what is songea sapphire?

[Arkteia]

Sorry, I can not post link because this computer is very old and for some reason can not COPY links. (Has been working since 2002 though!). But it is on ebay, and the seller''s name is osirisgems. He sells this songea sapphire and the price is low but I never heard about these stones and do not even know how they look. His cut is amazing, as always. Can someone look at it and tell me what they think of it?

He also sells fire opals. I never had one and, honestly, did not think much of them. Are they interesting stones? I saw them IRL - they are orange all right, but not impressive. Should I change my mind?

His ametrine disappeared from the website 5 minutes after Jeff Hunt posted the link. Which is OK, since I am not into heated stones. The quartz he cut in the same way is great, but I think it is too pricey and then I don''t know what to do with a quartz.

 

[chrono]

Crasru,
Sorry for this post and run but the quick version of my explanation is that it is a sapphire mined from the Songea region. They come in a variety of colours but I've heard that many have been beryllium diffused so you'll have to keep an eye out for treatements if you are particular about it.

 

[Arkteia]

I see. The color of his sapphire is not too impressive - but maybe it is the picture? Lighter colored sapphires are sometimes very bright - but I suspect this one is not great because even looking at the price...

 

[gsellis]

I have seen sapphires in many colors except red (

they call those Rubies). That color matches with some Aussie and Songea stuff I have seen.

I have a small songea that I bought as "color change". It is not, but it is a green yellow. The one I saw first by him is blue green, 1.47 cts. Is that the one? It is a nice cut with the meets that are visible being right on. It looks like he got a fingerprint on it or it has an inclusion (I think it is a smudge - maybe the photog was eating potatoe chips while shooting). It looks like other rough I have seen from there. The piece I have has little nodules of rutile in it as he describes, but mine are visible.

The Girasol looks like some I have seen from the middle east. A hazy, halo-y, quartz that can get rainbow colors in it like moonstone. It probably looks better in person.

 

[Michael_E]

This is a little off topic, but I just love this mapping facility of Google's. Here's a link to a map of Songea, Tanzania Locality of Songea, Tanzania
Zoom out and you get a really good idea of this city's location. Zoom in and you can see trees, trails and mining pits in areas around town. I've never been in Africa, but knew a girl who'd spent about 3 years in Tanzania helping build wells and ponds for small villages. Neat place if you don't mind living WAY off the beaten track.

 

[T L]

Songea sapphires typically have a strong grey modifier.

 

[PrecisionGem]

the Songea sapphires are found in just about every color of the rainbow, and resemble Montana sapphires in the rough. A lot of the Songea stones are off colored stones, and not very attractive, but the Thai''s have figured out they respond very well to Beryllium treatment, often producing very vivid yellow, orange and red stones.