Star of Bombay
182-carat cabochon-cut star sapphire from Sri Lanka
The Star of Bombay is a 182-carat (36.4-g) cabochon-cut star sapphire originating in Sri Lanka. The violet-blue gem was given to silent film actress Mary Pickford by her husband, Douglas Fairbanks. She bequeathed it to the Smithsonian Institution. It is the namesake of the popular alcoholic beverage Bombay Sapphire, a British-manufactured gin.
Description
The Star of Bombay is a 182 carat (36.4-g) cabochon-cut star sapphire. According to Southern Jewelry News, "The Star of Bombay sapphire belongs to the mineral species corundum. Pure corundum is colorless, but trace amounts of transition elements like vanadium or chromium result in different colors in the crystal. The Star of Bombay’s violet-blue color is caused by the presence of titanium and iron giving the blue tint, and vanadium contributing to its violet back color."
History
The Star of Bombay originates from Sri Lanka and is one of the largest star sapphires which have names unrelated to their origin, the other being the Star of India.
It is the namesake of the popular alcoholic beverage Bombay Sapphire, a British-manufactured gin. The gem was first acquired by Trabert & Hoeffer Inc.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Star of Bombay” as 182-carat cabochon-cut star sapphire from Sri Lanka. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as 182-carat cabochon-cut star sapphire from Sri Lanka. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7601236. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Star of Bombay” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.