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Monday, 03 September 2007 |
The Star of South Africa
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 proved to be a 21.25-carat diamond (the Eureka Diamond), traded the young native for the stone, giving him five hundred sheep, ten oxen, and a horse. It was practically all of Niekerk's possessions, but a few days later in Hopetown he sold the rough crystal for $56,000.
Later, the stone was purchased by Louis Hond, a diamond cutter, and fashioned to what was described as an "oval, three-sided brilliant" and was sold to the Earl of Dudley for $125,000 (or about £25,000). The Countess Dudley wore it as a hair ornament, surrounded by 95 smaller diamonds. The current location of the stone is unknown, but this being a color photo, it is safe to say the stone is still in circulation.
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Monday, 03 September 2007 |
The Eureka Diamond
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 neighbour, farmer Schalk van Niekerk, a collector of unusual stones.
Van Niekerk entrusted the pebble to John O'Reilly, a traveling peddler, who sent it, in an unsealed envelope, to Dr W.G. Atherstone of Grahamstown, one of the few people in the Cape Colony who knew anything about minerals and gems. Dr Atherstone identified it as a 21.25-carat brownish yellow diamond. It was sold for £1500 to Sir Phillip Wodehouse. The diamond was shown at the Paris Exposition in 1867 and later cut to its present form. Although Erasmus Jacobs never found another diamond, Van Niekerk was luckier. Three years later, having learned something of precious stones, he bought what became known as the Star of South Africa. |
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Monday, 03 September 2007 |
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.
It is believed the Tiffany Yellow was found in either 1877 or 1878 and weighed 287,42ct in its rough state. The lack of exact information concerning the correct date of its discovery extends to its location as well; this has been variously described as the 'the De Beers Mines' or 'the Kimberly Mines'.
The finding of the Tiffany Yellow took place before accurate records of the discovery of large diamonds from South Africa were kept. However, the clue to its location has been supplied by one writer who has stated it was found in the mines of the French Company.
This was the colloquial name for the Compagnie Français de Diamant du Cap, an important mining concern, the existence of which sparked off the most momentous financial struggle which the diamond industry has witnessed.
The head of Tiffany jewelers' office in Paris, Mr. Gideon Reed, bought the Tiffany Yellow for $18,000, on behalf of the firm, whence it was imported into the United States in 1879. Initially, little publicity attended the diamond after its arrival there.
A deliberate policy which has been ascribed by Charles Tiffany's fears that, as yellowish diamonds were being produced in South Africa in greater quantities than ever before, this particular diamond might merely be one of many such stones. However, it is important to draw a distinction between light yellow and yellowish diamonds and those of the rare deeper canary yellow; the Tiffany Yellow remains one of the finest examples of the third catagory.
In 1957 the stone was appraised in 2 Million Dollars. |
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Monday, 03 September 2007 |
The Niarchos Diamond
This blue-white flawless pear shape was bought by Harry Winston in 1956 as part of an $8.4 million parcel. Winston sold it in 1957 to Stavros Niarchos, the Greek shipping magnate, who gave the diamond its name.
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 1932 when mining operations ceased due to the depressed state of the diamond industry.
Working resumed in 1945, but its fourth life really began in 1979 with the opening up of the mine below the 'Gabbro' sill, a 70-meter geologic intrusion of barren rock which cuts right through the pipe some 400 meters below the surface. Production from this new source has not only given the mine its longest life, but one that should enable production to continue for another fifteen years.
In the early years of its existence, the Premier Mine produced many large diamonds, including, of course the Cullinan in 1905, and since working was restarted in 1945 the mine has continued to yield some exceptional stones. One of the most exciting moments early on the morning of Sunday, May 22nd, 1954, when a diamond measuring just under 51 mm long, just over 25 mm wide and 19 mm thick unexpectedly appeared on the grease tables at the recovery plant. It was immediately apparent to the officials present that this was an exceptional find.
The diamond weighed 426.5 carats, was internally flawless, but was slightly chipped, probably due to contact with the mine's underground crusher. Sir Ernest Oppenheimer considered that it possessed the most perfect color of any diamond he had seen, an opinion shared by others who were fortunate enough to view it.
