Where is the largest diamond?

The largest diamond in the history of mankind, named “Cullinan” after the owner of the mine, Thomas Cullinan, was found in South Africa in 1905. The mass of “Cullinan” was 3106 carats (or 621 g). The stone amazed not only with its size, but also with its amazing purity. In 1907, the diamond was presented to King Edward VII of England on his birthday. At the prices of those years, the cost of the stone was approximately 8 million pounds. Due to its extraordinary size and one black inclusion, the stone had to be split. The processing of Cullinan was entrusted to the best lapidary in Europe, Joseph Assker, who worked for the famous Dutch company I. J. Asher and Co.” Four years later, two large, seven medium and ninety-six small diamonds of extraordinary purity were ready.
The largest piece of the diamond (530,2 carats) was cut into a pear shape and was named “Cullinan I”, or “Star of Africa”. This is the world’s largest diamond – it crowns the royal scepter of Great Britain. The second fragment (317,4 carats) was shaped into an emerald and named “Cullinan II”, placed in the British crown. The smaller diamonds were named “Cullinan III” (94,4 carats), “Cullinan IV” (63,65 carats), and three diamonds were collectively called “Small Stars of Africa”. On June 30, 1893, a diamond was found at the Jagersfontein mine, which was considered the largest South African diamond before the discovery of the Cullinan. He was given the name “Excelsior”. The diamond had an irregular shape and was limited on one side by a cleavage plane. It had excellent qualities and had a bluish-white hue. It originally weighed 995,2 carats. The cutting of the stone was carried out by an Amsterdam company in 1904. As a result, 21 stones were obtained, with the largest weighing 70 metric carats. The weight of all cut stones is 373,75 metric carats; thus, the weight loss was 62,44%. The diamonds were sold individually. The Kohinoor Diamond, one of the English Crown Treasures, is one of the most famous historical diamonds. Legends say that it originally belonged to the ancient Indian hero Vikramaditya (56 BC). A more reliable history of the stone can be traced back to the 1304th century. In XNUMX, after the conquest of the Malwa principality, the diamond was kept in Delhi. The diamond was mentioned in the “Notes” of the founder of the Mughal Empire, Babur (great-grandson of Timur), and was inherited in the Mughal dynasty. In 1739, the Persian ruler Nadir Shah captured Delhi, but did not find the famous diamond there. It turned out that the owner of the stone, Muhammad Shah, constantly wore the stone in his turban. The winner invited the loser to exchange turbans as a sign of “eternal friendship” – this is how Nadir Shah became the owner of the jewel. Seeing its sparkle, Nadir Shah exclaimed: “Koh-i-noor! ” (“Mountain of Light!”), thus giving the name to the stone. Later, the owners of the stone were the emirs of Afghanistan; from them he passed to the Sikh Maharajas. Of the 18 owners of this diamond, some were treacherously killed, some fell in battle, and those who survived were expelled and died in poverty. Because of this, the stone gained a bad reputation. In 1849, the 186-carat uncut stone was presented by the Indian Maharaja to Queen Victoria of England. She ordered it to be cut, after which the size of the stone was reduced to 109 carats. In 1911, for the coronation of Queen Mary, a new crown was created, the main decoration of which was the legendary stone. The Regent is a legendary diamond that was discovered in 1701 by a slave miner near Golconda in India. The English governor of Madras, former pirate Thomas Pitt, bought this diamond for 20 thousand pounds sterling from a local jeweler and took it to London, where he sold it in 1717 for 125 thousand pounds sterling to the regent of France, the Duke of Orleans. From that moment on, the diamond received the name “Regent”. Later, the diamond adorned the crown with which Louis was crowned. Along with other royal regalia, it was stolen from the Garden Furniture on August 17, 1792, at the beginning of the French Revolution, but was planted back by the thieves, apparently because they did not know how to get rid of such a famous stone without leaving it intact. After the French Revolution, the diamond belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte, who mounted it in the hilt of his sword. In the last decade of the XNUMXth century, the diamond was used by Napoleon as collateral to provide his campaigns with everything he needed. The Regent is currently on display in the Louvre. The Orlov diamond with a greenish-blue tint weighing 200 carats (or 40 g) crowns the royal scepter of Russia. The diamond that became the basis of this diamond was found in the early XNUMXth century in Golconda in India. Initially, it was cut in the form of a “tall rose” weighing 300 carats. Shah Jehan was dissatisfied with the cut and ordered the stone to be recut. After this, the diamond acquired its modern shape, but its weight dropped to 200 carats. It was inserted into the throne of Shah Nadir, who took possession of the city of Delhi in 1737, and was called “Derianur” (“sea of ​​light”). The diamond was stolen, ended up on the market in the city of Amsterdam, where Count Orlov bought it in 1773 for 400 thousand rubles for Catherine II. The queen ordered the stone to be set into her golden scepter. The 90-carat (or 18 g) Shah diamond, yellow in color but very clear, 3 cm long, was found in Central India, probably in 1450. The diamond was delivered to the Shah’s court in the city of Ahmednagar. In 1591, Shah Nizam ordered an inscription in Farsi to be carved on one of the faces of the diamond: “Burkhan Nizam Shah the second. 