World Famous Diamonds

Written by Administrator
Saturday, 19 May 2007
10 Famous Diamonds And A Bonus True Story! Here is a little something (10 little somethings, in fact) to whet your appetite but sorry, but these probably aren’t going to fall within your Budget! The Cullinan The largest cut diamond in the world, it was found in South Africa and named after the man who owned the mining company. The rough diamond weighed 3106 carats. That’s pretty heavy, as you’ll learn later. The rough was so big that is was later cut into 105 individual stunning diamonds. Cullinan 1 The biggest and most famous of the stones cut from the original rough is also known as The Star Of Africa and weighs 530 carats alone. It was presented to King Edward VII of England in 1907 and is now set within the Royal Scepter. Along with the other Crown Jewels, it is kept safely in the Tower of London. You can read a full history and learn more about the Cullinan Diamond by clicking here. The Cullinan The Hope Diamond The Hope Diamond is 45.52 carats in weight! As you can see, it is a steel blue diamond and is currently on display at the Smithsonian Institute to which it was donated in 1958. A lady by the name of Evalyn Walsh McLean owned the ring from 1910 until her death in 1947. There is a story, myth even, stating the diamond had been on the Titanic. It is true that Evalyn McLean had considered booking a passage on the infamous maiden voyage. Luckily for her, she changed her mind! James Cameron, Director of the film Titanic starring Leonardo DiCaprio, has admitted that he based the “Heart Of The Ocean” diamond worn by Kate Winslet’s character Rose, on The Hope Diamond. You can read a full history and learn more about the diamond by clicking here. The Hope Diamond The Dresden Green diamond Due to it’s unusual green coloring, The Dresden Green Diamond, is one of the rarest in the world. It stands out among all natural Colored Diamonds and at 40.70 carats is the largest green diamond by far. It has a natural green color with a slight hint of blue. You can read a full history and learn more about the diamond by clicking here. The Tiffany yellow diamond This beautiful yellow diamond weighs 128.54 carats and was, until recently, the largest yellow diamond in the world. The original rough diamond, from which this was cut, weighed an impressive 287.42 carats and was discovered in South Africa in the late 1870s. You can read a full history and learn more about the diamond by clicking here. The Tiffany Yellow Diamond The Koh-I-Noor (Mountain of Light) Diamond Like the Cullinan 1 above, this diamond forms part the British Crown Jewels. The first record of the diamond is from 1304. It weighs 105.60 carats and is believed to have been one of the peacock’s eyes in Shah Jehan’s famous peacock throne. You can read a full history and learn more about the diamond by clicking here. The Koh-INoor Diamond The Agra Diamond This is a naturally colored fancy light pink diamond weighing 32.34 carats. It sold at Christie’s in London on June 20th 1990 for £4,070,000 (approximately $6.9 million) and was bought by the SIBA Corporation of Hong Kong. Since the sale, it has been modified to acushion shape diamond weighing about 28.15 carats. You can read a full history and learn more about the diamond by clicking here. The Transvaal Blue Diamond Discovered in the Premier Diamond Mine in Transvaal, South Africa, this beautiful blue diamond weighs 25 carats. Its ownership is currently unknown. It’s not yours, is it? The Great Chrysanthemum Diamond The Great Chrysanthemum weighs 198.28 carats and is another diamond that was discovered in South Africa. It is a fancy brown diamond and had a light honey hue in its uncut state. However, after cutting it become very rare indeed when the color was more of a rich golden brown. You can read a full history and learn more about the diamond by clicking here. The Orlov (also known as The Orloff) The Orlov was thought to have weighed 300 carats when first discovered as a rough. The cut version above weighs 189.62 carats. The diamond has many stories attached to it. One such story is that it was stolen by a French soldier disguised as a Hindu whilst it was set in god statute in the temple of Sri Rangen. The soldier escaped by swimming down a raging river. It was however, eventually sold to Prince Gregory Orlov. The Prince, in an attempt to win back the heart of Catherine The Great presented the diamond to her. Catherine had the stone set in the Imperial Scepter, shown above, and is now in Moscow at the Russian Fund. The Taylor - Burton Diamond Made famous by Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. This 