Welcome, July, and your birthstone, the Ruby.
The ruby is one of the four most-precious "Cardinal" gemstones, alongside sapphires, emeralds and diamonds. In fact, sapphires and rubies are different color variations of the very same stone, Corundum. The element chromium in the rubies gives them their distinctive red color. The gemstone's name derives from the Latin Ruber which means "red"
For many years, the finest rubies came from Burma where the bright red "Pigeon's Blood" variety was mined. But they also are mined in Thailand, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Australia and parts of Africa and South America. In the United States, they have been found in Wyoming and the Carolinas. As with diamonds, the value of rubies is affected by "The Four C's: carat size, color, clarity and cut—plus the stone's place of origin.
The West German Modernist vase, shown above, is not made of rubies. It simply wears a ruby red glazing. But deep ruby red glazes like this—for centuries the secret of tight-lipped Chinese potters—were traditionally the rarest, most difficult, and most expensive color to produce. Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Western ceramicists worked tirelessly to emulate the beautiful red glazes which the Chinese had mastered centuries before them (and in primitive earthen kilns, at that). Eventually, Western potters figured-out and mastered the temperamental red glaze. By World War II, Western ceramicists had developed good, reliable and safe red commercial glazes.
For years, the best rubies were thought to come from Burma where a bright red “Pigeon’s Blood” variety was mined. They are also mined in Thailand, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Australia and parts of Africa and South America. In the United States, they’ve been found in Wyoming and the Carolinas.
The value of rubies, like diamonds, is affected by the 4C’s: carat size, color, clarity and cut—plus the stone’s place of origin.
The Modernist bottle-form vase, shown above, was made in the Sixties by Hartwig Heyne Töpferei in Oer-Erkenschwick, a town in the far West of Germany. Its crisply-shouldered form stands atop a recessed foot and the whole is finished with a dripping, deep red glaze. Click on the photo above to learn more about it.
Though our Greenwich Village store is now permanently closed, LEO Design is still alive and well! Please visit our on-line store where we continue to sell Handsome Gifts (www.LEOdesignNYC.com).
To arrange a visit our Pittsburgh showroom (by private appointment only), please call 917-446-4248.