Worlds Famous Diamonds

The city of Agra was founded by the Mogul Emperors who made it their capitol for more than a hundred years in the 1500's and 1600's until Aurangzeb, the 6th mogul emperor transferred the seat of the monarchy to Delhi in 1658. It was in Agra that Akbar received a letter from Queen Elizabeth I of England and Jahangir issued a charter to the British East India Company in 1612, granting it freedom to t... Read More...

When Porter Rhodes traveled to the Isle of Wight in 1881 to show to his fine white diamond crystal to Queen Victoria and Empress Eugenie of France, who was at that time residing nearby, he helped to dispel a myth: South African diamonds were usually yellowish in color and therefore less valuable. Both the Queen but in particular the Empress, who was knowledgeable about diamonds, believed this to b... Read More...

This rare black diamond of African origin is reported to be completely black. It weighs 33.74 carats, has 145 facets and was cut from a 55.85-carat rough. The stone was first shown in February, 1973, at D. Drukker & Zn., Amsterdam. It was auctioned off at www.christies.com in November, 2001, for $352,000, setting a world record for the highest price fetched by black diamond at auction. The sto... Read More...

This 76.45-carat diamond gets its name from from Archduke Joseph August (1872-1962), a previous owner of the gem and a prince of the Hungarian line of the Hapsburg dynasty. The Archduke was a descendant of the Emperor Leopold II, son of Empress Maria Theresa who owned the famous Florentine Diamond, one of the most notable and unique diamonds in history and an heirloom of the Hapsburgs for many yea... Read More...

The Hanoverian rulers of Great Britain amassed a large collection of personal jewelry and Queen Charlotte, the consort of King George III, was surely no excpetion. She received many jewels, the most notable being the diamonds she was given by the Nawab of Arcot. These included five brilliants, the larest of which was a 38.6-carat oval-shaped stone and was later set in a necklace with the two smalle... Read More...

It is said that this amber-colored, cushion-shaped diamond weighing 102.48 carats, was formerly part of the Russian Crown Jewels. It must have been a late addition to that collection because the stone bears all the characteristics of one from South Africa. In 1934 the Russian Trade Delegation sold the diamond to Mr. Ashberg, a leading Stockholm banker. The Stockholm firm of Bolin, former Crown Jewe... Read More...

A drawing I made of the Beau Sancy, based closely on illustrations I've seen of it. I have also seen a couple photos. Unfortunately, none of them are clear enough to be worth showing here. At the time of the marriage of Prince Albert of Prussia with Princess Mary of Sachsen-Altenburg in Berlin, the bridge was described in the newspaper accounts of the wedding as wearing "the crown necklace, w... Read More...

According to the legend, the Black Orlov is said to have taken its name from the Russian Princess Nadia Vyegin-Orlov who owned it for time during the mid-eighteenth century. It is a 67.50-carat cushion-cut stone, a so-called black diamond (actually, a very dark gun-metal color). It is reported to have belonged to a nineteenth-century shrine near Pondicherry, India, and to have weighed 195 carats in... Read More...

Harrods department store in London has unveiled a diamond necklace valued at around £10 million ($16 million US) which it hopes will be sold as a Christmas present. The necklace has already attracted a bid of $10 million. It is built around the Blue Empress - a rare blue pear-shaped diamond. It weighs 14 carats (the exact weight hasn't been published). The necklace in which it is set is made from 1... Read More...

Some reports refer to this unusual diamond as the "Eugenie Blue" although it is now recognized that there is no evidence of its having been owned by the Empress. Had she owned it, wouldn't she have chosen to flee with it rather than the diamond which is named after her? However, a French link does exist because the cutting firm of Atanik Ekyanan of Neuilly, Paris cut this heart shape, whi... Read More...

Here is what Christies.com's auction said about the stone when it was up for auction: "A MAGNIFICENT FANCY VIVID BLUE DIAMOND RING Set with a modified pear-shaped fancy vivid blue diamond weighing 12.02 carats to the tapered baguette-cut shoulders and 18k white gold hoop. With certificate 11568233 dated 19 June 2001 from the Gemological Institute of America stating that the diamond is fancy viv... Read More...

