The Star of Bombay
The Star of Mumbai is a 182-carat cabochon star sapphire native to Sri Lanka as a wedding gift from the husband of American silent film actress Mary Pickford.
This sapphire is one of the largest star sapphires in the world, and its name has nothing to do with geographical India, simply because it is similar to the name of a British gin, which is called Bombay Sapphire. The Mumbai Star's original history is not known, dating back to the time when Trabert & Hoeffer Inc in New York set it in a platinum ring, and in a 1935 advertisement it weighed only 60 carats without any source information, describing it as "the only one in the world." ”
When Mary died in 1979, she bequeathed the Star of Mumbai to the Smithsonian Museum, where the head of the Heritage Foundation examined the stone together with the head of the museum, who then removed it from the ring base and brought it back to the museum, where it is still exhibited in the Smithsonian's Geology, Gems, and Minerals Museum to this day. [Melon Eating Masses]
