The Royal Purple Heart Diamond

This is a diamond I am still in the process of researching. The article I found with the stone reads "The Royal Purple Heart Diamond is the largest fancy vivid purple diamond known to exist, weighing 7.34 carats. This unique stone has been expertly cut and polished into a perfect heart shape to allow the striking natural purple color to dazzle to maximum effect. Natural purple diamonds are among the rarest and most highly sought after color in which diamonds occur. Large pure purple diamonds (i.e. stones over 5 carats) are especially prized. The Royal Purple Heart Diamond was cut by and is a joint venture with the Julius Klein Diamond Corporation." The gem has a clarity of I1.

The Queen of Holland Diamond

There are differing opinions concerning the origin of this 135.92-carats cushion-cut diamond. The Dutch firm F. Friedman & Co. cut it into its present shape in 1904. They owned it for several years, exhibiting it at the 1925 Paris Exhibition of Arts and Industry. The Dutch sovereign from whom the stone takes its name was Queen Wilhelmina, who reigned from 1890 to 1948.

This suggests the possibility that the Queen of Holland was mined in South Africa, but nothing is known of the diamond's earlier history until it arrived in Amsterdam at a time when numerous South African diamonds were finding their way there. Yet there are experts who think that the Queen of Holland is a typical Golconda stone.

The Maharajah of Nawanagar purchased the Queen of Holland and Cartier set it as the centerpiece of the pendant to the magnificent ceremonial necklace of the Prince. Jacques Cartier, who assembled the necklace, referred to it as "a really superb realization of a connoisseur's dream."

Cartier eventually bought the diamond from the Maharajah's family and sent it to their London branch in 1960. 30 years later, it was sold for a reported $7,000,000. The Queen of Holland is now owned by Robert Mouawad.

The Porter Rhodes Diamond

Considered to be the finest American diamond found up to that time (1880), the 153.50-carat rough this stone was cut from came from the claim of Mr. Porter-Rhodes in the Kimberly Mine. It was valued at $200,000. In 1881, Mr. Porter Rhodes visited the Osborne House in London and showed it to Queen Victoria, who exclaimed over its great purity and beauty. Empress Eugenie, who also saw the great diamond at the same time, remarked that it was "simply perfection," not knowing what to compare it with. At that time, it was the general belief that South Africa diamonds were inferior. Victoria asked, "Is it really from Cape?" Eugenie remarked, "Are you sure the diamond is from South Africa, and have you not had it polished a little? I have always been under the impression that diamonds from the Cape were very yellow and worth but little."

The Pink Sun Rise Diamond

Famed diamond cutter Gabi Tolkowsky pays homage to his 273.85-carat Centenary with the Pink Sun Rise, a 29.78-carat diamond with a design similar to the Centenary's. The diamond is a rare, flawless pink and was cut by Tolkowsky and his team of master craftsmen. Tolkowsky is also famed for cutting the largest diamond in the world, the Golden Jubilee

The Peacock Diamond

With the purchase of this unusual, 20.65-carat Fancy Intense Yellow, IF clarity (internally flawless) diamond by C.D.Peacock, Chicago's premier jewelry store plans to try to change the way people in America think about fancy colored diamonds -- many people still don't even know there is such a thing as a fancy colored diamond.

According to Ray Perlman, a consultant to C.D. Peacock and former Chairman of the Board of the New York Diamond Dealers Club, most people have no idea that diamonds occur in a color other than colorless (white). Yet, notes Perlman, when asked to identify the world's most famous diamonds, most people will name the Hope Diamond which is Fancy Dark grayish-blue, and the Tiffany Yellow which is golden yellow. It is also true that some fancy colored diamonds have been valued higher than colorless diamonds of the same size. Take for instance the 0.95-carat fancy red round brilliant that set the world record, price-per-carat for diamonds. It went for $880,000 at Christies NYC. That comes to about $926,000 per carat. But then again, red and purple diamonds are the two rarest colors. The stone is now called the Hancock Red.

The Paragon Diamond

Graff was running this ad around Christmas
of 1999. With a hand in the photo for scale,
it gives you a good idea how large the stone is.



This very unusual 7-sided diamond is known as the Paragon, and weighs 137.82 carats. The Graff Diamond Co. of London cut the gem, and is its current owner. The necklace has a diamond carat weight of 190.27 carats, and separates to both necklace and bracelet lengths. The piece features Fancy Intense blue, yellow and pink diamonds along with the Paragon Diamond, a 137.82-carat D-color Flawless diamond, evolved unmistakably into Graff's creation for the Millennium.

The Ashberg Diamond

It is said that this amber-colored, cushion-shaped diamond weighing 102.48 carats, was formerly part of the Russian Crown Jewels. It must have been a late addition to that collection because the stone bears all the characteristics of one from South Africa. In 1934 the Russian Trade Delegation sold the diamond to Mr. Ashberg, a leading Stockholm banker. The Stockholm firm of Bolin, former Crown Jewellers to the Court of St. Petersburg, mounted it as a pendant. In 1949 the Ashberg was displayed, mounted in a necklace containing diamonds and other gemstones, at the Amsterdam Exhibition, the aim of which was to attract new workers to the diamond industry.

Ten years later the Bukowski auction house in Stockholm put the Ashberg up for sale but it failed to reach its reserve and was withdraw. Then its owner succeeded in selling the gem to a private buyer whose name was not revealed. Finally, in May, 1981, Christies auctioned the diamond in Geneva where once again it failed to reach its reserve and was withdrawn.

The ArcotsDiamond

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.

The Archduke Joseph Diamond

This 76.45-carat diamond gets its name from from Archduke Joseph August (1872-1962), a previous owner of the gem and a prince of the Hungarian line of the Hapsburg dynasty. The Archduke was a descendant of the Emperor Leopold II, son of Empress Maria Theresa who owned the famous Florentine Diamond, one of the most notable and unique diamonds in history and an heirloom of the Hapsburgs for many years. But whereas the Florentine was unusually large for an Indian diamond and light yellow in color, the Archduke Joseph is a colorless diamond; it possesses the most notable characteristic of the best Golconda diamonds, namely a high internal clarity. Thus its D-color certification. It is cut in a rectangular cushion shape, perhaps a style of cutting that is not entirely unfitting with its Indian origin.