The Briolette of India is a legendary diamond of 90.38 carats, which, if the fables about it are true, may be the oldest diamond on record, perhaps older than the Koh-I-Noor Diamond. In the 12th century, Eleanor of Aquitaine, the first Queen of France and later England, brought the stone to England. Her son, Richard the Lionhearted, is said to have taken it on the Third Crusade. It next appeared in... Read More...

The diamond Jubilee of De Beers Consolidated Mines passed off quietly in 1948, the massive post-WWII growth and expansion of the diamond industry had barely begun, while several important sources of diamonds, including the Premier Mine, were still closed, while others remained to be discovered. Forty years later the annual output of diamonds exceeded 100 million carats and sales of rough diamonds ... Read More...

The Grand Conde is one of the most unusual of the world's notable diamonds: a light pink pear-shaped stone of 9.01 carats. Agents of Louis XIII are said to have bought the stone in 1643 after which the King presented it to Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Conde, who had distinguished himself as Commander of the French Army in the Thirty Years' War and who became known as the Grand Conde. Until his death... Read More...

  The Cullinan I - aka the Star of Africa. 530.20 carats. Royal Scepter with Star of Africa (The stone can be removed from the Royal Scepter and worn as a pin or pendant.) The Star of Africa, a pear shaped diamond weighing 530.20 carats, aka the Cullinan I. It measures 53mm x 44mm x 29mm, and has 76 facets (counting the culet and the table). It's called the Cullinan I because it's the largest of... Read More...

Considered to be the most celebrated diamond in the Iranian Crown Jewels and one of the oldest known to man, the 186-carat Darya-i-Nur is a crudely fashioned stone measuring 41.40 × 29.50 × 12.15mm. The name means Sea of Light, River of Light, or Ocean of Light. Both the Darya-i-Nur and the historic Koh-i-Noor are said to have been in the possession of the first Mogul emperor of India, from whom th... Read More...

Not long after the formation of De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited in March 1888, a huge light yellow octahedral crystal was found in the De Beers Mine. The gem weighed 428.50 old carats (old carats being the pre-1913 non-metric carat) and measured 47.6 mm through its longest axis and 38.1 mm square. Excluding Victoria, aka the Great White or Jacob, the source of which remains doubtful, the De Bee... Read More...

A red diamond weighing in at 5.03 carats. The cut is a round brilliant, but as you can see, the main kite-shaped facets on the crown are horizontally divided in two, giving the stone slightly more brilliance than a standard round brilliant. This stone was once bought at estate sale mistakenly as a red garnet! (It is not a pure red, however, there is a slight brown hue to the stone, which is what m... Read More...

In the rough, greenish diamonds tend to occur as one of three types: a stone, often a crystal shape, possessing a light tinge rather like the color of water in a swimming pool; a stone with a dark green skin; a yellowish-green stone characterized by a degree if lubricity. After being cut and polished, diamonds of the first and second types usually lose their greenish color to become white gems or,... Read More...

The Earth Star was cut from a rough gem weighing 248.9 carats found in the Jagersfontein Mine on May 16th, 1967. It traveled right through the recovery process until it appeared on the grease table in the recovery plant. Not surprisingly its appearance caused a commotion at the mine and to many in the diamond industry because too because among the numerous fine diamonds found at Jagersfontein, ther... Read More...

 This 10.73-carat brilliant is not, by ordinary standards, exceptional. However, it was cut from the first diamond found in South Africa and therefore has historical significance. In 1866 a shepherd boy found a small, shiny stone on the south bank of the Orange River near Hopetown. The pebble was kept for a while by a 15-year-old boy named Erasmus Jacobs, who later gave it to his neighbor, far... Read More...

The Excelsior I, set in an elaborate bracelet by Mouawad.On may 28th, 1971, a sad but inevitable event in mining history occurred: operations finally stopped at the Jagersfontein Mine. Not long before, the mine had celebrated its centenary, the first diamond having been picked up in the Jagersfontein valley in the Orange Free State in August of 1870. Although Jagersfontein was the first South Afric... Read More...

