History's Most Famous Blue Gemstone

• The Star of India -- A 536-carat blue cabochon-cut star sapphire thought to be the largest cut sapphire -- is part of the Morgan-Tiffany Collection in the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
  
  
• The Blue Giant of the Orient -- A 446-carat sapphire from Sri Lanka.
  
  
• The Blue Belle of Asia -- This 400-carat stone from Sri Lanka is the largest sapphire in the British Crown.
  
  
• The Logan Sapphire -- A 423-carat cushion-cut blue from Sri Lanka. The piece was donated to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., in 1960 by Mrs. John A. Logan.
  
  
• The Ruspoli -- A 135-carat rhomb-shaped (six facets) blue stone -- resides in France's National Museum of Natural History in Paris. During the 17th century, a Roman prince named Ruspoli sold the sapphire to a salesman, who in turn, sold it to King Louis XIV sometime before 1691. At the time it was the third most prominent gem in the French Crown Jewels.
  
  
• The Star of Asia -- A 330-carat blue cabochon-cut star sapphire -- also resides in the Smithsonian Institute.
• The Midnight Star -- A 116-carat, black cabochon-cut star sapphire -- is also in the American Museum of Natural History.
  
  
• The Star of Bombay -- A 182-carat, cabochon-cut, blue-violet star sapphire that was bequeathed to the Smithsonian by famous actress Mary Pickford.
  
  
• Catherine the Great's Sapphire -- A 337-carat, faceted oval blue owned by the Diamond Fund of Moscow.
  
  
• Kazanjian Sapphire Carvings -- Huge star sapphires from Australia have been carved into busts of U.S. presidents Lincoln (1,318 carats), Washington (1,056 carats), Eisenhower (1,444 carats), and Jefferson (1,381 carats). A fifth bust of Martin Luther King Jr., has also been carved from an Australian sapphire that originally weighed 4,180 carats and has a finished weight of 3,284 carats. And a sixth bust, Madonna of the Star, was carved from an Australian sapphire weighing 1,100 carats in the rough (525 carats cut). The Kazanjian Foundation of California owns the carvings.
  
  
• Lone Star Sapphire -- This 9,719-carat star sapphire of unknown origin was cut by Dallas cutter John Robinson in 1989.
  
  
• Unnamed Padparadscha (orange) Sapphire -- This 100-carat oval stone from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) resides in the American Museum of Natural History and is considered the world's largest fine Padparadscha.