For six generations, the Swiss jewellery house Boghossian has been making jewellery – around 150 years of craftsmanship, rooted in the traditions of the Silk Road, that ancient web of trading routes connecting East and West. For Regine Ngan, Boghossian’s managing director for Asia, such a romantic and exotic backstory made a love affair with its high jewellery almost inevitable. Working with the house for almost a decade now, Ngan is driving its development in the region.
“I did not expect myself to still be so passionate about this field after 20 years,” she jokes. “I still remember the very first moment when I looked at a Boghossian stone and thought, ‘OK, this is it. I need to get into this industry.
’ It’s what I love.” Asked which piece she could choose to keep for herself, Ngan went for the Crimson Flame ring, centred on a pigeon’s blood Burmese ruby that the Boghossian family came across back in 2000. Not a surprising choice given it’s still the most valuable ruby per carat ever sold.
{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"ImageObject","caption":"The Crimson Flame ring, with a 15-carat Burmese pigeon’s blood ruby at its centre","url":"https://cdn.i-scmp.
com/sites/default/files/d8/images/canvas/2024/07/09/bc8773d1-972a-43a1-8bba-d406b56f6bdf_962009ee.jpg"} The Crimson Flame ring, with a 15-carat Burmese pigeon’s blood ruby at its centre In gemmology, “pigeon’s blood” is used to describe some of the highest-order rubies to have ever been.