Sapphire mining at the Yogo Gulch in Montana began in 1895 after a cigar box of pale blue gems picked from a creek by a local rancher found its way to Tiffany’s in New York, where an appraiser pronounced them “the finest precious gemstones ever found in the United States”.
Stones found on American soil – tourmalines from the state of Maine, North Carolina moonstones, Mississippi freshwater pearls and sapphires from Montana – were all favourites of Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933).