69.42 carat diamond was purchased in 1969 by Cartier New York at auction. The diamond was christened “Cartier”. However, the very next day, who other than Richard Burton pops into Cartier New York and buys the diamond for Elizabeth Taylor. Burton thought the diamond would be far better call the Taylor Burton Diamond, so that’s what he did. Nine years later the diamond was placed for sale by Elizabeth Taylor. In order to cover the costs of actually showing the diamond, any prospective buyer had to pay $2,500 just to view it! That must have shortened the queue a little! It sold in 1979 for a cool $3million (plus $2,500 obviously!). True Story - The Liberator Diamond To finish off this section, I thought I’d tell you a little story about perseverance and a man called Rafael Solano. It was 1942 and Rafael together with two friends were working hard, very hard. They were prospecting on a dried up riverbed in a far remote part of Venezuela. Under an intense baking sun, exhausted and covered in dirt and sweat, Rafael finally decided that after months of relentless searching in vain, which was originally driven by a burning passion and an outrageous hope to live “the dream” andcoupled with the inevitable greed, he turned to his friends and with what seemed like his last breath, whispered, “I quit!” His friends immediately stopped what they were doing and stared at Rafael in disbelief. “I can’t go on.” Rafael continued, “I don’t believe in it anymore.” Rafael looked at the pathetic dirty little pebble he held in his hand, and throwing to the ground he exclaimed, “The next will be a million!” Rafael and his two companions had slaved beneath the unforgiving sun gathering pebbles from that dusty dried out riverbed from dawn until dusk for months. He had almost forgotten why he was there. Whenever they had felt discouraged with their lack of progress they would cheer each other up with stories of what they were going to do with all the money from their big find, when it eventually came. However, it never did come. All they found were pebbles and stones. The stories were no longer able to satisfy Rafael’s hunger for the dream. Standing under the burning sun, in rags for clothes, starving, thirsty, dirty, covered in sweat and ultimately defeated, they faced one another. After a few seconds, what must have felt like hours, one of the friends finally spoke. “Pick up one more Rafael,” he urged. “Make it a million.” Rafael didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He stood there for a few moments letting his friend’s words permeate his tired body. Eventually Rafael closed his eyes and sank to his knees one last time. He plunged his hand down deep into the dry sand of the riverbed. Having moved it about for several seconds, about to finally end his months of torture, Rafael’s hand hit something hard and large. He stopped. It wasn’t like the countless other pebbles or stones he had felt. He slowly withdrew his hand to reveal a stone the size of an egg. The stone felt heavy, heavier than normal and Rafael bounced it up and down in his hand, testing the weight. As he started to quickly brush the excess dirt off the stone, his friends gathered around him, their eyes becoming increasingly wider, their hearts pumping faster as Rafael brushed more dirt off the stone. They stood there on that parched riverbed and starred at each other in total disbelief. The millionth pebble Rafael picked up turned out to be one of the largest and purest diamond ever found. It became affectionately known as “The Liberator”. The Liberator Diamond was later sold by Rafael in New York to a jewel dealer by the name of Harry Winston. He paid Rafael $2million, a lot of money now, never mind the late 1940s. Rafael and his friends had gone to that riverbed with an outrageous dream. They didn’t even know if that riverbed actually had any diamonds. Most people would have called them mad and certainly wouldn’t have entertained the idea themselves. Yet these three men believed. But after months of continual disappointment, that belief slowly waned until one could take it no longer. He was beaten. Yet with one final piece of encouragement from his friends his gave it one last attempt. One last attempt, that repaid all their effort a million times over. Morale of the story, don’t give up. Persistence pays off! Oh, and people will do extraordinary things for diamonds, they have that certain quality. I hope you enjoyed reading about some of the diamonds we mere mortals are never going to own however, in the next section I give you some advice on what you should look for in the search for your own perfect “Liberator” diamond.