Burmese Ruby: History and Comparison with other Rubies

In 1886, when Burma was ruled by British, the ruby mines were leased out in auctions. Soon there had appeared a company named, The Burma Ruby Mines Limited, which constructed big roads, opened the electricity distribution centre, arranged for potable water, installed machines for human’s use.

By the year1893, the company developed the areas in such multipurpose ways that production of gemstones and jewels went up by a few times more. It also started to produce spinels, blue sapphires and tourmalines along with rubies. Later, the market became flooded by supplies from other countries, and by the time the World War II approached, the company had almost lost all its strength.

In 1875, the king of Burma sold off two pieces of very high quality rubies. One was weighting 37 carats and the other 47 carat. Both were chiseled in London. The first one’s weight was reduced to 32.3 carats and the other was rendered at 38.6 carats only. Later both were sold off at the rate of 10,000 and 20,000 pounds, respectively. The heaviest piece till date was 400 carats, which was cut into three gemstones. One of these was named as Nag Bog, weighting 44 carats, and was reduced to 20 carats after chiseling out.

In 1899 a beautiful ruby was mined out, which had weighed 77 carats. That piece was sold in India in 1904 for four lakh rupees.

The rubies found in Burma are considered the best quality. The color of rubies found there varies from rose petal pink to deep red. If the brightest rubies from Thailand are kept beside Burmese rubies, the former one would look paler in presence of the latter.

Though the rubies found in North Carolina of the United States were more beautiful than those found in Myanmar (earlier Burma) localities, yet Burma remained the best source of the gemstone.

In Sri Lanka, the largest ruby that was found weighed 42.5 carats but had bluishness in its body. In Australia, rubies are found full of stone granules. In Zimbabwe, special types of ruby which are red and very small in sizes are found in Somabulla forest.

The rubies found in Sri Lanka’s Ratnapur retain water content, but less elasticity than those found in Myanmar. The rubies found in Kabul retain more water content than many. There are whitish tinge also, but the overall color is beautiful. Sometimes rubies with much watery content are also found and these are better in quality even than those found in Burma.