It consists of a briolette-cut pink tourmaline, carved ruby, carved and caliber-cut onyx plaques and old and single-cut diamonds. It achieved more than $1.3 million, nearly 10 times its high estimate.

The gem comes in a range of colors, such as pink, red, green, blue, violet and black. This is fitting since tourmaline's name derives from the Sinhalese word "toramalli," which means "stone with ...