Womens Jewelry

This is a multi part article and is strictly for educational purposes.

Darya-I-Nur

Darya-I-Nur diamond is believed to be the largest pink diamond in the world. The stone is estimated to weigh somewhere between 175 and 195 carats, and it is a light pink color. Its exact weight isn’t known because its been mounted in its brooch setting for over 130 years. This stone is one of the most celebrated diamonds in the Iranian Crown Jewels and it is also one of the oldest stones known to man.

De Beers Diamond

The De Beers weights 234.65 carats and is the seventh largest faceted diamond in the world. It was found in the De Beers Consolidated Mine in March 1888. Prior to being cut the diamond weighed 428.50 carats. It was centerpiece of a ceremonial necklace known as the Patiala Necklace in 1928. In 1973 the necklace disappeared and then the remnants was discovered in a jewelry shop in London in 1998 with most of the large stone missing. The De Beers Diamond was sold in 1982 for $3,160,000.

De Young Red Diamond

The De Young Red is a 5.03 carat red diamond and is considered as the third largest in the world. This diamond is not really pure red. This stone has a slightly brown hue which makes it look like a fine garnet that ruby-like. Since this diamond has very unique color, this was once sold at an estate sale as a red garnet. Luckily, this fine piece of precious stone was later on recovered and identified to be a very rare red diamond. At present, the De Young Red is under the custody of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC and often figured in exhibits in that museum.

Unlike the Type I diamonds that derived their color from impurities imbedded in the diamond, Red diamonds are considered a Type II and get their color from a process known as Plastic Deformation. They get their coloration due to structural anomalies caused by Plastic Deformation during the crystal growth. The intense pressure changes the lattice structure of diamonds and has led to the formation of Pink, Red, and Brown colored diamonds…. Famous Diamonds continue …

The Beau Sancy

Also called The Little Sancy is a rounded pear shaped and weights about 34 carats and has been confused with its counter part called The Sancy which is 54 carats. This diamond was bought by Prince Frederick Henry of Orange the grandfather of King Fredrick I of Prussia, who died in the year 1647. The Beau Sancy is now in the possession of the head of the house of Hohenzollern, Prince Louis-Ferdinand of Prussia, grandson of William II, the last Emperor of Germany

The Beluga

The Beluga diamond weighs over 103 carats and is the largest standard oval brilliant cut diamond in the world. This diamond was featured in an article about Blood Diamonds in the March 2002 issue of National geographic magazine.

The Black Orlov

The Blace Orlov is said to have derived its name from the Russian Princess Nadia Vyegin-Orlov who owned it during the mid 1800s. It is a cushion cut stone weighing 76.50 carats and is a very dark gun metal color. It has also been rumored to have been cut from a 195 carat stone that belonged to a shrine near Pondicherry, India in the 1900s. There is no evidence of a Russian princess by that name nor has India ever produced any large black diamonds of note. In 1969, the stone was sold for $300,000.

The Blue Empress

The Blue Empress is a rare blue pear shaped diamond that weights about 14 carats and is part of a necklace valued at around $16,000,000. The necklace is made from 18K white gold with smaller white diamonds surrounding the blue empress.

The Blue Heart

This diamond weights 30.82 carats and is of a rare deep blue color. In 1910 Cartier purchased the diamond and sold it to an Argentinean woman named Mrs. Unzue. Van Cleef & Arpels bought the stone in 1953 for an estimated $300,000. The Blue Empress is on exhibit in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. Along with the Hope diamond and the Heart of Eternity, it is one of the world most famous blue diamonds…. World Famous Diamonds continue …

Agra Diamond

The first recorded history of the Agra Diamond in 1526 when Babur the first Mogul emperor was reported to have received the diamond from the family of the slain Raja of Agar. Many stories surround the diamond from the mid 1500 to 1891 including one story where a horse was forced to swallow the diamond so it could be smuggled out of India to England. None of the stories can be validated until 1891 when the diamond was documented to be in the position of Edwin Streeter.

Today the Agra Diamond has been graded as a naturally colored Fancy Light Pink and weighs 28.15 carats. It was last sold for about $6,900.000 to the SIBA Corporation of Hong Kong.

Ahmadabad

The Ahmadabad Diamond is named after the capitol of the Indian State of Gujarat and it is believed to have been purchased by a French gem merchant called Jean Baptiste Tavernier in the 1600s. The Ahmadabad Diamond has been graded by the GIA a D-color and weighs 78.86 carats, and is cut in an antique-pear shape. It was purchased in1995 by Robert Mouawad, for $4,324,554.

Allnatt

This 101.29-carat cushion cut its color having been certified by the GIA as Fancy Vivid Yellow, VS2 clarity, is named after its former owner, Alfred Ernest Allnatt.

The American Star

The EightStar company of California wanted to prove that optical perfection of the round brilliant diamonds could be obtained by using an exclusive light-tracking instrument called a FireScope which allows a diamond cutter to align facets so precisely that the flow of light into and out of a diamonds can be completely controlled. In 2001 this diamond was slowly cut from 14.89 to 13.42 carats over a six-week period. The key to a beautiful diamond is by cutting the diamond for maximum light output and not size and in the case of the American Star this was achieved.

The Amsterdam - No Picture

The Amsterdam is reported to be a synthetic black diamond weighing 33.74 carats and is completely black. It was sold in 2001 for $352.000 setting a world record for the highest price paid for a black diamond.

The Archduke Joseph

Named after the Archduke Joseph August of the Hapsburg dynasty is a 76.45 carat diamond from India. It was sold in Geneva in November of 1993, for $6,487,945.

The Arcots

Named after the town of Arcots the diamonds were reported to have been given to Queen Charlotte in 1777 by Nawab of Arcot. The largest was 38.6 carats and was re-cut in 1959 to 30.99 carats and the smaller was re-cut to 18.85 carats to gain greater clarity and brilliance. They largest of the Arcots was set in a pendant and later sold in 1993 to Sheik Ahmed Hassan Fitaihi, the Saudi Arabian dealer…. World Famous Diamonds continue …