Ravishing in Red

The Rubellite is rarer than Ruby too!

Chances are you haven’t heard of it before but the Rubellite,a rarest affiliate of the Tourmaline kin is rarer than Ruby too! The red colour occurs due to the impurities in the center of the stone. Quite like Emeralds,Rubellite can last for thousands of years and few and fine inclusions are a part of the stone. The name comes from the Latin word ‘rubellus’,which means reddish. Unlike what the name suggests,Rubellite boasts of many colour collections,which is an important criterion for a stone to be a true Rubellite. The stone was first determined by the Dutch traders off the West Coast of Italy towards the fag end of 1600s. It’s a lithium-rich complex crystalline silicate containing aluminum,boron and trace amounts of magnesium and iron. The crystals are hexagonal and prismatic in shape and can surprisingly expand up to three feet and sometimes even more. The gemstone may be easily identified by its cross-section which is triangular and distended. It rates from ‘Fair’ to ‘Good’ on the toughness scale. As a testament to the durability of the dazzling gem,the Chinese have engraved and carved figurines and their spectacular snuff bottles from it for centuries and one may view these fine treasures in museums now. Rubellite is opaque to transparent and comes in most elegant tones — from reds to shocking pinks including a brilliant tender pink to an ambivalent violet or finer Ruby blush. A genuine Rubellite does not alter it colour and excels just as passionately in daylight as it does in enhanced light.