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Bianca
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« on: August 28, 2007, 07:35:27 am »








                                         Miners unearth world's biggest diamond





· South African find is twice as big as the Cullinan
· Expert predicts feverish bidding on huge stone




David Beresford in Johannesburg and Lee Glendinning
Tuesday August 28, 2007
The Guardian


The 203 carat Millennium Star is the second biggest flawless diamond. The newly found stone could produce a stone even bigger.
 
The world's biggest diamond, believed to be twice the size of the Cullinan, has been discovered in the North-West Province of South Africa. The find has electrified the diamond community, but the circumstances of the discovery are shrouded in mystery.

The diamond is expected to attract furious bidding from buyers worldwide and could fetch up to £15m.

A spokesman for the mining house which made yesterday's find, Brett Joli, said the diamond was being rushed to a bank vault in Johannesburg and would be kept there for a couple of days "until we calm down and decide what we are going to do". A security company was being hired to protect the precious stone.
« Last Edit: October 08, 2007, 10:05:45 am by Bianca2001 » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #1 on: August 28, 2007, 07:40:56 am »





The mining company which made the find has not been identified.

The South Africa Broadcasting Corporation said the stone was said to be twice the size of the Cullinan diamond.

Fred Cuellar, the founder of Diamond Cutters International and author of How to Buy a Diamond, said he first heard about the find a few days ago. "I get a phone call when any rare stone around the world is found and when I heard about this one it was stunning news.

"It caught everybody in the diamond industry offside. There will be a lot of mad bidding from a lot of private individuals as to who is going to buy this stone."

The Cullinan, which was found near Pretoria more than a century ago, was until recently acknowledged to be the
 


largest cut diamond in the world, weighing in at 530.20 carats. In 1985 it lost the record to the Golden Jubilee, which was found in the same mine as the Cullinan and weighed 545.67 carats.

The Golden Jubilee

Weight 545.67 carats (109.13 g)
Color Yellow-Brown
Cut Fire Rose Cushion
Country of origin South Africa
Mine of origin Premier Mine
Date discovered 1985
Cut by Gabi Tolkowsky
Original owner De Beers
Current owner King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand
Estimated value Unknown
For the event of a fiftieth anniversary, see Golden Jubilee.

The Golden Jubilee is currently the largest faceted diamond in the world. Since 1908, Cullinan I, also known as the Great Star of Africa, had held the title, which changed following the 1985 discovery of a large brown diamond of 546 carats (151 g) in the prolific blue ground of the Premier mine in South Africa; the diamond would later be cut and named The Golden Jubilee, with an as-of today unsurpassed weight of 545.67 carats (109.13 g).

The "Unnamed Brown", as the Golden Jubilee was first known, was considered something of an ugly duckling by most. It was given to Gabriel Arellano (DCW) by De Beers for the purpose of testing special tools and cutting methods which had been developed for intended use on the flawless D-colour ("colourless") Centenary. These tools and methods had never been tested before, and the "Unnamed Brown" seemed the perfect guinea pig; it would be of no great loss should something go amiss.

To the surprise of all concerned, what resulted was a yellow-brown diamond in a fire rose cushion cut, outweighing Cullinan I by 15.37 carats (3.07 g). The stone remained largely unknown to the outside world, as the Golden Jubilee's sister, the Centenary, had already been selected and promoted to herald De Beer's centennial celebrations in 1988.

The unnamed diamond had earlier been brought to Thailand by the Thai Diamond Manufacturers Association to be exhibited in the Thai Board of Investment Exhibition in Laem Chabang. There was a mile-long queue to see the diamond, which outshone all other exhibits.

While the current whereabouts of the Centenary are unknown, the Golden Jubilee is known to have been purchased from De Beers by a group led by Henry Ho of Thailand in 1995. The diamond was brought to the late Pope John Paul II in the Vatican to receive the papal blessing. It was also blessed by the Supreme Buddhist Patriarch and the Supreme Imam in Thailand. The Golden Jubilee Diamond was named by King Bhumibol Adulyadej and given to him in honour of his 50th coronation anniversary. It was initially planned to mount the Golden Jubilee in the royal scepter. A subsequent plan was to have it mounted in a royal seal.

The Golden Jubilee Diamond has been exhibited at Henry Ho's 59-story Jewelry Trade Center in Bangkok, the Central Department Store in Lard Prao, Thailand, and internationally in Basel (Switzerland), Borsheims in Omaha, USA (owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc.), and Gleims Jewelers in Palo Alto, USA. It is now located in the Royal Thai Palace as part of the crown jewels.




