Most Expensive Diamonds In The World
The mountain of light
Brief introduction
the mountain of light, also known as “koinor”, dates back to 1304, and many of the kings who once owned it could not escape the curse. ranked 33rd among the world famous diamonds. legend has it that it is 3,000 years old, but this is not credible. it is also said that the earliest record of it was 1304. it is now believed to have been discovered in 1655 at the collier mine in the gorconda region of india. the famous drill shah was also found in gorkanda, but koinor is much larger than shah, whose rough weight is 800 carats. at first, koinor fell into the hands of the mughal emperor of india. it has been preserved in mughal palaces for nearly a hundred years. like the famous drill shah, when the natir shah of persia captured delhi in 1739, it brought the koinor and shah to the persian city of isfahan, where it weighed 105.6 carats today.
in 1851, “the mountain of light” was on public display in london. experts believe that the gemstone was grinding out by indian gem craftsmen in a shape that was poorly flashy and not aesthetically pleasing enough.
in 1852, the british court mineralogist ding k. tennant sharpened the diamond again, making it even more beautiful, and reduced its weight to 105.6 carats today. it has since become the main diamond in the british crown. the crown is inlaid with 2,800 diamonds, the most dazzling of which comes from the “mountain of light” on the cross at the top of the crown. after queen victoria’s death, the “mountain of light” was crowned by queen mary. queen mary succeeded king george vi after her death.
in 1937, george vi’s wife, the queen mother, who died in 2002, received the diamond.
the diamond was placed on the queen mother’s coffin at the queen mother’s funeral in westminster abbey, london, on april 9, 2002, giving the world a look at the radiant charm of the “mountain of light”.
African star
The Star of Africa is the largest cut diamond in the world, weighing 3,106 carats. The diamond was cut by a company that studied it for six months before deciding how to cut it.
In January 1905, Fredwell, the director of the plemere diamond mine in South Africa, walked in the mine and found a gleaming object in the setting sun. He thought it was a glass bottle dropped in the mud. When he used it The cane picked it up from the soil and scraped it off. He was stunned and couldn’t believe his eyes were diamonds the size of a fist. He won a $10,000 bounty for working with chibok cullinan.
Cullinan was separated by three skilled craftsmen who worked 14 hours a day for eight months. A total of 9 large diamonds and 96 small diamonds were ground. The total weight of these 105 diamonds is 1063.65 carats, which is 34.25% of the original weight of Cullinan. The largest of these is called “Cullian I”, which is a water droplet weighing 530.2 carats. It has 74 facets and is inlaid on the staff of the King of England. It is now treasured in Buckingham Palace, England. The second largest particle is called Cullian II. It is square, has 64 sides, weighs 317.40 carats, and is inlaid on the crown of the British Empire.
Cullinan – The Star of Africa is only part of Cullinan.
The discovery of Cullinan, the world’s largest gem diamond, was quite accidental. On January 25, 1905, at the Plemir Mine (also known as the Prime Minister’s Mine) in Azania, South Africa, a manager named Wales accidentally saw a piece of gleaming gold on the ground of the mine. He dug out the gold with a knife. Piece. .It weighs 3024.75 carats in the old carat unit (1 carat x 205 mg) at the time. The commonly used metric carat (1 carat x 200 mg) is converted to 3106 carats, which is 621.2 grams. The volume is about 5×65×l0cm, which is equivalent to the fist of an adult man. It is pure and transparent, with a light blue hue, and is a top-grade gem-quality diamond. To this day, it is the second largest gem diamond found in the world.
Cullinan is not a complete crystal, it is only a part of a large crystal fragment. Cullinan was so big that no one could afford it at the time. It was later bought by the local authorities in Transvaal, South Africa for 150,000 pounds and presented to the British royal family on December 9, 1907 to celebrate the birthday of King Edward III.
