Sri Lanka, nestling off the southern tip of India,
was renowned for its wealth of gemstones before the
birth of Christ. In the Buddhist literature of India,
Sri Lanka was named ‘Ratnadipa’, meaning “Island of Gems”.
Two thousand years later exotic Sri Lanka, or Ceylon
as it was then known, was wrangled over by the Dutch
and subsequent Spanish, Portuguese, French and British
colonialists earning itself the coveted position of ‘Jewel’ in more than one empire’s ‘Crown’.
The oldest of the world’s Sapphire mines are situated
in Sri Lanka, where gemstones were mined since millennia.
Sri Lankan Blue Sapphire is recognizable from its intense
light to medium Blue coloration and stunning luminosity
and brilliance. Sri Lankan Sapphire gives ‘Electric
Blue’ its 'Electricity', and for this reason is often
compared to the Blue portion of a peacock’s feather,
much like Sapphire from Kashmir, which bears a far greater
resemblance to those from Sri Lanka than to the Burmese
variety.
Sri Lankan Blue Sapphire’s magnificent fluorescent
quality is commonly referred to as Pleochroism and is
defined as a body color effect, where by ‘Different
body colors are seen in different directions of the
gems body.’ A Sapphire that displays this phenomenon,
due in