In its rough state the Cullinan weighed 3,106.75 carats. It now forms part of King Edward's sceptre and is in the Tower of London.

The Cartier diamond, famous as a gift from Richard Burton to Elizabeth Taylor, weighed a mere 240.80 carats rough and 69.42 carats cut.

Mr Cuellar said the most important information about the latest find was yet to be forthcoming, including whether it is colourless. "The reported size of the stone is accurate, but there are all these other factors we still don't know and what matters now is how wide, how clear and how well cut it will be.

"Will this diamond rank above the best quality diamonds in the world? I can tell you right now, no. But in as far as the list of the largest diamonds ever found in the world goes, would it make that list? Yes it would."

He said the first seven people who looked at the stone thought it was industrial grade, but that view has changed and it now appears to be a stone that will be cut into a piece of jewellery.

The quandary facing the owner of the diamond now is how best to cut the stone he said. "The thinking usually is with these types of things, we know how big we could get it but we don't know how much it will hurt us on the quality side."

The Cullinan, also known as the Star of Africa, was thought by some to be part of a larger stone which still lies somewhere undiscovered.

There will be interest in who made the find and how they will be rewarded. The black miner who discovered the Excelsior, said to be the second largest uncut diamond ever found, received a horse and saddle, and a sum of money.





ROCK STARS





· The Cullinan Diamond was discovered in 1905 and at 3,106 carats was the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found. Cullinan I, or the Great Star of Africa - at 530 carats formerly the largest cut diamond - was one of the 105 gems cut from it.

· The Koh-i-noor is part of the British crown jewels. It originated in India but seized by Britain as a spoil of war in 1849. The diamond supposedly brings good luck to female owners and misfortune or death to any male who wears or owns it.

· The Hope Diamond is a large (45.52 carat), deep blue diamond. It is legendary for the curse it supposedly puts on whoever possesses it. Previous owners include Kings Louis XV and XVI and Marie Antoinette.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/southafrica/story/0,,2157446,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12
« Last Edit: August 28, 2007, 08:40:07 pm by Bianca2001 » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #2 on: August 28, 2007, 07:52:54 am »








The Eureka Diamond
As one of the first major diamonds found in South Africa, this stone had been appropriately named. In 1867, a boy found a pebble near the banks of the Orange River. A month later a neighbor offered to buy it; his mother refused payment and gave the stone to him. Later the 21 carat rough was cut into this 10.73 brilliant.
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« Reply #3 on: August 28, 2007, 07:55:53 am »








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.
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« Reply #4 on: August 28, 2007, 08:00:44 am »








The Niarchos
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.
« Last Edit: August 28, 2007, 08:04:28 am by Bianca2001 » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #5 on: August 28, 2007, 08:06:20 am »








Kimberly Diamond
Originally a 490-carat rough, this champagne colored stone named after the Kimberly Mine in South Africa, was cut to 70 carats in 1921, and to its current emerald shape in 1958. The Kimberly was widely exhibited until it was sold to an undisclosed collector from Texas in 1971.
« Last Edit: August 28, 2007, 08:07:27 am by Bianca2001 » Report Spam   Logged

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« Reply #6 on: August 28, 2007, 08:08:55 am »





The Kahn Canary
Unearthed in Crater of Diamonds State Park, near Murfreesboro, Arkansas in 1977, the Kahn Canary is considered to be an unnofficial symbol of the state. Bought and named by Stan Kahn of Love Story� jeweler Kahn Jewlers of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, the Kahn Canary has been lent to Hillary Rodham Clinton to wear at all of her husband's inaugurals, both as Governor of Arkansas, and as President of the United States.
Discovered in Crater of Diamonds State Park, near Murfreesboro, Arkansas in 1977, the Kahn Canary is considered to be an unnofficial symbol of the state. Bought and named by Stan Kahn of Kahn Jewlers in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, the Kahn Canary has been lent to Hillary Rodham Clinton to wear at her husband's inaugurals, both as Governor of Arkansas, and as President of the United States.

The Kahn Canary is very rare in comparison to other diamonds. Because of its flawless condition, fairly bright surface and pleasing natural triangular pillow shape (a macle crystal), the it has remained uncut. Its strong yellow color and brilliance impress all those who see it. Because of its natural, uncut form, the Kahn Canary is a perfect example to represent Arkansas, nicknamed "The Natural State".



                       

                        The diamond is presently mounted in a ring
                        custom-designed for Mrs. Clinton for the
                        January, 1993 Inaugural.