In early 1908, Cullinan was sent to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which was the most authoritative city for diamonds, and was handed over to Joe Aschar for processing at a cost of 80,000 pounds. Because the blank is too large, it must be broken into small pieces as planned in advance. Breaking it is an extremely difficult task, because if there is not enough research or poor technology, huge gems will shatter into a pile of worthless pieces. The breakup was done by the famous Dutch craftsman jo aschar. He spent several weeks studying Cullinan, constructed a glass model based on its size and shape, and designed a set of tools. He first experimented on the glass model with these tools, and the model was split as expected. After a few days of rest, on February 10, 1908, he and his assistant came to a special studio, clamped Cullinan tightly with a pair of pliers, and placed a hole in the pre-ground groove above it. Special steel wedge. Joe Ascar hit the steel wedge with a heavy stick, and with a “pop” Cullinan did not move, but the steel wedge broke. Aschar’s face was covered in cold sweat, and in an atmosphere that was so nervous that he was about to explode, he pressed a second steel wedge on it. There was another heavy blow. This time, Cullinan split in half as planned, and Aschar fell to the floor.
CULLINAN is divided into 9 large diamonds and 96 small diamonds. The largest of the nine diamonds is called “African Star I”. Or “CULLINAN 1”, weighing 530.2 carats, is a drop of water with 74 sides. It is also the largest diamond in the world today, mounted on the walking stick of the King of England. The second largest particle, called the Star of Africa II, weighs 317.4 carats, is square in appearance and has 64 faces. It is the second largest diamond in the world and is now under the crown of the British Empire. The other seven weights are 94.4, 63.6, 18.8, 11.5, 8.8, 6.8 and 4.39 carats. The nine large diamonds were all made by Cullinan and belonged to the British royal family. Among them, “CULLINANDI I” and “CULLINANDI IV” were inlaid on Queen Mary’s crown made in 1911, and later removed from the Queen’s collection and replaced by crystal replicas. In 1919, another 1,500 carat gem-quality diamond was discovered in the Plemir mine. The third weight in the world. It is also a fragment of a large crystal, similar in color to Cullinan. So some people think it was broken from the same large crystal as Cullinan, so the diamond did not give it a specific name.
Synch diamonds
The 55-carat, pear-shaped diamond of the double rose car worker originated in India when an emissary named Nicolas Harley, Seigneur de Sancy, bought the diamond around 1570.
Experienced
It was later lent to King Henry III and placed on his hat. Henry IV also borrowed as collateral to raise money to build up armaments and put Harishens in the top financial ranks. He was later appointed Ambassador to the United Kingdom before being sold to Queen Elizabeth I, to James I, Charles I, Charles II, and James II to King Louis XIV of France. From then on, the Sancy Diamond was passed down through the French royal family until the French Revolution, when royal jewelry was stolen in 1792 and diamonds were lost. By 1828, The Russian Emperor Damiro Demidoff had worn the Sendhi diamond. It was sold to sir Jeejeebhoy, a wealthy Indian merchant, in 1906 William Astor bought the diamond as a wedding gift for his son, and his daughter-in-law lent it to the French Museum for exhibition, and in 1964 William Astor’s daughter-in-law died, which the British government declared a national treasure of the British royal family, which is still in the hands of the French government and can be seen in the Louvre Museum in France.
Status quo
the synch diamond is light yellow, apparently from india, and is said to have been cut into the largest diamond with a symmetrical surface. the “bold prince charles” of burgundy, france, lost the diamond in the war of 1477.
Heart of hope
the source of the legend
The story of the diamond’s doom began in 1909, when May Yohe divorced the Duke of Newcastle and blamed the failure of her marriage and acting career on the diamond. In an article published in The Times on June 25 of that year, a Paris-based journalist claimed that the diamond had brought bad luck to many owners, and in 1920 May persuaded George Klein, the famous silent film director, to film a film about the diamond of hope and play the main role himself. The screenwriter has made up many stories, such as the dog-bitten death of the discoverer Tavernier (in fact, he died in Russia at the age of 84) and the malatas’ failure to make it to the UK. McLean also added characters to the story, even including Russian Queen Ekaterina II. These stories, coupled with McLean’s own subsequent misfortunes, cast a mysterious shadow over the diamond.
historical origin
diamonds were officially decorated as personal ornaments from the 15th century. in 1477, when grand duchess maximi of austria was engaged to princess mary of france, he gave the woman a diamond ring symbolizing pure love.
diamonds are loved, and they are set as the “birthstone” of april and the memorial stone of 60 or 75 years of marriage, which means pure and flawless.
ancient stories
more than 300 years ago, a huge blue diamond was discovered in india, roughly processed and weighing 112.5 carats. louis xiv wears it.
