ADAM'S Fine Jewellery & Ladies Watches 2nd December 2025

59 to appraise his treasury, which included a solid gold throne and a globe set with 51,336 precious stones. Yet the story of this ring begins far from the glitz and glamour of Parisian saloons. It was the year 1880, when a landslide in the remote Zanskar mountain range, on a windswept plateau in the Himalayas, tore open the mountainside and exposed seams of deep‑blue min- eral. In the aftermath of that avalanche, stories circulat- ed about the first people to recognise the gleaming blue crystals One recounts a hunter who found a blue stone and used it to strike a light for his pipe, while an - other tells of a merchant’s basket dropping a sapphire in the Simla bazaar where a jeweller recognised its val - ue. Whatever the precise origin, news of these excep - tional gems soon reached the ruling Maharaja, who sent troops to secure the site; the finest stones were removed and placed in the state treasury, with some reportedly “bigger than a polo or croquet ball”. Dur - ing the brief mining boom that followed, the so‑called “old mine” near Soomjam yielded a remarkable cache of sapphires, and just five years later the deposit was effectively exhausted, leaving Kashmir sapphires among the rarest and most coveted gemstones ever extracted. Kashmir sapphires are prized for their colour: often described as cornflower blue or blue velvet, their rich yet soft appearance is caused in part by minute inter- nal particles scattering the light, a natural effect that adds a gentle glow to the stone. Many contain deli - cate inclusions that, rather than detract, lend charac- ter and depth, allowing their beauty to remain vivid in all kinds of light, a trait that few sapphires share. Frédéric Boucheron who had built his reputation as a jeweller within Parisian salons and among foreign clientele, was a true connoisseur and passionate gemmologist. He and his son were among the first Europeans who travelled widely to secure the finest stones: sapphires from Kashmir, rubies from Burma and emeralds from Colombia, seeking nature’s gifts at their highest form of quality and expression. © 2019 Alamy Ltd. All rights reserved.