The largest diamond in the world: the history of the Cullinan diamond
The history of diamonds does not cease to excite the minds of people. Large - even more so. Ratings of the largest diamonds are regularly published on jewelry sites. The more surprising is the story of one of the biggest stones, which was found by chance.
Story
The largest known diamond in the world is called Cullinan. Finding helped make the case. It happened at a mine called Premier in South Africa in early 1905. Most likely, “Cullinan” appeared, breaking away from the diamond, which had twice the size. Its weight was 3106.75 carats, which equals 621.35 g. Its parameters were 10.5 and 6.5 cm.
Of course, the story of his discovery today is surrounded by different stories and fiction, so it’s hard to say what really was and what was not. There are several versions of this story. According to the first one, the brilliance of the diamond attracted the site manager, Frederick Wells, who performed the daily evening round. This glitter came from the wall of the quarry. From there, they also extracted a large diamond, by the form of which it was clear that it was a fragment of a much larger mineral. But more could not find anything.
The find was immediately sent for examination. It turned out that this is the largest natural diamond found at the time.
Prior to this, the Excelsior was the weight of 995.2 carats. He was found at a South African mine. Since 1905, Excelsior had to take 2nd place in the ranking of the largest diamonds.
Examination confirmed the conjecture that The found copy is one of the parts of a much larger diamond, split in a natural way. However, no other part was found. Of course, this find has created a furor. Firstly, the public simply went crazy about the size of the stone and the history of its discovery, and, secondly, the diamond industry received an additional impetus to develop.
The main reason for all the action of diamond miners was that most of the "Cullinan" has not yet been found.
Mine manager Wells was paid 3.5 thousand pounds for the find. The name of the stone received by the name of the person who owned the site where it was found: Thomas Cullinan. There were no stains, cracks, air bubbles on the diamond. He was very clean. There was a black spot in the center of the diamond, and that was his only drawback.
The crystal created amazing color highlights, depending on the angle at which the light fell. This meant that there was tension inside the stone, which is quite common in large diamonds. But it also created the risk of cracking, therefore diamond could not be cut. The size of the diamond implied its fantastic value, so there were no buyers.
Owner Thomas Cullinan was paid 150 thousand pounds in 1907 for the sale of stone by the Transvaal government.
Diamond was presented as a gift for the celebration of the birthday of the King of England Edward VII. This was done as a result of General Louis Botha’s proposal to thank the king for recognizing the Transvaal constitution of the British Empire. This decision was not sole, it was taken on a vote. The Boers were in favor, and the British, who inhabited the Transvaal - against.
At first, Edward did not appreciate the diamond. However, thanks to Winston Churchill, at that time not yet the prime minister, but already a very influential person, the gift was accepted.Edward ordered to split it into several parts and cut it. This engaged the Dutch jewelers, the famous brothers Asher.
The work took a lot of time. Half a year was spent studying the structure of the crystal, choosing a place to make a blow so that the split occurred correctly. The length of the cut, which was made in stone, was about 0.5 inches (or 1.3 cm). A knife for the cut was made separately.
With the help of one blow of a large force, the diamond was split into places of defect. After 4 years, about 110 diamonds were made from the resulting parts. 2 of them - “Cullinan I” and “Cullinan II” are classified as large, 7 - as medium ones (although some of them are more correctly attributed to large ones), and the rest - as minor ones, but with amazing purity.
Description of "Stars of Africa"
The Cullinan I, or Big Star of Africa, weighs 530.2 carats. This is a diamond with 76 facets. "The Big Star of Africa" is decorated with the top of the wand, which was owned by Edward VII. This is the largest faceted diamond. There is an opportunity to pull out a diamond and wear a brooch. It is stored in the Tower (London).
Brilliant is otherwise called the "Great Star of Africa." Its shape is pear-shaped. Until the year 1990 was famous for the discovery of the Golden Jubilee diamond, the Big Star of Africa was ranked 1st in terms of the size of diamonds in the world.
Now it is in the 2 nd place, but it is considered the largest stone, cut with a “pear”, and the largest colorless diamond.
How did a diamond turn into diamonds?