1000 year.” In the same 1591, the ruler of Northern India, the Great Mogul Akbar, captured Ahmednagar and took possession of the diamond. When Akbar’s grandson Shah Jehan (“Ruler of the World”) ascended the throne of the Mughal dynasty, he ordered another inscription to be carved on the other side of the diamond: “Son of Dehangir Shah Jehashah.” 1051.” According to our chronology, the year was 1641. The son of Shah Jehan, Aureng-Zeb, suspended a diamond above his throne and surrounded it with emeralds and rubies. Until 1738, the Shah diamond was kept in the city of Delhi. In 1738, Shah Nadir attacked India, seized the diamond and took it to Persia. In 1824, the inscription “Lord Qajar Fath Ali Shah Sultan” appeared on the third face of the diamond. 1242.” In 1829, Russian diplomat and writer Alexander Griboedov was killed in the Persian capital Tehran. The Russian government demanded that those responsible be punished. The frightened Shah’s court sent the Shah’s son Khosrow-Mirza to St. Petersburg, who brought the Shah diamond as a gift to the Tsar. Now the stone is in the Diamond Fund in Moscow. The Sansi diamond, weighing 101,25 carats, was found in 1064 in the Adamas Gorge of Eastern India by the merchant Jagattunga. The merchant exchanged the stone in the nearest town for two elephants, 12 camels and 80 gold coins. After which the diamond was kept for a long time by the sultans of Central India, its last owner from this dynasty was Kut Ud Din, from whom the vizier stole the crystal along with other jewelry and part of the treasury. In 1325, the stone returned back to India and was sold to Sultan Muhammad, who set it in a silver horseshoe and carried it with him as a talisman; after him, the stone was passed on by inheritance for the next 150 years. In the 1475th century, the stone, through unknown means, ended up in Europe with the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold. At the same time, this diamond was cut by a Flemish jeweler in 32. At the same time, the diamond acquired 48 facets and lost XNUMX carats of weight.
According to legend, the wearer of the diamond was invulnerable to enemy weapons, so Charles the Bold ordered the stone to be inserted into his helmet. In one of the battles the helmet was lost, and the next day the Duke lost his life. Having picked up the sparkling jewelry, the Swiss soldiers had absolutely no idea of ​​the value of the thing they had received, and sold the diamond for one guilder. In the end, the diamond was bought by the French adventurer and gambler Baron de Sancy (from whom the stone got its name). The baron regularly pawned the diamond to bankers. Soon the diamond came into the possession of the French kings, adorning the agrave of Louis XIV for a long time. But during the French Revolution, “Sancy” was stolen from the royal treasury. The great Napoleon, having come to power, ordered the search for the famous diamond, but the search was fruitless. Then the diamond came to Pavel Nikolaevich Demidov, a representative of the family of famous Ural breeders. After some time, “Sancy” strangely came into the possession of Lord Astor. The illustrious Astor family remained in possession of the relic for 72 years, until the fourth Lord Astor sold the stone to the Louvre for $1 million. This happened in 1978, and since then the famous diamond has been in the Apollo Gallery in the Louvre. In August 2007, the largest diamond in the history of mining this precious stone was found in South Africa. The weight of the found gemstone was approximately seven thousand carats, which corresponds to 1,4 kg. On September 24, 2009, a diamond weighing 507,55 carats, unique in its white color and purity, was found at the famous Cullinan mine in South Africa. It is estimated that its cost could be around $20 million. The stone entered the top 20 largest diamonds found. At the same time as the unique white diamond, three stones identical in quality were also found in the mine, but smaller in size: 168 carats, 58,50 carats and 53,30 carats, respectively. Auction house Sotheby’s will hold an auction on April 7 of rare large blue diamonds that were once part of the legendary De Beers collection. Auction house Sotheby’s will hold an auction on April 7 of rare large blue diamonds that were once part of the legendary De Beers collection. The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources. The stories of diamonds never cease to excite people’s minds. Large ones – even more so. Ratings of the largest diamonds are regularly published on jewelry websites. All the more surprising is the story of one of the largest stones, which was found completely by accident.