Later, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a French jeweler, traded jade for $330,000 worth of gems from India in exchange for the expensive blue diamond, 44 larger diamonds and 1,122 small diamonds, known as the Tavernier Blue. When he returned to France, he dedicated the blue diamond to Louis XIV, the King of France, and re-cut it into a chicken heart, weighing 67.125 carats and being named Blue Diamond of the French Crown. Davini was thus awarded the Baron.
shortly thereafter, disaster struck louis, the king of france, and his favorite grandson died suddenly. his early glory began to decline, and he married mrs. maynenon, a religious fanatic. she brought a lot of misfortune to louis’ life. tavoni was later said to have been bitten to death by a wild dog in russia.
shortly after louis xvi got the crown blue diamond, he and queen marie antoinette took the guillotine during the storm of the french revolution. during the 1792 revolution, the french treasury was looted, and the blue diamond was once unknown. during this time, the spanish painter goyer once painted a portrait of the queen of spain, maria louisa, wearing a gem that resembled the missing diamond. at the time, it was speculated that it might have been bought by the french royalists after they had obtained it abroad and sent it to the spaniards, or that the spaniards had bought it from thieves.
the 38-year-old blue diamond, which had been missing for 38 years, reappeared in the netherlands in 1830 and belonged to a diamond cutter, wilhelm fowles. to prevent the french government from pursuing it, he cut the diamond to its present-day weight of 44. 4 carats. later, fowles’ son, handrick, stole the diamond from his father and took it to london. there, he committed suicide, and no one knew the cause.
A few years later, British jewelry collector Henry Philipp bought the diamond for $90,000, and it has since been named Hope. Because the name Hope means “hope” in English. In 1839, the old Hooper died violently. His nephew, Thomas Hooper, inherited the “hope” diamond. Unlike his predecessors, The Little Hooper did not hide the diamond in a secret room, but put it on public display at the Crystal Palace exhibition hall, where he is said to have died.
modern stories
at the beginning of this century, hope diamonds and other jewelry from hooper’s collection were bought by a merchant named jacquis cyro. he committed suicide inexplicably a short time later. the diamond was bought again by the russian cenitovsky, who was stabbed to death shortly afterwards.
the next owner of the “hope” diamond was businessman habib bay, who drowned in the sea near gibraltar shortly after he sold it to a man named simon. simon, who sold the diamond to sultan abudar ii of turkey, died after falling off a cliff in a car accident. the sultan of abudar was deposed by the turkish al-shabaab in 1909 after acquiring the priceless treasure.
the “hope” diamond later reappeared in paris and was sold to avolin walls mclean in washington, d.c., for $154,000 by jeweler pierre cartier. mclean and her husband are publishers of the washington post and the cincinnati enquirer. the couple have suffered a lot since they bought the diamond. when they went to see the kentucky horse race in 1918, their 8-year-old son in washington escaped from his bodyguard and ran down the street to be crushed to death by a car. shortly thereafter, ned began to drink heavily, eventually losing his sound mind and the newspaper industry. one of their daughters died of a mistaken overdose of sleeping pills. their 25-year-old granddaughter died of alcohol poisoning at her texas home in december 1967.
After Mrs. McLean’s death in 1947, jeweler Harry Winston bought her blue diamond Hope for $1.1 million. Over the next 10 years, Winston traveled 640,000 kilometers with the diamond and other valuable gems, touring the world to raise money for charity, and 500 people visited the diamond, raising more than $1 million.
in 1957, winston and the smith institute negotiated that the “hope” diamonds should be given to the institute as a central exhibit in a series of gemstones, compared to the jewels used in the coronation on the tower of london. the smith institute agreed to accept. on november 8, 1958, the blue diamond was placed in a goatskin box and wrapped in brown paper for delivery to the new york post office for delivery to washington. gem dealers have long believed that this is the most reliable way to transport gemstones. soon, under the watchful tying of armed men, he was sent to the smith institute in washington, d.c., and insured for $1 million. winston spent $145. at $290,000, he was the last owner of the “hope” diamond and one of the luckiest in 300 years.
