OTHER SAPPHIRE              

OTHER SAPPHIRE

Ceylon sapphires have been treasured around the world for millennia. The Padparadscha sapphire, with its stunning mixture of pink and orange, is counted among the rarest gems on earth. It is supposed that only the true ones come from Sri Lanka, and they have been coveted for centuries. According to legend, dazzling blue sapphires were used by King Solomon to seduce the Queen of Sheba. And by the fifth century, Ceylon sapphires were being fashioned into pieces of jewellery to grace the necks of fine ladies as far away as the British Isles. Even the intensely religious King Charlemagne had a love of these stones and wore an amulet with a relic of the True Cross between two yellow sapphires.
(Chapter from the Book “Sri Lanka Gems” by Vladyslav Yavorskyy)