Famous Diamonds
Cullinan
The uncut 3,106 carat Cullinan diamond is the largest gem diamond ever found. It was discovered in 1905 at the Premier mines in South Africa by Frederick Wells, a mine intendent. He was walking through the mine at the end of the day, when he happened to glance up and noticed a large mass in one side of the mine wall. Thinking it was a big piece of glass embedded by a practical joker he examined what turned out o be a huge diamond. Wells received $10,000 for his find. The diamond was named Cullinan, after the mine’s owner Sir Thomas Cullinan.
It was purchased for $800,000 as a present for King Edward VII for his 66th birthday. The stone was sent to the Asscher Brothers in Amsterdam to be cut. They had successfully cut the Excelsior, previously the largest diamond. The huge uncut stone was studied for months. Then on February 10, 1908 Mr. Asscher struck the steel cleaver’s blade to make the first cut. The blade broke while the diamond remained intact. On the second attempt, it split exactly as planned. It was reported that after the second cut, Mr. Asscher fainted. Further cuts produced three principal parts, and these in turn were cut into 9 major gems, 96 smaller brilliants, and 9.5 carats of unpolished pieces.
The Cullinan I was the largest gem produced from the rough stone. It is a pear shaped stone of 530.2 carats and is the world’s largest cut diamond. Also known as the “Star of Africa”. The Cullinan I is now in the head of the royal scepter in the British crown jewels. The second largest cut diamond, the Cullinan II, is a cushion-shaped stone weighing 317.4 carats, and is set in the British imperial state crown.
The Golden Jubilee
The Golden Jubilee is the largest faceted diamond in the world, weighing 545.67 carats. It was presented to the King of Thailand in 1997 for his Golden Jubilee – the 50th Anniversary of his coronation. The diamond is a “fire rose cushion cut” with fancy yellow-brown coloring. The government of Thailand reported the stone as being a large golden topaz so as not to irritate the populace over the purchase of a massive diamond.
The DeBeers Millenium Star
Discovered in the Republic of Congo in the early 1990's. It took over 3 years for cutters to shape the stone with lasers into the world's only internally & externally flawless 203 carat, pear shaped diamond. It has been exclaimed by it's cutters & admirers as the single most beautiful large diamond in existence.
The Taylor-Burton
The 244 carat rough diamond was unearthed at the premier mine in South Africa in 1966. It was cut & polished into the present 69 carat pear shaped diamond. Richard Burton purchased the diamond for his wife Elizabeth Taylor. Ten years later, the diamond was auctioned off with the proceeds used to fund a hospital in Botswana. The last recorded sale of the Taylor-Burton was for $3,000,000 to an anonymous buyer in Saudi Arabia.
The Regent
A wonderful stone of Indian origin, this was originally known as the Pitt Diamond after Thomas Pitt who acquired it after 1701 under circumstances that remain murky to this day. He claimed to pay ₤20,000 for it and it cost ₤5,000 and took 2 years to cut. The cleavage and dust from this process was valued at between ₤7,000 and ₤8,000. It finally came to France in 1717 where it was sold for ₤135,000 in installments. It was renamed the Regent at this point. After being stolen in 1792 along with the Hope and the Sancy it was recovered a year later and became The National Diamond of France and was pawned and became part of many complex financial deals during this turbulent period. When Napoleon Bonaparte came to power it was mounted in the hilt of his sword and after his downfall in 1814, the stone traveled around quite a lot but by 1824 was back in France and work at the coronation of Charles X. The stone is now on display at the Louvre, fortunate indeed not to have been sold with many other stones in France in 1887 and having survived the Second World War hidden behind a stone in a chateaux at Chambord.
The Sancy
The 55.23 carat pale yellow shield shaped diamond has a rather incredible history. In 1570 the stone was purchased by the French Ambassador of Turkey Nicholas Harlai, the Seigneur De Sancy and brought to France. Shortly thereafter Henry IV borrowed the gem as security for war-time loans. During this time, to keep the gem from being stolen a loyal and faithful servant to Sancy swallowed it to prevent its theft. Though his life was lost, his body was found and the gem removed from his stomach! Thereafter the stone was sold to James I of England and subsequently to Charles I, son of James I. Remaining in England until 1669 when the current owner James II sold it to Louis XIV of France. In 1792 at the beginning of the French Revolution it was stolen from the Royal Treasury, the gem passed through many hands ultimately arriving at the Louvre, Paris France.
The Centenary
The diamond was found July 17, 1986 by an electric x-ray recovery system at the Premiere Mine, South Africa. Only a handful of people knew of its existence and they were sworn to secrecy. It was unveiled on March 11, 1988 subsequently taking one year simply to create the proper tools and environment to properly cut and facet the eventual 273.85 carat diamond. In 1991 the diamond was reportedly valued and insured for 100 million dollars. The whereabouts of the Centenary diamond is a closely guarded secret to this day.
The Oppenheimer
This almost perfect yellow uncut diamond crystal weighs 253.70 carats and is the largest uncut diamond known. Found in South Africa in 1964 it was acquired by Harry Winston who presented it to the Smithsonian Institute in memory of the late Sir Ernest Oppenheimer of DeBeers Consolidated Mines.
The Star of Sierra Leone
This diamond is the third largest ever found, and weighed almost half a pound in the rough. The rough was eventually cut into seventeen exquisite individual diamonds, six of which are now set in the Star of Sierra Leone Brooch.
At 970 carats, this is the third largest rough diamond ever discovered. It was found on February 14, 1972, at the Diminco Mine in Sierra Leone.
