & Gem dealer and a Gemologist from GIA (NY), based in the “pink city” Jaipur, India. Jaipur is the capital of the state Rajasthan, is an exciting beautiful city known for its rich heritage, culture, history and is a global leading colored gemstone cutting and trading industry.
Jaipur being a major trading center we get fruitful opportunity to meet people from all over the world and to learn about their culture. In late 2019, a man from Tajikistan had come to Jaipur to sell his recently mined Spinel, after a long negotiation we got our hands on this exceptional and rare 290 carats of a single Spinel rough, after rigorous decision making, we decided to make a tumble from the rough stone due to its heavy inclusions yet rich color. The following drops are made from the material we purchased last year, very fine quality drops, rare and unique in every way possible.
(Drops)
(142 Carats of Spinel drops pair)