Ruby Jewellery Perth

Colour is what you are paying for

Colour drives ruby value more than any other factor. The finest stones show a vivid, slightly bluish red — the quality the trade has long called pigeon's blood, though the term gets applied loosely.

Below that, a clean well-saturated medium red is both beautiful and considerably more affordable. Very dark stones read brownish under poor lighting. Very pale ones cross into pink sapphire territory, and the line between the two is genuinely a matter of grading opinion.

The most wearable rubies hold their colour across different light sources rather than shifting dramatically between daylight and indoors.

Clarity works differently than with diamonds

Every natural ruby has inclusions. Fine rutile needles, healed fractures and crystal inclusions are characteristic of the species, and a genuinely clean ruby is rare enough to be a museum piece.

What matters for jewellery is whether inclusions are visible at normal viewing distance and whether they threaten the stone structurally. Neither of those is the same as "flawless". Inclusions in a natural ruby are part of how a gemmologist identifies it as natural rather than synthetic.

Heat treatment, stated plainly

Most rubies on the market have been heat-treated to improve colour and reduce the visibility of inclusions. It is a permanent, stable and universally accepted practice, and a heated ruby is a perfectly good ruby.

Unheated stones of equivalent colour are considerably rarer and priced accordingly. We carry both, and we state which on every stone rather than leaving it vague. For higher-value unheated pieces we can arrange independent certification.

We do not sell synthetic ruby, and we do not sell lead-glass filled material — a treatment common at the low end that produces a stone with very little natural ruby left in it.

Origin

Burmese material from Myanmar remains the most recognised and commands the highest premiums. Mozambique now produces much of the fine ruby on the market and, at good quality, is difficult to distinguish from Burmese by eye. Madagascar, Tanzania and Sri Lanka also produce excellent stones.

Origin affects price more than it affects beauty. We state it where it is known.

Cut

Cut matters more than carat weight. A smaller, well-proportioned ruby will outperform a larger stone cut to retain weight, which is common with ruby because the rough is expensive and cutters are reluctant to lose material.

Look for even light return across the face of the stone rather than dark patches or a window through the centre.

Browse by piece

ruby rings · ruby earrings · ruby pendants · loose rubies

Visit our Perth showroom

Ruby shifts noticeably between light sources, and photographs rarely capture how a stone reads on the hand. We are at Shop 3, 82 King Street in the Perth CBD. Call 1300 551 562 to arrange a time, including outside trading hours.

If nothing here is right, we design custom pieces around loose stones.