Harry Winston purchased the Star of Sierra Leone the same year. He had it cut into 17 stones, 13 were flawless.
Originally the largest stone was 143.20 carats of fine color, but flawed. After several weeks of careful deliberation he ordered it to be re-cut.
The largest stone recovered from The Star of Sierra Leone rough was a flawless pear-shaped of 53.96 carats.
Lazare Kaplan, the famous cutter, had studied the rough for more than a year. It was cut in front of all American TV.
The Tiffany Diamond
The largest golden diamond known today is cut in a unique cushion shape. It was given 90 facets, 32 more than the standard brilliant cut, and these extra facets give the great yellow diamond the effect of smoldering fire. You can see this fabulous stone at Tiffany’s in New York City.
The Hortensia Diamond
This peach colored stone was named after Hortense de Beauharnais, Queen of Holland, who was Josephine’s daughter and the step-daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Hortensia had been part of the French Crown Jewels since Louis XIV bought it. You can see the Hortensia on display in the Louvre.
The Kahn Canary
Unearthed in Crater of Diamonds State Park, near Murfreesboro, Arkansas in 1977, the Kahn Canary is considered to be an unofficial symbol of the state. Bought by Stan Kahn of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, the uncut Kahn Canary has been lent to Hillary Rodham Clinton to wear at all of her husband’s inaugurals, both as Governor of Arkansas, and as President of the United States.
The Incomparable
The Incomparable was found in its rough state weighing 890 carats, and was found in the town of Mbuji Mayi in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) in the 1980’s. It was found by a young girl playing in a pile of rubble outside her uncle’s house. This rubble had been legitimately collected from old mine dumps from the nearby MIBA Diamond Mine, having been rejected during the recovery process as being too bulky to be worth scanning for diamonds. The girl gave the diamond to her uncle, who sold it to some local African diamond dealers, who in turn sold it to a group of Lebanese buyers operating out of Kinshasa. The huge stone weighing 407.78 carats was finally unveiled in November, 1984. Shortly afterwards it was put on display at the Natual History wing of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.
Koh-i-noor
The Koh-i-noor has a longest history for an extant stone. Firstly, 1304 as a diamond in the possession of the Rajah of Malwa, later, it fell into the hands of the Sultan Baber. This was a time when possession of such a gem symbolized the power of an empire.
Koh-i-noor was one of the precious jewels of the Emperor Mohammed Shah. In 1739, Nadir Shah of Persia successfully invaded Delhi. His systematic pillage of the city failed to uncover the huge stone, but then he was told by one of the harem women that the conquered Emperor Mohammed Shah had hidden it inside his turban.
At the victory celebration party, Nadir Shah invited his captive to a feast and suggested they exchange turbans, the emperor partake in a well known oriental custom whereby the two leaders would exchange turbans. Retiring from the feast, he unrolled the turban and released the great gem. Seeing it he exclaimed “Koh-i-Noor”, meaning “mount of light”.
Then, Nadir Shah brought the gem back to Persia, but he was assassinated in 1747 and the diamond was fought over by his successors. It was in the jewel chamber of Lahore, capital of Punjab, but when that state was annexed to British India in 1849, the East India Company took it as a partial indemnity for the Sikh Wars. The Koh-i-noor was presented to Queen Victoria in 1850 to mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of the East India Company.
When the large stone was displayed at the Crystal Palace Exposition, people were disappointed that the diamond did not show more fire. So, Queen Victoria decided to have it recut, which reduced the 186 carats diamond to its present size.
In 1911 a new crown was made for the coronation of Queen Mary with the Koh-i-noor as the center stone. In 1937, it was transferred to the crown of Queen Elizabeth (now Queen Mother) for her coronation. It is now on display with the British Crown Jewels in the Tower of London.
The Koh-i-noor is said to have come to earth as a gift from the god in India to faithful worshipper.
Hope Diamond
This great blue diamond is perhaps the most notorious gem in history. It has left behind a trail of many unlucky owners. The Hope was mined in India, and the 112-carat gem was brought to France in 1668.
Jean Baptiste Tavernier, who brought the gem from India to France, sold it to Louis XIV, who had it cut into a 67 carat heart-shaped stone and named it the Blue Diamond of the Crown.
Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette inherited the French Blue, as it was popularly known. In 1792, about the time of their executions, the French Blue was stolen form the Garde-Meuble together with all of the French crown jewels. Some of the gems taken in this robbery were recovered, but not the Blue Diamond of the Crown.
There are reports that the stolen French Blue was recut to its present size by Wilhelm Fals, a Dutch diamond cutter.
In 1830, there appeared in London a 44.5 carat deep blue oval-cut diamond the gem experts agree was the French Blue recut to conceal its identity. Henry Hope bought it and since then it has been known as the Hope diamond.
The Hope moved on. An Eastern European prince gave it to an actress of the Folies Bergere and later shot her. A Greek owner and his family plunged to their death over a precipice in an automobile accident. The Turkish sultan Abdul-Hamid II had owned the gem only a few months when an army revolt toppled him from his throne in 1909.
Evalyn Walsh McLean, a wealthy and eccentric American social figure, bought the Hope diamond in 1911. Her son was killed in an automobile accident, her husband died in a mental hospital, and her daughter died in 1946 of an overdose of sleeping pills.
After Mrs. McLean’s death in 1947, New York jeweler Harry Winston purchased her jewels, including the Hope. He gave the gem to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. in 1958.
