Pigeon’s Blood or Not? Part 2

July 10th, 2009 by James L. Sweaney, CGA, FGA. GG
4 ct. Pigeon's Blood Red Ruby, photo by Van Pelt

4 ct. Pigeon's Blood Red Ruby, photo by Van Pelt

Pigeon’s Blood Ruby always commands a premium- it’s intensity and beauty strikes a chord deep within the human psyche, and naturally, it’s the most rare of rubies. Within the gem trade, the term Pigeon’s Blood is in essence a color grade, denoting the most beautiful and desirable ruby color. And the color is generally associated with rubies from Burma- more about that in blogs to follow.

The Pigeon’s Blood color is a fairly narrow range of vivid red, with touches of secondary hues between slightly violetish (purplish) red and slightly orangish red.  Pigeon’s Blood red is always highly saturated and relatively dark.

Science has shown that there is an optimum combination of saturation and tone called the gamut limit, that produces the most vivid hue for each color. The most vivid reds, including Pigeon’s Blood, lie in the 70 to 80 percent range on the tonal scale of 0 to 100 percent, 0 being lightest, 100 being darkest. The color saturation of the Pigeon’s Blood Ruby is the very highest, with no brown masking the color whatsoever.

Our perception of the color of a ruby (and all gems) is affected by many factors.  To display the Pigeon’s Blood color magnificently, the gem must be relatively transparent and inclusion free.  It must be well cut so that light is reflected to the eye from deep within the stone.

The color temperature of the light in which we view a gem can significantly affect our perception of color. Ruby generally looks best in incandescent light, but the best qualities will show beautifully in all lighting environments.

Photographing gems is very difficult because of the subtle interplay between gem and light. These 3 photos of the same 4 carat ruby illustrate how color display and perception can change.

In the gem trade, we train our eyes to recognize the best gems by looking at the full spectrum of colors present for that particular specie.  It’s usually pretty easy to see the low end of the spectrum, since commercial qualities are relatively abundant.

The challenge is to be able to see and study the high end- these gems are rare and expensive, and not easy to find. The 4 ct. ruby presented here is one outstanding example of the best Pigeon’s Blood Ruby, so now that you’ve seen it, you are on your way to becoming an aficionado of ruby!

Our colored gem grading system presents an overview of the components that go into evaluating gems. Our gem grading skills and connections within the gem trade are at your service, so give us a call if you’re interested in beginning your own collection!

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