Sapphire Necklaces

Judging the blue in a pendant

A pendant is seen face on, at conversational distance, in whatever light the room has. That exposes two faults a ring often hides.

• Windowing is a see-through patch in the middle of the stone where you can read what is behind it. It comes from a cut kept shallow to hold weight, and it costs both color and brilliance in exactly the spot the eye lands.
• Extinction is the opposite problem: dark, dead zones that appear as the stone moves, caused by excessive tone or a weight retaining cut.

Check both indoors rather than under bright light. A sapphire that only performs under showroom spots will disappoint against a sweater.

Where the stone comes from, and what that adds

Origin moves sapphire price on its own, separately from how the stone looks.

Kashmir produces the rarest sapphires, and those sit above general circulation. Below that, Burma is the benchmark for deep blue, Sri Lanka supplies more fine material than any other source and runs brighter and more open, and Madagascar produces stones that can closely resemble Ceylon goods. Because those two can look alike and Sri Lankan origin carries a premium, a laboratory origin opinion is what makes the claim real.

Royal blue and cornflower blue are formal GRS designations rather than descriptions, and royal blue is the more expensive of the two.

Style, metal and length

• Drop designs hang below the chain and give the stone movement, which suits oval and cushion shapes.
• Halo designs raise the apparent saturation of the center by contrast and make a modest stone read larger.
• Vintage and statement designs carry more metalwork and suit deeper, more saturated blues that can hold their own against it.

White gold and platinum keep the blue crisp and clean up any faint gray cast. Yellow gold warms and deepens it, which flatters the lighter, brighter Sri Lankan blues more than it flatters a darker stone. There is also a men's selection here, generally heavier in the chain and lower in the setting.

For length, 16 to 18 inches places a pendant just below the collarbone. Longer chains suit layering and men's pieces.