The diamond was discovered by George Stepp of Carthage, Arkansas. He later sold the stone to Kahn. Crater of Diamonds State Park is the world's only publicly-owned diamond site where visitors may search for diamonds and other gems and keep what they find, regardless of the value of the stone. It is one of the state's bigger tourist attractions. The park's 36½ acre search area is the eroded surface of a craton -- an ancient gem-bearing volcanic pipe. Besides diamonds, other precious and semi-precious stones are found within the volcanic matrix such as garnet, amethyst, jasper, agate and quartz.
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« Reply #7 on: August 28, 2007, 08:13:14 am »







The Hortensia Diamond
This peach colored stone was named after Hortense de Beauharnais, Queen of Holland, who was Josephine's daughter and the step-daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte. The Hortensia had been part of the French Crown Jewels since Louis XIV bought it. You can see the Hortensia on display in the Louvre, Paris.
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« Reply #8 on: August 28, 2007, 08:16:31 am »








The Idol's Eye Diamond
A flattened pear shaped stone the size of a bantam�s egg. another famous diamond that was once set in the eye of an idol before it was stolen. Legend also had it that it was given as a ransom for Princess Rasheetah by the Sheik of Kashmir to the Sultan of Turkey who had abducted her.
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« Reply #9 on: August 28, 2007, 08:18:58 am »








The Star of Sierra Leone
Shown in the rough above, this diamond is the third largest ever found, and weighed almost half a pound in the rough. The rough was eventually cut into seventeen exquisite invididual diamonds, six of which are now set in the Star of Sierra Leone Brooch.
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« Reply #10 on: August 28, 2007, 08:21:22 am »








The Oppenheimer
This almost perfect yellow crystal was found in the Dutoitspan Mine, Kimberly, South Africa in 1964. It was acquired by Harry Winston, who presented it to the Smithsonian Institution in memory of the late Sir Ernest Oppenheimer of DeBeers Consolidated Mines.
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« Reply #11 on: August 28, 2007, 08:47:32 pm »

                                      
                                       THE CARTIER DIAMOND - AKA BURTON/TAYLOR DIAMOND




Diamonds have no mercy... "They will show up the wearer if they can," says one character in The Sandcastle, an early novel by the famous British author, Iris Murdoch. Now this may be true of some women - usually wearing an outrageously large item of jewelry which imparts a degree of unwholesome vulgarity to themselves - but is it applicable to Elizabeth Taylor? Those well-publicized gifts which she received from her fifth husband, the late Richard Burton, certainly enhance her appearance and do not look out of place on her. A compatibility is established between the jewel and its wearer.

Richard Burton's first jewelry purchase for Elizabeth Taylor was the 33.19-carat Asscher-cut Krupp Diamond, in 1968. This had formerly been part of the estate of Vera Krupp, second wife of the steel magnate Alfred Krupp. Miss Taylor wears this stone in a ring. She has worn it in a number of her post-1968 films, during her interview on CNN's Larry King Live in 2003, and just about everywhere else she goes. Next came the La Peregrina Pearl for which Burton paid £15,000. The stone has a long and complex history. For Elizabeth's 40th birthday in 1972 Richard Burton gave her a heart-shaped diamond known as the Taj-Mahal. The stone is fairly large and flat, with an Arabic inscription on either side. It is set with rubies and diamonds in a yellow gold rope-pattern necklace. "I would have liked to buy her the Taj-Mahal," he remarked, "but it would cost too much to transport. This diamond has so many carats, its almost a turnip." Then he added, "Diamonds are an investment. When people no longer want to see Liz and I on the screen, then we can sell off a few baubles."

By the far the best known of Richard Burton's purchases was the 69.42-carat pear-shape, later to be called the Taylor-Burton Diamond. It was cut from a rough stone weighing 240.80 carats found in the Premier Mine in 1966 and subsequently bought by Harry Winston. Here there is a coincidence: Eight years before, another cleavage of almost identical weight (240.74 carats) had been found in the Premier. Harry Winston bought this stone too, commenting at the time, "I don't think there have been half a dozen stones in the world of this quality." This wouldn't be the first time the Premier Mine would have the last word because the 69.42-carat gem cut from the later discovery is a D-color Flawless stone.

After the rough piece of 240.80 carats arrived in New York, Harry Winston and his cleaver, Pastor Colon Jr. studied it for six months. Markings were made, erased and redrawn to show where the stone could be cleaved. There came the day appointed for the cleaving, and in this instance the usual tension that surrounds such an operation was increased by the heat and glare of the television lights that had been allowed into the workroom. After he had cleaved the stone, the 50-year-old cleaver said nothing -- he reached across the workbench for the piece of diamond that had seperated from it and looked at it through his horn-rimmed glasses for a fraction of a second before exclaiming "Beautiful!" This piece of rough weighed 78 carats was expected to yield a stone of about 24 carats, while the large piece, weighing 162 carats, was destined to produce a pear shape whose weight had originally been expected to be about 75 carats.

