Posted by Arthur on July 2, 2016, 5:30 pm, in reply to "Re: Mary's rubies"
Rubies, indeed, clearly and definitely.
The necklace of the parure is made of rubies assembled four by four (or two by two in the drops of the necklace and of the earrings), to give the optical illusion of larger rubies. Rubies are indeed one of the rarest - and therefore most expensive - gems, and Bernadotte, though a field-marshall of Napoleon, was not wealthy enough to afford for his wife Désirée such large rubies - hence the "trick"...
Had the stones been garnets, Bernadotte would have been surely wealthy enough to buy larger stones!