in the meantime, winston also encountered an interesting thing. once, winston and his wife went to lisbon, the capital of portugal, and when he returned to new york, his wife flew the day before, and winston himself flew back to new york the next day. mrs. winston’s plane was scheduled to land midway through maria airport in the argyll islands to refuel, delayed for about three hours due to a glitch in the aircraft’s engine. while waiting for repairs, suddenly a male passenger refused to travel on the plane again, insisting on a change to the next day’s flight, so he disembarked the plane and left. winston didn’t know it, and on his way to lisbon airport the next day, he received a telegram from his wife saying she had arrived safely in new york. winston stuffed the electricity into his pocket and boarded a flight to new york, where he found his neighbor empty when he took off, and he was happy because he could get a good night’s sleep. as soon as he woke up, the plane arrived at maria airport in the azzuran islands, where he got off the plane for a walk while refueling.
when he returned to the plane, he found that there were already guests in the next seat, and that the man was gushing about an adventure for the passengers on board. he said that he actually took the same plane as the wife of the owner of the bad luck drill yesterday, and indeed the plane broke down at marylef airport, he quickly escaped the plane, asked to change to today’s plane, and so on. the passenger continued: “i’m not superstitious, but why should i risk sharing a plane with the wife of the owner of the bad luck drill?” i insist on taking another plane instead, you see, i’m safe and able to talk here. “winston was listening, crying and laughing, thinking, “what if this man knew i was the owner of blue diamond hope?” just then, the guest next door suddenly raised his voice and said, “if the plane had arrived safely yesterday, that would have been strange.” mr. winston, who had a good-kept man, could not help but take his wife’s telegram out of his pocket and hand it to the excited traveler next door, who, suddenly, was quiet like a deflated leather ball until he reached his destination, new york, and the passenger never spoke again.
so far to visit the smith institute of the crowd, people admire this rare treasure at the same time, as if to feel the flash of blue light to people silently tell its mysterious and ominous history.
Diamond of the century
Diamond of the century, second only to clearland 1 and 2. it was discovered in south africa in 1980 and weighs 599 carats. after three years of professional cutters, careful research and pondering, this flawless giant diamond finally showed its true light!
Founded in 1888, De Beers Diamonds, on its 100th anniversary, on March 11, 1988, discovered a 599.00-carat premium gem diamond in South Africa’s famous gem-rich “Premier” Kimberley tube, named “Hundred Years”. This diamond is pure and flawless, excellent color, light rose color, unusually beautiful, is a rare rare treasure.
“Hundred years” diamond, after three years of senior professional cutters, carefully researched, designed, and cut, processed into a 273.85 carat diamond, was named “the centenary diamond” diamond. The diamond has 75 cuts at the top, 89 cuts at the bottom and 83 cuts at the waist, for a total of 247 cuts, giving the flawless diamond a real glow. By weight, century diamonds weigh only less than Cullinan-1 diamonds (530.20 carats) and Cullinan-2 diamonds (317.40 carats), ranking third in the world. The “Century” diamond is currently in de Beers’ collection and is estimated to be worth $100 million.
Pink star
Pink Star, the world’s largest pink diamond, sold for $71.2m at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong, setting a global auction record for gemstones.
This oval-shaped immaculate powder diamond, Pink Star, weighs 59.60 carats, has a long radius of 2.69 cm, a short radius of 2.06 cm and a total weight of 11.92 grams. With a starting price of $56m, the auction lasted five minutes, with Hong Kong jewellery giant Chow Tai Fook Jewelry narrowly outstripping two other phone buyers to the rare gem, which Sotheby’s had previously valued at $60m.
Patti Wong, Sotheby’s Asia chairman, said it was the latest auction record in the global jewelry industry and “Sotheby’s Hong Kong is proud to have that record.” ”
Full diamond ring
The world’s first all-diamond ring was designed and created by Shawish, a Geneva jewelry brand in Switzerland, and is cut entirely from a single diamond, weighing up to 150 carats, with a clarity of VS1, an E-color rating and a cutting patent, with the entire ring valued at up to $68 million.
