This contemporary custom-made platinum ring features a rare 0.43 carat pear shape Russian Alexandrite.
The Alexandrite changes its color from bluish green (daylight) to purplish pink (incandescent light). The color change is prominent to strong (80-90%).
Russian Alexandrites of this quality rarely appear on the market.
Ring size 7 (17 mm) resizable.
Alexandrite, the color-changing variety of Chrysoberyl, was first discovered on April 17, 1834 in the Russia’s Ural Mountains by the Finnish mineralogist Nils Gustaf Nordenskiold of the St. Petersburg Science Academy. He was amazed that at night, under a candle light, the stone changed its color from green to purple. He named the newly discovered stone Alexandrite, in honor of Tsarevich Alexander (later Tsar Alexander II, ruled 1855-1881), who was turning 16 on the day of the discovery.
Alexandrite has always been a very rare stone since its discovery in the 1800s. Russian 19th century novelist Nicholas Leskov wrote about alexandrites: “The mines from which the best alexandrites were mined got flooded by a river, therefore alexandrite can be rarely found among Russian jewellers, as for foreign jewellers and gem cutters, they have only heard about it.”
Russia officially stopped mining alexandrites in 1995 due to the exhaustion of the mine.
