Specialists from Christie’s Sotheby’s and Philips share the stories behind these record- breaking stones.
With their breath-taking crimson hue and mystical origins, rubies have captivated humans for centuries....
Opal is perhaps one of the most
popular phenomenal gemstones that shows the phenomena play-of-color. And this
phenomena can only be used to describe natural opals and synthetic opals.
Play-of-color...
Bright spot flashes like small gold
flecks when viewed under an incandescent light is the mark of a cut sunstone.
This phenomena is known as Aventurescence.
Have you seen a Morpho butterfly
with its flash of blue iridescence color?
These blue flashes of color are created by an optical effect, example,
interference, refraction or diffraction of light, and not by...
Have you ever witness the Aurora
Borealis in the Norwegian Artic? Perhaps you may have come across it in video
clips and still life photography.
The billowing clouds of bluish,
whitish...
The Orient phenomena is also a form
of iridescence. With pearls there is a delicate, shifting iridescent color
layer that is quite distinct from the main body color. The luster as well as
the orient...
A peacock’s train (a peacock’s
tail) fanning out its elongated upper tail coverts with its shimmering blue or
green plumage is perhaps one of the most dazzling sights.
Chatoyancy, is an optical reflectance effect seen in certain gemstones. Coined from the
French word "œil de chat," meaning "cat's eye," chatoyancy
arises either from the fibrous structure of a material or from fibrous
inclusions...
Another type of Phenomenal Gems is the Color-Change
Gemstone. These are gemstones that display different colors according to
changes in lighting condition. This is
almost like the Chameleon monitor lizard, which changes the color...