A superb, elongated sapphire crystal of the rare color known in the gem trade as padparadscha. This is a purplish-red in person, or magenta color, one could say; and is not a ruby for reasons of both color hue and of chemistry. It just looks like a ruby at first, but is much more rare. A superb, gemmy crystal like this is incredibly uncommon and usually, even if it has only a small bit of cutting material inside, is indeed sent for cutting. Few natural padparadscha crystals survive uncut. This is from the noted corundum collection of Will Heierman, of Houston. 14.44 carats