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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 416933, member: 5833&quot;]No, I wouldn&#039;t.&nbsp; I think they probably got their information from the alexandrite site I mentioned.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.alexandrite.net/chapters/chapter7/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.alexandrite.net/chapters/chapter7/" rel="nofollow">http://www.alexandrite.net/chapters/chapter7/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>&#039;First synthetic color-change corundum was grown in 1909 and used as an alexandrite imitation.&#039;</p><p><br /></p><p>I researched synthetic corundum &amp; found that 1909 was when small synthetic rubies came on the market, used mainly in watches.&nbsp; Sapphire blue turned out to be difficult &amp; it took a while to develop it.&nbsp; They also had to work out growing larger crystals. I have seen jewellery with these stones described as Victorian because seller was going by the style, usually of a ring, which they then date to the 1890s.&nbsp; I have never, ever seen an item with a color change sapphire that could be decisively placed to a time any earlier than 1940, although suspect they were probably available in the USSR somewhat before that.&nbsp; Some sellers in the US have tales of how the stone or the finished piece was brought back by a relative in military service, stationed in Egypt or North Africa after WWII.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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