The 11.02-carat Brazilian alexandrite at the center of this ring possesses the remarkable ability to change color. Unlike their Russian counterparts that change from green to red, those alexandrites that hail from the mines of Brazil display a stunning blue-green hue under white light and change to a rich reddish-purple when viewed under incandescent light. This brilliant-cut example is certified by GemResearch Swisslabs, the American Gemological Laboratories and the Swiss Gemmological Institute as being a natural alexandrite of Brazilian origin with a prominent color change. It is beautifully set in platinum with 1.75 total carats of diamonds.

While the alexandrite was first discovered in the Ural Mountains of Russia in the 1800s, many of the finest examples of these stones have been found in Brazil. For example, the 17.08-carat stone known as the Whitney alexandrite can be found in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, having been gifted to the National Gem Collection by Carolyn Wright Whitney. Like the present stone, the Whitney alexandrite changes from bluish-green in daylight and fluorescent light to an intense purple in incandescent light. In terms of both rarity and originality, these Brazilian alexandrites outrank nearly every other gemstone known.