History

The largest known diamond in the world is called the Cullinan. An accident helped make the discovery. This happened at a mine called “Premier” in South Africa at the beginning of 1905. Most likely, “Cullinan” appeared by breaking off from a diamond that was twice the size. Its weight was 3106,75 carats, which is equal to 621,35 g. Its parameters were 10,5 and 6,5 cm. Of course, the story of its discovery today is surrounded by various tales and fiction, so it is difficult to say what really happened and what did not happen. There are several versions of this story. According to the first of them, the shine of the diamond attracted the manager of the mine, Frederick Wells, who was making his daily evening rounds. This shine came from the quarry wall. From there they extracted a large diamond, the appearance of which made it clear that it was a fragment of a much larger mineral. But nothing more could be found. The find was immediately sent for examination. It turned out that this was the largest natural diamond found at that time.

Previously, this was Excelsior, whose weight was 995,2 carats. It was found in a South African mine. Since 1905, Excelsior had to take 2nd place in the ranking of the largest diamonds.

The examination confirmed the guess that The specimen found is one of the parts of a much larger diamond, split by natural means. However, no other parts were found. Of course, this find created a sensation. Firstly, the public simply went crazy about the size of the stone and the history of its discovery, and secondly, the diamond mining industry received an additional impetus to develop.

The main reason for all the actions of the diamond miners was that most of the Cullinan had not yet been found.

Mine manager Wells was paid 3,5 thousand pounds for the find. The stone received its name from the name of the man who owned the site where it was found: Thomas Cullinan. There were no stains, cracks, or air bubbles on the diamond. It was very clean. There was a black spot in the center of the diamond, and this was its only flaw. The crystal created amazing reflections of color that changed depending on the angle at which the light hit it. This meant that there was tension inside the stone, which is quite common in large diamonds. But this also created a risk of cracking, therefore the diamond could not be cut. The size of the diamond meant its price was fantastic, so there were no buyers.

The owner, Thomas Cullinan, was paid £150 by the Transvaal government for the sale of the stone in 1907.

The diamond was presented as a gift to celebrate the name day of King Edward VII of England. This was done as a result of the proposal of General Louis Botha, to thank the king for the fact that the Transvaal constitution was recognized by the British Empire. This decision was not unilateral, it was made by voting. The Boers were for it, but the British who inhabited the Transvaal were against it. At first, Edward did not appreciate the diamond. However, thanks to Winston Churchill, not yet prime minister at that time, but already a very influential man, the gift was accepted. Edward ordered it to be split into several parts and cut. This was done by Dutch jewelers, the famous Asscher brothers. The work took a lot of time. It took six months to study the structure of the crystal, choosing a place to strike so that the split would occur correctly. The length of the cut that was made in the stone was approximately 0,5 inches (or 1,3 cm). The cutting knife was made separately. With the help of one blow of great force, the diamond was split at the defect sites. After 4 years, about 110 diamonds were made from the resulting parts. Of these, 2 – “Cullinan I” and “Cullinan II” – are classified as large, 7 – as medium (although some of them would be more correct to also be classified as large), and the rest – as small, but with amazing purity.

Description of “Stars of Africa”

“Cullinan I”, or “Great Star of Africa”, weighs 530,2 carats. This is a diamond with 76 facets. The “Great Star of Africa” ​​adorns the top of the baton wielded by Edward VII. This is the largest cut diamond. It is possible to remove the diamond and wear it as a brooch. It is kept in the Tower of London. The diamond is also called the “Great Star of Africa.” Its shape is pear-shaped. Until 1990 became famous for the discovery of the Golden Jubilee diamond, the Great Star of Africa ranked 1st in terms of diamond size in the world.

Now it is in honorable 2nd place, but is considered the largest pear-cut stone and the largest colorless diamond.

How did the diamond turn into diamonds?

