Back in the late 1980's I got a catalog from a jewelry company that was selling jewelry with their lab-grown stones, including diamonds of various colors. I bo

Back in the late 1980's I got a catalog from a jewelry company that was selling jewelry with their lab-grown stones, including diamonds of various colors. I bought a silver ring with one of their sapphires ($100 or so) that I've worn almost every day since, and a larger loose sapphire that I never did anything with but still have lying around somewhere. Van Pler, I think they called themselves. They disappeared without a trace a couple of years later. I don't know if they used CVD or some other process. The stones are obviously synthetic -- from the right angle you can see banding suggesting that the color dopant was added in layers -- but reasonably attractive nonetheless. In fact, they have a deep, pure blue color the natural stones don't seem to achieve, at least not for any price I could afford :-)