This cubic zirconium replica was designed and cut by Scott Sucher. Sucher said he had to use mathematics to figure out the angles and measurements of the sides of the stone because of a lack of information about it. Only Jean-Baptiste Tavernier's drawing of the stone and a few black and white photos (from prior to 1921 when the stone disappeared) exist. This image is from Jean Baptiste Tavernier's... Read More...

Gabi Tolkowsky examines the diamond with a jeweler's loupe. The Golden Jubilee is the largest faceted diamond in the world, weighing 545.67 carats. The stone was designed by Gabi Tolkowsky, who also designed the 273.85-carat Centenary Diamond, which is the largest D-Flawless diamond in the world. The Golden Jubilee was presented to the King of Thailand in 1997 for his Golden Jubilee - the 50th anni... Read More...

The stone is 'Asscher cut', which is a modern emerald cut that leans towards square rather than rectangular. It weighs 21.46 carats, is a D in color grade (completely colorless) and FL in clarity (flawless). This might not be a REALLY famous diamond right now, but it might be some day - it certainly has the potential. The ring has appeared in a series of ads in the New York Times, along with a 25.... Read More...

Not to be confused with the Graff Imperial Blue, which I am still looking for a photo of. I was not able to find many details about this stone, other than its weight, which is 6.19 carats. If Graff ever goes into more detail about their unusual stones, I'll post more about this one. Judging from this photo, and the fact the company is Graff, the stone is probably not irradiated, and is at least a V... Read More...

This 11.89-carat D-color, Internally Flawless cushion shaped diamond has been featured a number of times in the Graff's advertisements in the New York Times newspaper. Cushion is one of the oldest diamond cuts there is. Many of the older cushion cuts, often called Old Mine Cuts, have steep crown and pavilion main facets, a culet facet, and a small table. When Marcel Tolkowsky pioneered the modern r... Read More...

In the summer of 1963, a 198.28-carat fancy brown diamond was found in the South African diamond fields. This unusual stone was purchased by Julius Cohen, New York City manufacturing jeweler, under whose direction it was fashioned by the firm of S & M Kaufman into a 104.15-carat pear shape. The stone has a total of 189 facets (67 on the crown, 65 on the girdle, and 57 on the pavilion) and measu... Read More...

De Beers and the Steinmetz Group has unveiled the world's rarest and arguably the most valuable set of diamonds ever put together to mark the year 2000. Stressing that 'millennia come and go, but diamonds are forever,' the diamond giant's Chairman Nicky Oppenheimer presented the De Beers Millennium Star, a D-color, internally and externally flawless pear-shape, cut to perfect proportions, weighing... Read More...

This is a 24.44-carat emerald cut owned by Robert Mouawad. It's current estimated value is over $20,000,000. (Twenty Million Dollars.) The exact color grade and clarity has not been published, but it due to its name and the photo, it is safe to say the stone has a higher color saturation than the Mouawad Pink Diamond. Further details lacking. ... Read More...

Lebanese diamond dealer Robert Mouawad first appeared on the diamond scene in the 1970s. Soon his very presence in the sale or auction room was enough to send pulses racing when it was realized that a new, significiant player had appeared. Along with his two contemporaries, Sheikh Ahmed Fitaihi of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and Laurence Graff of London, he has been responsible for stone of the most asto... Read More...

This 60.19-carat D-color Flawless diamond is owned by Robert Mouawad and was named to represent both the traditional world of the family jeweler and the new face represented by Mondera.com, the jewelry e-tailers founded by his sons. The stone was set as the center of a bra, pictured below, modeled by Karolina Kurkova. The green and pink floral pattern is actually emeralds and rubies and the total c... Read More...

A radiant cut pink diamond of 21.06 carats owned by Robert Mouawad. It has an estimated value of over $12,000,000. Its exact color grade is unpublished, but it has a clarity of VS1. More details lacking. ... Read More...

The Mouna Diamond weighs 112.53 carats and is VS1 clarity. When it was submitted to the Gemological Institute of America on November 9th, 1995, they stated that up until this date it was the largest Fancy Intense Yellow diamond that they had ever graded. The cushion-shaped stone is 26 mm in diameter set in a baguette-cut mount by Bulgari, which with it the diamond has a height of 36 mm. It was sold... Read More...