Elizabeth Taylor wearing the Taylor-Burton Diamond in a necklace
by Cartier featuring a number of smaller pear-shaped diamonds.
The stone's first owner after Harry Winston wasn't actually Elizabeth Taylor. In 1967 Winston sold the pear shape to Mrs. Harriet Annenberg Ames, the sister of Walter Annenberg, the American ambassador in London during the Richard Nixon administration. Two years later, she sent the diamond to Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York to be auctioned explaining her decision with this statement: "I found myself positively cringing and keeping my gloves on for fear it would have been seen, I have always been an extremely gregarious person and I did not enjoy that feeling. It sat in a bank vault for years. It seemed foolish to keep it if one could not use it. As things are in New York one could not possibly wear it publicly." One might argue the stone was too large to be worn in a ring, let alone in public.

The diamond was put up for auction on October 23rd, 1969, on the understanding that it could be named by the buyer. Before the sale speculation was prevailing as to who was going to bid for the gem, with the usual international names being kicked around by the columnists. Elizabeth Taylor was one name among them and she did indeed have a preview of the diamond when it was flown to Switzerland for her to have a look at, then back to NYC under precautions described as "unusual".

An illustration of the Taylor-Burton set in a necklace containing
several hundred small round brilliants and a marquise shape.
The auctioneer began the bidding by asking if anyone would offer $200,000, at which the crowded room erupted with a simultaneous "Yes". Bidding began to climb, and with nine bidders active, rushed to $500,000. At $500,000 the individual bids increased in $10,000 increments. At $650,000 only two bidders remained. When the bidding reached $1,000,000, Al Yugler of Frank Pollack, who was representing Richard Burton, dropped out. Pandemonium broke out when the hammer fell and everyone in the room stood up, resulting in the auctioneer not being able to identify who won, and he had to call for order. The winner was Robert Kenmore, the Chairman of the Board of Kenmore Corporation, the owners of Cartier Inc., who paid the record price of $1,050,000 for the gem, which he promptly named the 'Cartier'. The previous record for a jewel had been $305,000 for a diamond necklace from the Rovensky estate in 1957. A diamond, known as the Rovensky (actually thought to possibly be the Excelsior III Diamond), attached to the necklace weighed approximately 46.50 carats. It appeared in an article about diamonds in the April 1958 issue of National Geographic magazine, along with the Niarchos, Nepal, and Tiffany Yellow.

As well as Richard Burton, Harry Winston had also been an under-bidder at the sale. But Burton was not finished yet and was determined to acquire the diamond. So, speaking from a pay-phone of a well-known hotel in southern England, he spoke to Mr. Kenmore's agent. Sandwiched between the lounge bar and the saloon, Burton negotiated for the gem while continually dropping coins into the phone. Patrons quietly sipping their drinks would have heard the actor's loud tones exclaiming "I don't care how much it is; go and buy it." In the end Robert Kenmore agreed to sell it, but on the condition that Cartier was able to display it, by now named the Taylor-Burton, in New York and Chicago. He did not deny that Cartier made a profit, stating "We're businessmen and we're happy that Miss Taylor is happy."

More than 6000 people a day flocked to Cartier's New York store to see the Taylor-Burton, the crowds stretching down the block. But an article in the New York Times was distinctly sour on the subject. Under the headline of 'The Million Dollar Diamond' appeared the following comment:

"The peasants have been lining up outside Cartier's this week to gawk at a diamond as big as the Ritz that cost well over a million dollars. It is destined to hang around the neck of Mrs. Richard Burton. As someone said, it would have been nice to wear in the tumbril [a farm cart for carrying dung; carts of this type were used to carry prisoners to the guillotine during the French Revolution] on the way to the guillotine."

Shortly afterwards on November 12th, Miss Taylor wore the Taylor-Burton in public for the first time when she attended Princess Grace's 40th birthday party in Monaco. It was flown from New York to Nice, Italy in the company of two armed guards hired by Burton and Cartier. In 1978, following her divorce from Richard Burton, Miss Taylor announced that she was putting the diamond up for sale and was planning to use part of the proceeds to build a hospital in Botswana. In June of 1979 Henry Lambert, the New York jeweler, stated that he had bought the Taylor-Burton Diamond for $5,000,000.

