Term and scope

The phrase Imperial Russian Sapphire is used in the trade and in auction nomenclature to refer to large blue sapphires with documented Romanov provenance, dating from the seventeenth century through the dissolution of the dynasty in 1917. The term is descriptive of provenance rather than of origin in the geological sense; the stones in question came from a variety of geographical sources, principally Sri Lanka, Burma, and Kashmir after the Kashmir deposit's discovery in the 1880s.

Notable Imperial Russian sapphires

The most documented major sapphire in the Romanov collection is the two hundred and fifty-eight and seven hundredths carat blue sapphire from Sri Lanka, mounted as a pendant in the Diamond Fund. This stone was acquired by Tsar Alexander II during his European tour and presented to the Empress Maria Alexandrovna. It survives in the Diamond Fund of the Russian Federation in the Moscow Kremlin Armoury.

A second notable stone is the one hundred and ninety-seven carat sapphire of Empress Maria Feodorovna, mother of Nicholas II, which after 1917 left Russia with the empress in her exile and was sold through dealer channels in the 1920s. The stone's subsequent provenance has not been completely tracked in publicly available trade literature.

A third group comprises the smaller but historically significant sapphires of the Romanov state regalia, including stones in the Imperial Sceptre, the orb, and various ceremonial swords and crosses. These stones have remained in state custody since 1917 and are preserved in the Diamond Fund.

Origin questions

For the modern trade, the principal interest in Imperial Russian sapphires is the origin question. Most pre-twentieth-century European royal sapphires are Sri Lankan, given that Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, was the world's principal sapphire source from antiquity until the late nineteenth century. The discovery of the Kashmir deposit in 1881 and the subsequent intensive but brief production through 1887 introduced a second high-quality source, but Kashmir output during the nine years of intensive production is estimated at only a few thousand kilograms of rough, of which only a fraction was gem grade. The Mogok deposit in Burma, while ancient, contributed less to European royal collections than to the Indian and Persian markets.

For Imperial Russian sapphires in modern collections, the origin question is settled case by case through laboratory examination. The Sri Lankan stones are characterised by silk inclusions and zoning patterns distinct from the higher-clarity Kashmir material, and the velvet-blue colour signature of fine Kashmir is rare even in the highest-quality royal Sri Lankan stones. Modern laboratory examination of stones from the Diamond Fund and from auctioned Romanov private jewels has confirmed Sri Lankan origin for the great majority.

The Romanov private jewel dispersal

The 1927 Christie's London sale of Russian state jewels, conducted at the request of the Soviet government to raise foreign currency, dispersed a substantial portion of what had been Romanov private collection material into the international market. Christie's auction records, catalogue images and modern provenance research, particularly the work documented in Stefano Papi's research and in the Lord and Lady Granville studies of the period, have reconstructed the post-1927 fate of many of these stones.

Several Imperial Russian sapphires from this dispersal subsequently passed through the major coloured-stone houses of the twentieth century. Some entered American collections through Tiffany and Co. and Cartier dealings in the 1920s and 1930s. Others entered European royal and aristocratic collections through private treaty. A few remained in Russian dealer hands through the Soviet period and emerged in the 1990s and 2000s with renewed Romanov-provenance documentation in major auctions.

The current market

Imperial Russian sapphires command substantial premiums on the Romanov-provenance basis alone, independent of and additional to the gemstone's intrinsic value. A documented Imperial Russian sapphire of fifty carats might sell at three to five times the price of a comparable non-provenance Sri Lankan sapphire of equal quality. The premium is driven by the documented historical chain rather than by any gemmological superiority, since the underlying material is generally Sri Lankan and is geologically indistinguishable from contemporary Sri Lankan production.

The buyer's discipline for an Imperial Russian sapphire is provenance documentation. The chain should ideally include pre-1917 inventory or photographic record, post-1917 dispersal documentation through the 1927 Christie's catalogue or comparable, and continuous chain through to the current offering. Stones offered with vague Romanov attribution but no documentary chain should be priced as origin-only, without provenance premium.