A finite supply, closed a century ago
The Kashmir deposit was discovered after a landslide in 1881 and ceased significant production by 1887. Everything in existence came out of the ground in that brief window, which makes Kashmir sapphire one of the few gem materials with a genuinely fixed, non-renewable supply. Nothing new enters the market, only stones changing hands.
What sets the material apart is a velvety, slightly sleepy blue caused by microscopic rutile inclusions that scatter light evenly across the stone. Fine certified Kashmir material is quoted from $50,000 to beyond $200,000 per carat, with auction results approaching $280,000. Ceylon and Madagascar produce excellent sapphire in quantity, and unheated stones from those sources are sound buys, but the Kashmir character has never been reproduced.
Around 95% of sapphire traded commercially has been heated. Certified unheated stones trade at two to five times heated equivalents, and the premium concentrates in fine colours; an unheated report on mediocre material adds little. Price also accelerates sharply at the three and five carat thresholds, where fine untreated stones become dramatically scarcer.