The William Goldberg Diamond Corporation, famous for outstanding stones like the Premier Rose and the Guinea Star, cut this gem from a 13.90-carat rough. They transformed the piece into a spectacular red diamond weighing 5.11 carats. The GIA states, "It is the largest Fancy Red, natural color diamond that we have graded as of the date the report was issued." The stone is a triangular bril... Read More...

"The Ageless Diamond" exhibition sponsored by Christie's and De Beers in London in 1959 showed few exhibits as breath-taking as this pear-shaped diamond, weighing 79.41 metric carats, mounted as a pendant with a diamond chain. Little is known about its early history, though it is believed to have been found in the in the alluvial diamond fields in the vicinity of Golconda. Certainly both ... Read More...

Unlike the proverbial cat, one may expect the Premier Mine to enjoy only four lives. The first lasted from the discovery of the diamond pipe just before 1902 - and the formation of the Premier (Transvaal) Diamond Mining Company - until the outbreak of World War I when the mine was shut down and operated on a caretaker basis. By January of 1916 it was working again and production continued up to 193... Read More...

The centerpiece of this tiara is the Nur-Ul-Ain Diamond, one of the largest pink diamonds in the world. The diamond is thought to have been brought from India, along with the Darya-I-Nur Diamond. The diamond is set in platinum, and is surrounded by diamonds in shades of pink, yellow, and colorless, with a row of colorless baguette diamonds in tapering sizes lining the base of the tiara. The Nur-Ul-... Read More...

GIA Color Grade: Fancy Deep blue-green Weight: 5.51 carats Owner: Cora Diamond CorporationBy virtue of its color alone, the Ocean Dream, found in central Africa, is one of the very rarest diamonds known to man. The incredible color of this 5.51 carat diamond is so rare that many gemologists would presume that it was artificially colored. There is no record of any other diamond of this extraordinary ... Read More...

  Legend, fact, supposition and theory each must be accorded its place in any historical account of this celebrated diamond. Nowadays the Orlov is one of the most important items in one of the greatest collections of gems and jewelry, the Treasures of the Diamond Fund, Gokran, comprises of many historical jewels that were amassed by the rulers of Russia before the 1917 Revolution, as well as s... Read More...

  This very unusual 7-sided diamond is known as the Paragon, and weighs 137.82 carats. The Graff Diamond Co. of London cut the gem, and is its current owner. The necklace has a diamond carat weight of 190.27 carats, and separates to both necklace and bracelet lengths. The piece features Fancy Intense blue, yellow and pink diamonds along with the Paragon Diamond, a 137.82-carat D-color Flawless... Read More...

  With the purchase of this unusual, 20.65-carat Fancy Intense Yellow, IF clarity (internally flawless) diamond by C.D.Peacock, Chicago's premier jewelry store plans to try to change the way people in America think about fancy colored diamonds -- many people still don't even know there is such a thing as a fancy colored diamond. According to Ray Perlman, a consultant to C.D. Peacock and former... Read More...

  This purplish-pink marquise cut diamond weighs 22.84 carats and is known as the Pink Orchid. Graff Diamonds of London owns the stone. I wish they would go into more detail on their site about their unusual gems, if they did, I would post it here. Pink diamonds, especially ones of this size, are extremely rare. This diamond is most likely a naturally colored one, as well. Robert Mouawad, a co... Read More...

  Famed diamond cutter Gabi Tolkowsky pays homage to his 273.85-carat Centenary with the Pink Sun Rise, a 29.78-carat diamond with a design similar to the Centenary's. The diamond is a rare, flawless pink and was cut by Tolkowsky and his team of master craftsmen. Tolkowsky is also famed for cutting the largest diamond in the world, the Golden Jubilee... Read More...

  Considered to be the finest American diamond found up to that time (1880), the 153.50-carat rough this stone was cut from came from the claim of Mr. Porter-Rhodes in the Kimberly Mine. It was valued at $200,000. In 1881, Mr. Porter Rhodes visited the Osborne House in London and showed it to Queen Victoria, who exclaimed over its great purity and beauty. Empress Eugenie, who also saw the grea... Read More...