Even today, when the work of jewelers is facilitated by the newest technologies, cutting diamonds is very difficult. It was very difficult to cut a diamond and make it a quality diamond that would become a work of art at the beginning of the last century, as there were not so many tools at the disposal of jewelers. The Cullinan cut was carried out by Ashera’s hereditary jewelers.
By the way, they were the ones who patented the “Usher” cut method, which today is a classic one.
Prior to this, it was the Ushers who were engaged in cutting the "Excelsior".
It was originally planned to cut the entire diamond as a whole. However, in a detailed study (which took several months), jewelers found that inside the diamond there are a number of minor damages, cracks, and stress, expressed by the presence of a dark spot in the very middle of the stone. It became clear that the diamond must be split.
Speaking about the beginning of the cut, we should mention the date of February 10, 1908. Engaged in this "chief of Asherov" - Joseph. Legend has it that when the knife split the diamond, Joseph Asher fainted, as the knife broke. However, one should not trust this legend, because after all, the hereditary jeweler and head of a company with a solid reputation would hardly be subjected to such violent reactions as to faint from a simple breakdown of the working tool. Moreover, there is a denial of Lord Jan Balfour, who in the book "Famous Diamonds" claims that Asher, on the contrary, celebrated this event by opening a bottle of champagne.
Each of the parts subsequently split more than once. As a result of the cut, 9 purest large diamonds and about 96 small ones appeared. Large were numbered from I to IX (in accordance with the decrease in size). All of them are still in the British royal family and are included in the list of jewels worn by Queen Elizabeth II.
Interesting Facts
The number 2 diamond, or “Minor Star of Africa”, is the fifth largest in the world. Its cut is not a “pear”, but a “cushion”. Its mass is 317.4 carats. It is located in the rim of the crown of the British Empire. Together with him, the crown is decorated with stunningly beautiful gems, each of which is a work of art.
As for the "Cullinan III", it is also faceted with a "pear", its weight is 94.4 carats. It was installed on the top of the crown, owned by Queen Mary, the grandmother of the now reigning Elizabeth II.
The crown was made by the jewelers of the Garrard & Co company (this company was engaged in all the jewels of the royal family) for the coronation of Maria's husband, King George V. The event took place on June 22, 1911.
In addition to “Cullinan III”, the “Cullinan IV” was installed on the crown. The main accent of the crown was the most famous diamond Coh-i-Noor. At the end of the ceremony, all the stones were replaced with copies of quartz, and the diamonds went for use in other jewelry. The third and fourth “Cullinans” were united, they made a brooch-pendant. She was very fond of Queen Mary.
After Mary passed away in 1953, her jewels were rightfully inherited from her granddaughter Elizabeth II. She still puts this brooch on pendant on various events, calling her 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, the wife of the grandson of Queen William, Duke of Cambridge.
As for the "Cullinan V", its cut is a "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 on its own. And also the brooch can be installed on the crown instead of Coh-i-Noor. Prior to this, the brooch was in the composition of Queen Mary's parry together with other diamonds and emeralds.
The weight of “Cullinan VI” is 11.5 carats, its faceting is called “Marquis”. He was presented by King Edward VII to his wife, Queen Alexandra. This diamond was decorated with her diadem. Since 1925, it was inherited by Queen Mary. The diamond was used to create a pendant with a platinum brooch with diamonds, the center of which was the eighth Cullinan. Now the jewel is called the “Cullinan Brooch VI and VIII”.
However, the eighth stone can be pulled out and set on a paris corsage or, if desired, attached to the brooch with the fifth “Cullinan”.
The seventh of the “Cullinans” has a Marquis cut, its weight is 8.80 carats. His place is on a pendant in a platinum necklace, which is also decorated with other diamonds and emeralds. The necklace is an integral part of Queen Mary's parisre. In total there are 6 such parts. The same court jeweler company was engaged in the manufacture of the parure.
It was the necklace from the paryura that was especially loved by Queen Maria, as was her granddaughter, who wears it so far during official events.
The ninth stone, despite being the smallest, is very clean. Its facet is round, and the shape is pear-shaped. In 1911, it was inserted into a platinum ring and was not used anywhere else. Unfortunately, the ring was worn a few times, and is not among the favorite jewels of the crowned persons to whom it belonged.
Interesting information about the Cullinan diamond can be found in the next video.
