Ruby Cigar Ring

Ruby is corundum, the same mineral as sapphire, coloured red by chromium. The chromium does a second thing: it makes the stone fluoresce, so a fine ruby glows red even in daylight, the lit-from-within quality the best are known for. At 9 on the Mohs scale it is hard enough to be worn every day, for generations.

In Sanskrit ruby was ratnaraj, the king of precious stones. For centuries the reds of Burma set the standard, and pigeon's blood, the trade's name for the finest of them, is still the phrase every red is measured against. Many of history's famous rubies have turned out to be spinel, the Black Prince's Ruby in the British crown among them.

Ruby is found in Myanmar, whose Mogok valley is the historic source; in Mozambique, one of the largest sources since 2009; and in Thailand, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Tanzania and Vietnam, each its own shade of red.

Mozambique's rubies come from Montepuez, in the far north of the country, where the deposit was only found in 2009. Within a few years it became one of the most important ruby sources in the world. The stones grew in amphibolite, a rock with a little more iron than Burma's marble, which gives a deep, steady red, and many are clean and bright enough to need no heating at all.

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Take it off for the gym, the sea and the garden. Warm water, a drop of soap and a soft brush; dry with a soft cloth.