  This stone was difficult to find information on. There's really only been a couple major owners of the Portuguese. This is what the Smithsonian Institute had to say about it, and they had more information than any other source I found. The stone resides in the Smithsonian Institute on permanent display, Washington DC. The Portuguese Diamond at 127.01 carats is the largest faceted diamond in ... Read More...

This stone weighs 137.02 carats and is one of the largest D-color Flawless diamonds in the world. In March 1978 the Premier Mine in South Africa, the mine that produced the 3106-carat Cullinan Diamond, yielded yet another remarkable diamond, a triangular-shaped cleavage of the finest color, weighing 353.9 carats. Like an earlier gem found at the Premier, the Niarchos, this one too traveled right t... Read More...

GIA Color Grade: Fancy Vivid orange Weight: 5.54 carats Owner: Harry Winston, IncThis cushion-shaped diamond was in a ring worn by Halle Berry when she accepted her Best Actress Oscar® for the movie Monster's Ball in 2002. The Pumpkin Diamond was so named when it was acquired at auction by the House of Winston on the day before Halloween. Typically, diamonds in the orange color r... Read More...

There are differing opinions concerning the origin of this 135.92-carats cushion-cut diamond. The Dutch firm F. Friedman & Co. cut it into its present shape in 1904. They owned it for several years, exhibiting it at the 1925 Paris Exhibition of Arts and Industry. The Dutch sovereign from whom the stone takes its name was Queen Wilhelmina, who reigned from 1890 to 1948. This suggests the possibi... Read More...

  This canary yellow cushion-shaped diamond weighs 205.07 (metric) carats. It is said to have weighed 375 carats in the rough and to have come from one of the Kimberly mines in 1901. The largest rough found that year weighed only 307 carats, but two more weighing 337½ and 363 carats, had been discovered at the De Beers Mine in 1899. Whichever may be correct - the date of the discovery or the r... Read More...

The adventurous history of the Regent is very much like that of several other great diamonds. Greed, murder and remorse play a part in the opening chapter. Trouble - political, social, and personal - accompanies this gem to it's last resting place. Originally known as the Pitt, this 410-carat stone was one of the last large diamonds to be found in India. It is said to have been discovered by a slav... Read More...

This is a diamond I am still in the process of researching. The article I found with the stone reads "The Royal Purple Heart Diamond is the largest fancy vivid purple diamond known to exist, weighing 7.34 carats. This unique stone has been expertly cut and polished into a perfect heart shape to allow the striking natural purple color to dazzle to maximum effect. Natural purple diamonds are amo... Read More...

  The Great Imperial Crown was made by a skilled court jeweler Jeremia Posier for the Empress Catherine II the Great's Coronation in 1762. It has a traditional shape and is made up of the two open hemispheres divided by a foliate garland and fastened with a low hoop. The crown is set with 5,000 selected Indian diamonds (some Russian sources state this number as 4,836) and and number fine, larg... Read More...

The Sancy Diamond has one of the most interesting, colorful, confused and involved histories of all the famous diamonds in Europe. It is a pale yellow 55.23-carat shield-shaped stone, apparently of Indian origin, and is said to be one of the first large diamonds to be cut with symmetrical facets. The stone is also unusual because it has no pavilion - just a pair of crowns, one on the other. In 157... Read More...

  Many incredibly valuable and historical diamonds have been discovered in South Africa, where Graff has the largest facilities for polishing gem quality diamonds. A magnificent rough diamond weighing 218 carats was acquired from local South African diggings. Its beauty even in the raw state was astonishing. The light glowed warmly from within its octahedral shape, reflecting softly off the cr... Read More...

  This table-cut or flat diamond, measuring 44.6 by 33 by 3.6 mm and weighing 56.71 carats, is one of several that have been credited as a match for the Great Table Diamond viewed by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier at Golconda in 1642. However, the attribution is probably an error, the Darya-i-Nur and Nur-Ul-Ain table cuts in the Iranian Crown Jewels are much more likely matches. Nevertheless, the Sh... Read More...

  The 18.30-carat Shepard Diamond is from South Africa, it was acquired by the Smithsonian Museum by exchange for a collection of small diamonds that had been seized as smuggled goods by the United States Customs Service and is named for the Smithsonian employee who helped facilitate the transaction. The Shepard Diamond among other diamonds in the Smithsonian's collection. The round yellow di... Read More...