By December he had sold the stone to its present owner, Robert Mouawad. Soon after, Mr. Mouawad had the stone slightly recut and it now weighs 68.09 carats. Before the recutting, the curved half of the stone's girdle had a very round outline, it is now a little more straight at that end. It also had a small culet, which was made even smaller after the recut. Sources: Famous Diamonds by Ian Balfour and My Love Affair With Jewelry by Elizabeth Taylor.
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« Reply #12 on: August 28, 2007, 08:54:46 pm »



THE KRUPP DIAMOND

The Krupp last sold at Sotheby's on May 16th, 1968, for $305,000, to Elizabeth Taylor. The stone weighs 33.19 carats and is mounted in a ring. She wears it nearly every day and in every film since acquiring it; it was even animated into her special guest appearance on The Simpsons. Taylor is seen polishing her Academy Awards, we see her eye reflect, blinking, on the stone's facets.




Elizabeth Taylor also owned a 69.4-carat pear shaped, D-color, Interally Flawless diamond. It came up for auction at Sotheby's on October 23, 1969. At the sale, Cartier outbid Richard Burton who was bidding over the phone, but he later negotiated with them to the record breaking tune of $1,050,000 for the stone. When the stone changed hands, it was set in a ring. It was named the Taylor-Burton Diamond and mounted as a pendent on a $25,000 necklace by Harry Winston. There also was unprecedented publicity around this sale. In 1978, Elizabeth Taylor sold the stone, and the proceeds went to help build a hospital in Botswana, Africa. Sometime later that year Robert Mouawad purchased it.





                         

                          ELISABETH TAYLOR WEARING THE KRUPP DIAMOND

                                         
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« Reply #13 on: August 28, 2007, 09:17:03 pm »



               
                                THE CENTENARY DIAMOND


The diamond Jubilee of De Beers Consolidated Mines passed off quietly in 1948, the massive post-WWII growth and expansion of the diamond industry had barely begun, while several important sources of diamonds, including the Premier Mine, were still closed, while others remained to be discovered. Forty years later the annual output of diamonds exceeded 100 million carats and sales of rough diamonds reached around $5 billion.

On March 11th, 1988, the centenary celebrations of De Beers took place in Kimberly and a banquet was held to close the Kimberly Mine (aka the "Big Hole"). An audience of four hundred people, including representatives of several national governments of diamond-producing countries and dignitaries from various sections of the industry, listened to the welcoming speech of the chairman, Julian Oglivie Thompson, totally unprepared for his final sentence: "We have recovered at the Premier Mine a diamond of 599 carats which is perfect in color - indeed it is one of the largest top-color diamonds ever found. Naturally it will be called the Centenary Diamond."





                         
                                The Centenary, appearing to be lit by multi-colored lights.




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« Reply #14 on: August 28, 2007, 09:26:52 pm »









No more fitting way of celebrating 100 years of achievement by De Beers could have been devised than the discovery of such a diamond and nowhere was it more likely to have been recovered than at the Premier Mine.

Over the years this extraordinary mine has produced several outstanding diamonds of the most superb color, which have been cut into famous gems: The Cullinan in 1905; the Niarchos in 1954; the Taylor-Burton in 1966 and the Premier Rose in 1978. Now that the second millennium has ended, it is interesting to reflect that only nineteen gem-quality diamonds larger than the Centenary rough have been found during its course. The Premier Mine itself has produced nearly three hundred stones weighing more than 100 carats, and a quarter of the world's diamonds weighing more than 400 carats.

The Centenary was found on July 17th, 1986 by the electric X-ray recovery system at the Premier Mine. Only a handful of people knew about it and all were sworn to silence. In its rough form it resembled an irregular matchbox with angular planes, a prominent elongated "horn" jutting out at one corner and a deep concave on the largest flat surface. The shape of the stone expressed problems in cutting with no apparent solution.

The man chosen to evaluate the Centenary was Gabi Tolkowsky, famed in the diamond industry as one of the most accomplished cutters in the world. His family had long been in the diamond trade and it was his great-uncle, Marcel Tolkowsky, diamond expert and mathmetician, who published a book in 1919 titled "Diamond Design", which for the first time set out exact ways of cutting the modern round brilliant cut.

Gabi Tolkowsky himself was the creator of five new diamond cuts, revealed in 1988, which concentrate on maximizing brilliance, color or yield - or a combination of all three from off-color rough diamonds previously thought difficult to cut profitably into conventional round or fancy shapes. Named for flowers, the cuts are largely based on unorthodox angle dimensions. The overall proportions as well as the use of more facets around the pavilion increase brilliance and improve visual impact when viewed face-up.
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