Just recently an important Burmese ruby and diamond ring was sold at Christie’s in Hong Kong. While the diamonds surrounding the ruby were nothing to discount all accounts of the sale referred to the ruby as if it were all by itself in the ring.

Counted alone the ruby went for a per-carat record of just over USD $550,000 per-carat. At 6.04 carats the total came to almost USD $3,333,000.00.

The provenance of the ring has so far been undisclosed in the reports we’ve read of the sale but one thing to note is that importation of Burma ruby into the United States is currently prohibited with few exceptions.

As might be expected with the sale occurring in Hong Kong the buyer is, no doubt, from Asia in any case. The prosperity of Asia has created a new force of buying in the colored stone market with prices going up on a regular basis over the past few years.

Just a couple years back the Chinese market went wild over multi-colored tourmaline and all the bi-color and tri-color tourmalines went up in price over pre-recession highs. One thing about the supply of colored stones is that there really aren’t enough to go around if all the major economies start hitting on all 8 cylinders. We haven’t seen this particular occurrence since the emergence of China, India, Brasil and Russia into their current status. Their emergence seemed to coincide with the recent recession. As the world emerges from the recession even further it will be interesting to see what happens to the prices of all gems.

—
Follow us on Facebook >

© Ramseygems.com, Inc., 2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from John and Laura Ramsey is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to johnandlauraramsey.com with appropriate and specific links back to this original content.