The all-diamond ring, using an entire diamond from Brazil and laser-cutting technology, took a year to craft by Shawish, a famous Swiss jewelry brand, making it the world’s first ring to date made entirely of diamonds. It made its debut at the world-famous Basel Jewellery Show in March 2012 and became the star of the show at the time.
Oppenheimer Blue Diamond
The Oppenheimer Blue Diamond is named after Sir Philip Oppenheimer, a well-known British diamond trader and head of the diamond giant De Beers. He chose to collect the blue diamond because of its “perfect color, proportion and beautiful square shape”. The 14.62-carat blue diamond was cut into square shapes, with a ring and two smaller diamonds on the side. On May 18, 2016, at an auction in Geneva,the 14.62-carat Oppenheimer Blue Diamond sold for $58246847, or about 380 million yuan, breaking the world record for a diamond auction. Christie’s points out that Oppenheimer Blue is the largest colorful blue diamond ever auctioned.
Lesedi La Rona
Lesedi La Rona is the world’s second largest gem-grade diamond rough in the world, after Cullinan (3,106 carats) discovered in 1905. Lucara auctioned the diamond at Sotheby’s in London in June 2016, but unfortunately the bid failed to reach its final price. Until September 2017, GRAFF purchased Lesedi La Rona for $53 million (approximately $48,000 per carat).
Laurence Graff, founder of GRAFF, knew how to cut Lesedi La Rona before he bought it. He believes the 1,109-carat giant rough diamond will deliver the perfect finished diamond that is “stunning” – yes, after more than a year of analysis, cutting and polishing by GRAF’s veteran gemologists and master craftsmen, Lesedi La Rona has finally cut more than 60 stunning diamonds, including Graf Lesedi La Rona.
The analysis lasted several months before advancing plans for Lesedi La Rona cutting and polishing. Laurence Graff, describing the task of cutting rough diamonds of this size into “the most risky art form”, said it was impossible to “add” the diamond any more because a single mistake could not be covered up and “subtraction” could only be made constantly, so every step had to be careful to ensure its perfection.
Prior to this, GRAFF had purchased a 373-carat diamond and successfully cut and polished it, but even with this experience, Lesedi La Rona remains a huge and unique challenge for GRAFF gem experts. After continuous research and research, GRAFF has developed a sophisticated and advanced scanner and new imaging software for this giant drill, providing in-depth analysis of Lesedi La Rona’s internal structure and exploring its natural flaws.
Laser cutting was initially used, and subsequent forming and facets were done entirely by hand. Because natural diamond rough is a complex crystal with subtle features, it takes “hundreds of hours” to polish the surface of The Graff Lesedi La Rona alone.
According to graf’s official website, the final presentation of Graf Lesedi La Rona is GIA’s “largest ever diamond identified as top color and clarity, and the world’s largest square emerald cut diamond” that “has top-notch D-color and extreme clarity, unmatched in polishing and symmetry.”
brand introduction
Graff is a vertically integrated diamond company, and in the diamond world, no one loves diamonds more than Laurence Graff, chairman of Graf Diamonds. From the first sight of the diamond, he had a bond with the diamond, which I am afraid only a few true diamond obsessives could understand.
The Graff Pink Powder Drill
The Graff Pink powder diamond, one of the most important diamonds owned by Graff, weighs 23.88ct and was sold to anonymous buyers by Us jeweler Harry Winston in the 1950s and sold at auction by Laurence Graff for $46 million in 2010.
This step-cut diamond is of color grade Fancy Intense Pink, with a flawless clarity inside IF, and is a rare Type IIa diamond. At auction in 2010, the powder diamond weighed 24.78ct, closer to emerald cutting, and had a small encased body near the surface, so the clarity was “VVS2”.
When Laurence Graff bought the powder drill, it was re-cut and polished, and although the weight was reduced by 0.9ct to 23.88ct, the clarity level was upgraded by one level to “Internal Flawless”. Graff then redesigned the diamond’s ring, using a gold base to complement the pink warmth, and a small round bright cut-out powder drill to outline the base, with a drop diamond at each end.