The British Governor of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) during 1830 to 1850 built a mansion in the central highlands to escape from the sweltering heat in the tropical island. It was converted to a hotel in 1891, the Grand Hotel. That was 21 years after James Taylor introduced tea plantations to the central highlands. Ceylon had become the world?s leading tea exporting country by then, which, it still is. Just 4 years later, the first concession to establish a shop in the Grand Hotel was issued to Mr J. A. de Silva.The small jewelry shop thus begun over 110 years ago is now the J A de Silva and Company Limited with an annual turnover of more than a million American dollars. It is run by six directors who are third-and-fourth generation descendants of Mr Silva. In our factories we have few professional designers and over 50 most experienced craftsmen to manufacture jewelry. We make jewelry of the highest quality in three factories. The company now has shops in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo and in Kandy, the capital until 1815. The Kaiser of Germany, Marshall Tito of Yugoslavia, Lord and Lady Mountbatten, the Queen of England and other world leaders have patronized our headquarters in Nuwara Eliya since 1895, when they stayed at the Grand Hotel. So we cater to a wide market ranging from royalty to any person wanting wear jewelry - from the most expensive diamond-studded ornaments with large and costly colored gems to those who could afford to buy inexpensive jewelry. We also? make gold and silver jewelry studded with gems, antique fashion jewelry and curios. Rubies range from pink to deep crimson in color, while sapphires are blue, yellow or orange. Such gems, called ?padparascha? based on their Sri Lankan name, are among the rarest of sapphires. A fire appears to be burning inside high-quality orange padparaschas. Both rubies and sapphires belong to the corundum family of gems. Traces of impurities in egg-shaped corundums show three lines intersecting one another at a single point thereby dazzling the eye. The 138-carat Rosser Reeves Star Ruby shown here is the world's largest star ruby. Found in Sri Lanka, it combines the rare features of excellent color, good transparency and a well defined star. It is one of the outstanding exhibits at the U.S. National Gem collection at the Smithsonian Institute. Our collection of rubies, sapphires and other precious gems is also unique. We could provide discerning clients with jewelry consisting of even costlier gems than the Star of India. Not only do we cut and polish them to customers? exacting specifications, we also maintain a large collection of stones of very high value. In addition to jewelry made with such precious stones, we also manufacture jewelry with semi-precious aquamarine, amethyst, moonstone, spinel, topaz and zircon; or with metal and diamonds alone. Our exports have been marketed in Europe, Japan and the USA for years; as many as 8 years to the discerning US market. We already make custom products based on jewelry designs our American reseller provides and we are prepared to offer samples to additional resellers abroad free of charge.