The Star of Bombay is a 182- carat (36.4-g)

cabochon A cabochon (; ) is a gemstone that has been shaped and polished, as opposed to faceted. The resulting form is usually a convex (rounded) obverse with a flat reverse. Cabochon was the default method of preparing gemstones before gemstone cuttin ...

-cut star

sapphire Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium. The name sapphire is derived via the Latin "sapphir ...

originating in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. The violet-blue gem was given to

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

actress

Mary Pickford Gladys Marie Smith (April 8, 1892 – May 29, 1979), known professionally as Mary Pickford, was a Canadian-American stage and screen actress and producer with a career that spanned five decades. A pioneer in the US film industry, she co-founde ...

by her husband,

Douglas Fairbanks Douglas Elton Fairbanks Sr. (born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman; May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films including '' The Thie ...

. She bequeathed it to the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. It is the namesake of the popular alcoholic beverage

Bombay Sapphire Bombay Sapphire is a brand of gin that is distilled by the Bombay Spirits Company, a subsidiary company of Bacardi, at Laverstoke Mill in the village of Laverstoke in the English county of Hampshire. The brand was first launched in 1986 by Engl ...

, a British-manufactured gin.

Description

The ''Star of Bombay'' is a 182 carat (36.4-g)

-cut star

. According to Southern Jewelry News, "The Star of Bombay sapphire belongs to the mineral species

corundum Corundum is a crystalline form of aluminium oxide () typically containing traces of iron, titanium, vanadium and chromium. It is a rock-forming mineral. It is a naturally transparent material, but can have different colors depending on the pres ...

. Pure corundum is colorless, but trace amounts of transition elements like

vanadium Vanadium is a chemical element with the symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery-grey, malleable transition metal. The elemental metal is rarely found in nature, but once isolated artificially, the formation of an oxide layer ( pas ...

chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hardne ...

result in different colors in the crystal. The Star of Bombay’s violet-blue color is caused by the presence of

titanium Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...

and

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

giving the blue tint, and vanadium contributing to its violet back color."

History

The ''Star of Bombay'' originates from

and is one of the largest star sapphires which have names unrelated to their origin, the other being the Star of India. It is the namesake of the popular alcoholic beverage

, a British-manufactured gin. The gem was first acquired by Trabert & Hoeffer Inc. of Park Avenue in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and was set in a platinum ring. It is believed that the ring was purchased by

, a famous

movie star and that he would give the ring to

. A 1935 advertisement for the ''Star of Bombay'' had it listed at 60 carats and did not include information on its origins and described it as "In all the world the only one". In 1979, Mary Pickford died and bequeathed the ''Star of Bombay'', to the Smithsonian Museum. Edward Stotsenberg of the Mary Pickford Foundation called the Smithsonian and a representative was sent out to examine the stone. According to Stotsenberg, the representative stated that the ''Star of Bombay'' was much brighter than other stones and pried it from the clasps and returned to the Smithsonian with it. The gem is currently displayed in the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, in the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals.

References

{{Named sapphires Individual sapphires Jewellery in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution Gems of Sri Lanka

Description

History

See also

References