By family tradition thought to have once belonged to the Burmese Royal family. Spinels of a true 'pigeons blood' ruby colour are extremely rare and normally only occur in small sizes. The more frequent colour having a trace of purple that can increase to a distinct purple colour with only a trace of red. The present stone of 193.67cts. is exceptionally large for a 'ruby red' spinel and we are not aware of any others that are larger. A fine red drilled spinel was included in Christie's Arts of India auction, 23 September 2003, lot 137 which weighed 69.94cts. and sold for GBP 33,460. This is the only other similar spinel sold by Christie's in recent times.