In due course the unnamed diamond was shipped to London and in February of 1956 it was announced by the Diamond Trading Company that a sale of rough diamonds totaling $3,000,000 had been made to the firm of Harry Winston Inc. of New York. At the time this transaction represented the largest single sale ever made to one of its clients.
On February 1st, 1956 the diamond was brought from Ildewild Airport by a messenger for a customs broker and duly delivered to its purchaser in a brown paper bag. Accompanying him and, like him, unattended by any special guard, was a postman with three cardboard boxes containing the rest of the diamonds under his arm. The shipment had been made to New York by registered post and the actual postal charges amounted to the princely sum of about $1.75.
Harry Winston and his cutting staff spent weeks debating whether to fashion one large gem or several smaller stones from the rough. In the end they decided on a single diamond, Mr. Winston stating that while it would have proved easier to sell the smaller stones, he felt that the historical value of creating one fine gem was more important.
Once this had been determined, plans were laid to ensure the cutting of a perfect final gem. The cutters made more than three hundred lead models of the proposed finished gem to guide them in their task. The actual operation was performed by Winston's chief cleaver, Bernard de Haan, who spent the entire year working on the project. The first severance took five weeks: from the 70-carat piece removed, a 27.62-carat marquise was later polished. The second took equally long and produced another 70 carats from which a very significant emerald cut of 39.99 carats was obtained. Thus a rough piece weighing about 270 carats remained. For some 58 days, master diamond cutter Bernard de Haan first ground then polished the great gem. Ultimately it yielded a pear shape weighing 128.25 carats, possessing 58 facets, plus 86 facets around the girdle, totaling 144. On February 27th, 1957, the 'Ice Queen', as de Haan had nicknamed it, was unveiled to the world. The April, 1958 edition of National Geographic magazine featured an article on diamonds, in which the Niarchos' cutting process was shown.
 The caption under the above photo read: "Winston's Chief Cutter, Bernard de Haan, Studies His Ice Queen." Son, grandson and great-grandson of Amsterdam diamond cutters, Mr. de Haan met his greatest challenge in New York while fashioning the Niarchos. "I called it the Ice Queen," he says, "because the rough stone would have been hard to spot in a bucket of ice cubes."
Soon after, the late Stavros Niarchos, the Greek shipping magnate, bought the gem for his then wife, formerly Charlotte Ford, for a reported $2,000,000. Members of the Ford family were not polite, referring to the diamond as 'the Skating Rink', but Niarchos remained unperturbed, having also bought the two other gems that had been fashioned from the original 426-carat rough. For that amount - and after they were divorced - he was surely entitled to bestow his name upon the diamond which he generously lent to many exhibitions. In 1966 the Niarchos returned to South Africa for the famous centennial 'Jewel Box 1966' exhibition. Since his death in April of 1996, no further information about the Niarchos Diamond has been forthcoming.
However, the 39.99-carat emerald cut, known today as the Ice Queen, was auctioned by Sotheby's of New York in October of 1991. Having earlier been graded by the Gemological Institute of America as D-color and VVS1 clarity, it was sold for $1,870,000 to Sheik Ahmed Hassan Fitaihi.
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Monday, 03 September 2007 |
The Kimberly Diamond
The Kimberley Diamond, named after the Kimberley Mine in South Africa, is one of the most famed emerald-cut diamonds in the world.
Before the Kimberley Diamond was cut, it weighed about 490-carats and had the color of sparkling wine. In the year 1921, the rough diamond was cut to 70 carats and in 1958 the Kimberley Diamond was re- cut into the current emerald shape and measured about 55.09 carats. The yellow colored diamond with its beautiful shape has been exhibited in different places and finally an undisclosed collector from Texas bought it in 1971.
The Kimberley Diamond has become famous because of its emerald cut. This emerald cut was initially known as “step cut” and was perfectly suited for emeralds, hence the name emerald cut. The emerald cut consists of 58 facets, 8 girdles, 25 crowns and 25 pavilions. The shapes can vary from squares to rectangles. Later this emerald cut was used while shaping hard stones and so it was also applied in case of the diamonds.
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