  The Spirit of de Grisogono at 312.24 carats is the world's largest cut black diamond, and the world's 5th largest diamond, period. In a white gold mounting, it is set with 702 white diamonds totaling 36.69 carats. There are not many black stones in the world of famous diamonds, mainly the Black Orlov and the Amsterdam which weigh 67 and 33 carats, respectively. (A 205-carat black diamond ca... Read More...

GIA Color Grade: D (colorless) GIA Clarity Grade: Internally Flawless Weight: 103.83 carats Owner: The Steinmetz GroupAt 103.83 carats, this is one of the largest cut diamonds in the world. It is described by gemologists as colorless and internally flawless adding even further to the diamond's rarity. Discovered in South Africa's legendary Premier mine, this spectacular diamond's ... Read More...

  The pride of the Topkapi Palace Museum and its most valuable single exhibit is the 86-carat pear-shaped Spoonmaker Diamond, also known as the Kasicki. Surrounded by a double-row of 49 round-cut diamonds and well spotlighted, it hangs in a glass case on the wall of one of the rooms of the Treasury. Its origin is not clear. Like many other historic diamonds, it is difficult to separate fact fr... Read More...

The Star of America is the largest Asscher cut "D"-color flawless diamond in the world. It was discovered near the Orange River, originally a rough stone of 225 carats. After nine months of cutting and polishing by the Graff company's craftsmen, into the 100.57-carat stone you see here, to commemorate the launch of GRAFF USA. ... Read More...

The Star of South Africa, a 47.69-carat old style pear-shaped diamond, was cut from a crystal of 83.50 carats, and is credited with being the diamond that turned the tides of fortune in South Africa. In 1869, it was picked up by a Griqua shepherd boy on the Zandfontein Farm near the Orange River. Schalk van Niekerk, who three years earlier had had a stroke of luck with a "pebble" that pro... Read More...

After their marriage in 1908, Edward B. McLean and his bride Evalyn traveled to Europe for their honeymoon. Each had received $100,000 from their respective fathers as a wedding present. Among the countries they visited was Turkey where Evalyn McLean expressed a wish to see the treasures of the jewelry-loving Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Abd al-Hamid II. When the American ambassador heard of her ... Read More...

In recent years Sheikh Ahmed Hassan Fitaihi has been a major force at international jewelry auctions. The Sheikh's family business dates from 1907 when he grandfather opened a jewelry shop in Mecca in what is now Saudi Arabia. At that time, Abdul Aziz Al-Saud (known in the West as Ibn Saud) was battling to reconquer and reunite the numerous different tribes of the Arabian peninsula. The family of ... Read More...

  The 128.48-carat Star of the South is one of the world's most famous diamonds. Discovered in 1853, it became the first Brazilian diamond to receive international acclaim. The stone was graded as VS-2 in clarity and Fancy Light Pinkish-Brown in color. It was also determined to be a type IIa diamond. It was the custom in the Bagagem Diamond Mines in Brazil for a slave worker who found a stone o... Read More...

GIA Color Grade: Fancy Vivid pink GIA Clarity Grade: Internally Flawless Weight: 59.60 carats Owner: The Steinmetz GroupFirst unveiled in Monaco in May 2003, and briefly worn around the neck of supermodel Helena Christensen, the Steinmetz Pink was discovered in southern Africa and is the largest Fancy Vivid pink diamond known in the world. Pink diamonds are extremely rare and usua... Read More...

A 35.27-carat cushion cut grayish-blue diamond. Not much is known about it. In 1969, Cartier lent this diamond to the New York State Museum for their World of Gems Exposition. In 1972 it was sold to a private American collector. It is the fourth largest blue diamond in the world after the Hope Diamond. The 35.56-carat Wittelsbach Diamond is one of the others, so is a 42.92-carat blue pear shape kn... Read More...

According to British Press reports, this rare cranberry-colored diamond surfaced in London sometime in 2002. The diamond was graded by the British Gemological Institute in London. It is believed to be one of its kind and originated in the Amazon basin. It is being called 'The Supreme Purple Star'. Reports say the color goes from a deep purple to a deep to vivid purplish red. The weight is reported... Read More...

