This post includes affiliate links from which we may earn a small commission at no cost to you.
The Carmen Lucia Ruby is one of the finest gems in the world. Mined in the 1930’s the exact history of its ownership is lost in time but it eventually found its way to the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Here’s what we know about this exquisite ruby.
The Carmen Lucia ruby is one of the finest and largest Burmese rubies ever found. Rubies are rarely found this large but it is its size as well as its deep saturated color and high transparency that make it such a rarity. Often called pigeon’s blood, the color of the stone is the most coveted shade in rubies.
Mined during the 1930’s in Mogok region of Burma, this region has long been the source of the finest and most valuable rubies in the world. The Carmen Lucia ruby weighs 23.10 carats and is set between 2 trilliant-cut white diamonds on a platinum ring. While its early ownership is believed to have been private European collectors, the gem was gifted to the Smithsonian by Peter Buck in memory of his late wife. Though the stone is named for her, she never actually owned it. She had admired it before her death and her husband later acquired it and gifted it to the museum to be enjoyed by the people of her adopted country. Today it is the largest faceted ruby in the national Collection and remains on display at the Gem Gallery of the Natural History Museum.
Photo Credit: thisisbossi from Washington, DC, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
