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World´s Famous Diamonds
The Ahmedabad
- Weight :78.86 carats
- Clarity: VS1
- Cut: Pear shaped brilliant
- Source: India
The Ahmedabad has been graded by the GIA as D-color, VS1 clarity and was accompanied by a working diagram indicating that the clarity is improvable. The gem is an antique pear-shaped brilliant and its weight is 78.86 carats.
Ahmedabad, the capital of the Indian state of Gujarat, is located 550 km north of Bombay, on the Sabarmati River. The city has long been a center for trading and cutting diamonds, both of which are still pursued there today (although to a lesser degree).
One famous visitor to Ahmedabad in the 1600s was the French traveller and gem merchant, Jean Baptiste Tavernier. Over a period of 40 years, he made six trips to the East. In chapter XXII of part II of his book Travels in India, Tavernier described some of the notable diamonds and rubies which he had seen during the course of his travels, often accompanied with illustrations, from which the following is from:
Its weight was then 78.86 carats. The flat side, where there are two flaws at the base, was thin as a sheet of thick paper. When I had the stone cut I had this thin portion removed, together with a part of the point above, where a small speck of the flaw still remains."
The Arcots
- Weight: Larger- 30.99metric carats
- Small- 18.85metric carats
The two Arcots recut in order to obtain greater clarity and brilliance, the larger to 30.99 metric carats and the smaller to 18.85 metric carats.
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 smallest stones.
Arcot, a town near Madras, became famous for its capture and defense by Clive in 1751 during the war between the rival claimants to the throne of the Carnatic. In 1801 it passed into British hands following the resignation of the government of Nawab Azim-Ud-Daula, who had given the diamonds to Queen Charlotte in 1777.
Briolette
- Weight: 90.38 carats
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 the 16th century when Henry II of France gave it to his blonde mistress, Diane de Poitiers. It was shown in one of many portraits of her while at Fontainebleau.
After disappearing for four centuries, the stone surfaced again in 1950 when the jeweler, Harry Winston, of New York, bought it from an Indian Maharajah. It was sold to Mrs. I.W. Killam and bought back by Mr. Winston, following her death, about 10 years later.
In 1970, Mr. Winston showed the stone at the Diamond Dinner for American Fashion Editors. Source: Diamonds - Famous, Notable and Unique (GIA).
The Golden Maharaja
- Weight :65.57 carats
- Color : Fancy dark Orange-Brown
- Clarity: VS2
- Cut: Slightly modified cutting
- Source:India
This large earth-hue diamond was shown at the Paris World Fair of 1937 and was later loaned to the American Museum of Natural History for 15 years (circa 1975 to 1990) by its owner, Ella Friedus. Around 1991 she sold the stone for $1.3 million.
The Gemological Institute of America reported the 65.57-carat gem as being Fancy Dark Orange-Brown, having VS2 clarity, and a slightly modified cutting style: Its crown and pavilion main facets are horizontally divided, an extra facet pattern sometimes applied when cutting larger diamonds.
While its early history isn't known, its almost certainly a South African diamond. On April 25th, 2006 it was offered for sale at Sotheby's New York in a Magnificent Jewels sale, figuring as lot 434 and had an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000. It realized a sale price of $1,382,400, including the buyer's premium.
The Sancy
- Weight:55.23 carats
- Color: Pale Yellow
- Cut: Symmterical facets
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 1570, the stone was purchased in Constantinople by the French Ambassador to Turkey, Nicholas Harlai, the Seigneur de Sancy, who was an avid collector of gems and jewelry. This passion for personal adornment was more in evidence during the 1500's and 1600's in Europe than any other time and any other place, except in the East.
He brought it to France, where Henry III, who was very sensitive about being bald, borrowed it to decorate a small cap he always wore to conceal his baldness. Sancy was a prominate figure in the French Court at the time. Henry was the vicious, vain, weak son of Catherine de Medici.
The American Star
- Weight:14.89- carats
- Color: D- color
- Clarity: Flawless clarity
- Cut: Round Brilliant
- Source: American
The American Star Diamond began life as an unnamed 14.89-carat D-color, Flawless-clarity modern round brilliant. It was bought in late 1999 by the EightStar company of California, with the intent of a recutting. The plan was to prove, on a large scale, that the Eight Star approach brings otherwise unattainable sculptural and optical perfection to the round brilliant, even ones the rest of the world already thinks are as good as it gets.
As with every EightStar diamond, the American Star was cut using an exclusive light-tracking instrument called a 'FireScope' which allows cutters to align facets so precisely they can completely control the flow of light into and out of a diamond. "Without a Firescope, diamond cutting is guesswork," says Richard von Sternberg, Eight Star's founder and president. "With it, our cutters look inside a diamond and fix fatal problems other cutters never even see".
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