An Indian Gem at the Smithsonian
Since 2008, when Smithsonian’s Indian American Heritage Project began, we’ve been hearing from Indian Americans all over the United States about their family connections to the Smithsonian. Here’s a photograph and anecdote from Khalid Maricar. Do you have a family connection to the Smithsonian? Tell us about it.
Mr P.M.K Syed Mohammed Maricar (left), accompanied by his business partners, admiring an exceptional star sapphire, c. 1958.
In the early 1950s, my grandfather, Mr. PMK Syed Mohamed Maricar, presented “The Star of Asia,” a large, 330-carat cabochon-cut star sapphire to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. The gem was one of many acquired as he travelled from a small coastal town in South India to the United States.
Mr. PMK Syed Mohamed Maricar continued his travels across the Atlantic to the United Kingdom in 1958, where he ran, with several English business partners, a consignment house for gem merchants from Sri Lanka, India and Burma.
Specializing in fine Ceylon Sapphires, Burmese rubies and Colombian emeralds, the Maricar’s trade links allowed them to supply leading retailers and workshops in the day throughout the UK, Europe and US.
Today, the company in its third-generation of dealing. Mr. Syed Ahmed Maricar and his sons Mr. Hassan Maricar and Mr. Khalid Maricar continue the family tradition of buying and selling the finest gems and jewels to retailers and dealers worldwide.
-Khalid Maricar
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