Even today, when the latest technologies make the work of jewelers easier, cutting diamonds is a very difficult task. At the beginning of the last century, it was very difficult to cut a diamond and make it into a high-quality diamond that would become a work of art, because jewelers did not have many tools at their disposal. The cutting of “Cullinan” was carried out by hereditary jewelers Asher.

By the way, it was they who patented the asscher cutting method, which is a classic today.

Before this, it was the Ashers who were engaged in cutting the Excelsior. Initially, the plan was to cut the entire diamond. However, upon detailed examination (which took several months), jewelers found that inside the diamond there were a number of minor damages, cracks, as well as stress, expressed by the presence of a dark spot in the very middle of the stone. It became clear that the diamond needed to be split. Speaking about the beginning of cutting, the date should be February 10, 1908. The “chief of the Ushers”, Joseph, was in charge of this. There is a legend that when the knife split the diamond, Joseph Usher fainted because the knife broke. However, one should not trust this legend, because after all, a hereditary jeweler and the head of a company with a solid reputation was unlikely to be subject to such violent reactions as to faint from a simple breakdown of a working tool. Moreover, there is also a refutation by Lord Ian Balfour, who in his book “Famous Diamonds” claims that Usher, on the contrary, celebrated this event by opening a bottle of champagne. Each of the parts was subsequently split more than once. As a result of cutting, 9 purest large diamonds and about 96 small ones appeared. The large ones were numbered from I to IX (in descending order of size). All of them are still in the British Royal Family and are included in the list of jewelry worn by Queen Elizabeth II.

Interesting Facts

The number 2 diamond, or “Little Star of Africa”, is the fifth largest in the world. Its cut is not “pear”, but “cushion”. Its weight is 317,4 carats. It is located in the rim of the crown of the British Empire. Along with it, the crown is decorated with stunningly beautiful gems, each of which is a work of art. As for the Cullinan III, it is also pear-cut and weighs 94,4 carats. It was installed on top of the crown belonging to Queen Mary, grandmother of the now reigning Elizabeth II.

The crown was made by jewelers from Garrard & Co (it was this company that handled all the royal family’s jewelry) for the coronation of Mary’s husband, King George V. The event took place on June 22, 1911.

In addition to the Cullinan III, the Cullinan IV was also installed on the crown. The main accent of the crown was the famous Coh-i-Noor diamond. At the end of the ceremony, all the stones were replaced with quartz copies, and the diamonds were used in other jewelry. The third and fourth “Cullinans” were combined to create a brooch-pendant. Queen Mary loved her very much. After Mary died in 1953, her jewelry was inherited by her granddaughter Elizabeth II. She still wears this brooch-pendant to various events, calling it Granny’s chips. It is still unknown who will inherit the jewelry of the now living queen. Perhaps it will be the Duchess of Cambridge Catherine, wife of the Queen’s grandson William, Duke of Cambridge. As for the Cullinan V, its cut is pear, or heart-shaped. It is located in the center of the platinum brooch, where it is framed by smaller diamonds. The brooch is made in such a way that it can be worn independently. And also the brooch can be installed on the crown instead of Coh-i-Noor. Previously, the brooch was part of Queen Mary’s parure along with other diamonds and emeralds. The weight of “Cullinan VI” is 11,5 carats, its cut is called “marquise”. It was presented by King Edward VII to his wife, Queen Alexandra. Her tiara was decorated with this diamond. Since 1925, it was inherited by Queen Mary. A pendant was made from a diamond, which was set with a platinum brooch with diamonds, the center of which was the eighth “Cullinan”. The jewel is now called the Cullinan Brooch VI and VIII.

However, the eighth stone can be removed and installed on the bodice of the parure or, if desired, attached to a brooch with the fifth “Cullinan”.

The seventh of the Cullinans is marquise cut and weighs 8,80 carats. Its place is on a pendant in a platinum necklace, which is also decorated with other diamonds and emeralds. The necklace is part of Queen Mary’s parure. There are 6 such parts in total. The production of the parure was carried out by the same court jewelry company.

It was the parure necklace that was especially loved by Queen Mary, as well as her granddaughter, who still wears it during official events.

The ninth stone, despite being the smallest, is very pure. Its cut is round and its shape is pear-shaped. In 1911, it was inserted into a platinum ring and was never used anywhere else. Unfortunately, the ring was worn only a few times, and is not among the favorite jewelry of the crowned persons to whom it belonged. You can find interesting information about the Cullinan diamond in the following video.