Loose sapphire at auction in Australia
Sapphire is corundum, the same mineral as ruby, in every colour except red. Blue is the colour the word carries, but sapphire also occurs in yellow, green, pink, orange and, in the Australian fields, in parti stones that hold two or three colours in one crystal.
Australia is a significant sapphire source in its own right. The Queensland and New South Wales fields have produced commercial sapphire for well over a century, and the parti sapphire is close to an Australian signature. Most sapphire on the world market has been heated to improve or create its colour. We name the treatment on every lot, because a heated stone and an unheated stone of the same appearance are not worth the same money.
What to look for in sapphire
- Saturation before size. A vivid one carat stone outsells a pale two carat stone, and the gap widens as weight rises.
- Whether the treatment is named. Unheated is scarcer and dearer; heated is normal and perfectly honest when it is disclosed.
- How the colour holds across the stone. Zoning, windowing and a washed-out centre are all visible in a good photograph.
What sapphire has sold for at Teals
We have not sold sapphire at auction yet. When we do, every lot and the price it realised will be listed here. The full record book carries every session we have run.
Sapphire open for bidding
No sapphire is on the block at the moment. The saleroom opens at 7pm AWST, and the session board lists every catalogue you can browse and bid on early.
Reading on sapphire
Heat, and why we don't
Most sapphire on the market is heated. Ours is not, and we say so. What treatment does to a stone, and to its price.
How to read a pink
Tone, saturation, and the difference between a stone that glows and one that merely is pink.
Eye-clean, or included
Why coloured stones do not use the diamond clarity scale, and how we grade with two honest words instead of ten misleading ones.