  The Taj-E-Mah Diamond (lower left stone). The other four loose diamonds weigh 72.50 carats, 54.50 carats, 47.50 carats, and 54.35 carats. The cushion-shaped one on the top left was probably cut from an even larger diamond.When the contents of the Iranian Treasury were opened up in the 1960s, the existence of three legendary Indian diamonds was revealed. They are the Darya-I-Nur, the Nur-Ul-Ain... Read More...

Diamonds have no mercy... "They will show up the wearer if they can," says one character in The Sandcastle, an early novel by the famous British author, Iris Murdoch. Now this may be true of some women - usually wearing an outrageously large item of jewelry which imparts a degree of unwholesome vulgarity to themselves - but is it applicable to Elizabeth Taylor? Those well-publicized gifts... Read More...

To gem historians, judging by the reaction of the press, and to the general public as well, it is always something of an event when the existence of an unusual stone, up till now known only to a handful of people, becomes more widely known. That is what occurred in 1984 when Christie's announced that they would be auctioning this fancy blue pear-shaped diamond weighing 42.92 metric carats, the four... Read More...

It is debatable whether Truman Capote's novel Breakfast at Tiffany's did much to increase the prestige of this famous New York jewelry store because long before 1958, the year of the book's publication, it had become a household name within the United States as well as abroad. Doubtless some people continue to inquire whether the store does serve breakfast to its clientele, but of course what the ... Read More...

A pear cut 25-carat blue diamond that was found in the Premier Diamond Mine in Transvaal, South Africa, the same mine the 3106-carat Cullinan crystal was found in. It was once owned by Baumgold Bros., but it's now owned by an unknown foreign buyer.... Read More...

  When considering which diamond cuttings centers are the most important, odds are London won't spring to mind as one of them. The city's main role in the diamond trade has been as the major point of distribution of rough diamonds. The London Diamond Syndicate, formed in 1890 as a joint buying and selling organization for the output of the De Beers mines, was succeeded by the modern Central Se... Read More...

On August 13, 1938 Brazil revealed its greatest gem when a diamond weighing 726.6 carats was picked up in the gravels of the San Antonio River in the Coromandel district of Minas Gerais. Two garimpeiros (diamond diggers or prospectors), Joaquim Venancio Tiago and Manoel Miguel Domingues, were the lucky finders. Their good fortune did not extend very far. Not long after they had sold the diamond to ... Read More...

  The Victoria sits elevated on an acrylic stand.From the very beginning an aura of mystery surrounded the discovery of this gem, which weighed 457½ (old) carats in the rough. Also called the 'Imperial' or 'Great White', it remained the biggest octahedral diamond crystal from South Africa until 1896 when it was surpassed by one weighing 503¼ (old) carats that was found in the De Beers Mine. The... Read More...

  The Victoria-Transvaal is a 67.89-carat, champagne-colored, pear shaped stone. It was cut from a 240-carat crystal that was found in the Transvaal, South Africa. The first cutting produced a 75-carat 116-facet stone that measured 1 x 1³/8 inches; a recutting retained the same length and width, but reduced the depth to better proportions, making it more brilliant. The diamond has been feature... Read More...

One of the "great unknowns" of the diamond world, the Walska is a 95-carat yellow briolette cut stone. Its size and cutting style is a rival for the Briolette of India, a 90-carat stone and probably the most famous diamond of this cutting style. Unfortunately not much is known about the Walska. Perhaps someday more will be published about this stone. What is known is that Ganna Walska (... Read More...

How often does one come across phrases such as "present location unknown" or "all trace of the diamond has been lost" when undertaking research into the histories of famous diamonds? It is all the more satisfying, therefore, to recall an item in a newspaper that appeared in January, 1962, under the heading "Rare diamond reappears." This referred to the Wittelsbach, a ... Read More...

In 1969 the Zale Corporation of Dallas purchased in Antwerp a fine blue-white gem weighing 434.6 carats, the source of which was simply stated as West Africa. More specifically it had almost certainly come from Sierra Leone. After two years work in New York the outcome was thirteen gems totally 172.46 carats. The biggest, a pear shape cut with 111 facets, weighs 130.27 carats and has been named th... Read More...