The most desired diamonds in history
carbon treasures
Diamonds, the purest and most precious gems, have fascinated humanity for centuries and have contributed to writing history, causing wars, conquests and betrayals
🖼️ Diamonds with history
Eva Millett
The history of the great diamonds begins in India. Until the discovery of diamonds in Brazil, in 1725, most of these gems came from there. Some of the most important were found in the riverbeds and mines of the subcontinent: priceless stones, capable of bringing their owners to power and ruin.
Because in ancient India diamonds were not only considered a treasure but also talismans. Semi-divine objects, which had been in contact with the gods. Among the great diamonds, none is as famous as the Koh-i-Noor (Mountain of Light), whose long and exciting history mixes myth and reality.
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Rafael BladeIn the mid-19th century, he wrote a report on the gem before it was shipped to England. Metcalfe's loose data has survived, prompting Dalrymple and Anand to revise the Koh-i-Noor story.
The Mountain of Light that could satisfy hunger
The book ensures that the first possible mention of it dates back to the 16th century, in the diary of Prince Babur, founder of the Mughal Empire of India. After defeating the Sultan of Delhi, in 1526, Babur mentions "an extraordinary diamond" that was part of the spoils of war and that would have belonged to the Sultan Alaudin. “It is estimated that its value is equivalent to two and a half days of food for all the men of the world,” wrote the future emperor.
From that moment on, the great diamond (which did not yet have a name) is linked to the Mughals. A powerful and sophisticated dynasty, for which jewels were a symbol of power. The Mughals were literally covered in jewels and had a special fondness for red stones: sapphires and spinels.
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Rafael BladeThere it remained until, in 1738, another warrior king, Nader Shah, the Persian Napoleon, decided to invade India to seize the Mughal treasure. His methods were as effective as they were ruthless and resulted in the looting of Delhi and the royal coffers. Nader triumphantly returned to Persia with the peacock throne, the Koh-i-Noor, named after Nader, and the Timur ruby.
The biggest pink diamond
He also carried another important Mughal diamond: the Darya-i-Noor, or Sea of Light. A delicate pale pink and weighing 186 carats, it came from the rich mines of Golconda in India. Considered the largest pink diamond in the world, it remains the most important jewel in the Iranian Crown Treasury. The last Shah, Reza Pahlavi, even wore it on his military cap.
The Darya-i-Noor is kept in the National Bank of Tehran. It never left Persia, unlike the Koh-i-Noor, which would still take a few turns before reaching its current destination: the Tower of London, where it is displayed with the British Crown Jewels.
In his battles, Ahmad Khan Abdali wore the precious stones in two bracelets; gave him an aura of divinity
After the fall of Nader Shah in Persia, the diamond traveled – along with the Timur ruby – to present-day Afghanistan. He did it thanks to a faithful general of the shah, Ahmad Khan Abdali, who was entrusted with the gems. That treasure helped him found the Durrani dynasty, the second most important Muslim empire at the time after the Ottoman. In his battles, he wore the precious stones in two bracelets; They gave him an aura of divinity.
Like so many Koh-i-Noor owners, Ahmad Khan Abdali's life was tragic. He died in 1772, eaten away by a hideous skin disease. In 1800, the diamond passed into the hands of a Sikh warrior, the revered Maharaja Ranjit Singh, known as "the Lion" and founder of the kingdom of Punjab.
But both the kingdom and the diamond that was guarded there were coveted by the British, in full expansion in India. Consequently, after a series of battles, plots and assassinations, in 1848 the last living descendant of the Lion of Punjab, the boy Maharaja Duleep Singh, was forced to surrender his kingdom and cede to Queen Victoria "the most valuable object not only of the Punjab, but of the entire subcontinent: the Koh-i-Noor”, according to Dalrymple and Anand.
The Koh-i-Noor was not the only great Mughal diamond to come into royal hands in Europe. The same thing happened to another fascinating stone, the Orlov, which disappeared after Nader Shah's sack of Delhi.
Rich people cry too
The origins of the Orlov are also mixed with myths (it was said that it adorned the eye of a goddess), but its first historical record is found in 1665, by the Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a merchant and adventurer sent by the king Louis XIV to India to provide him with precious stones.
Tavernier was one of the few Westerners to have access to the Mughal treasure chamber. There, attended by the royal treasurer and four guardian eunuchs, he was shown some of the most important jewels. Among them, a huge diamond stood out, known as the "Great Mogul", which experts identify as the Orlov.
It is kept in the Kremlin Museum, along with the Russian Crown Jewels. He got there thanks to Count Grigori Orlov, lover and political ally of Catherine the Great. The nobleman paid a fortune for him. He hoped that this gift would reconcile him with the empress, already tired of her charms. Catherine gladly accepted the present and set it on her royal scepter, but she kept Orlov away from court. He had gone into enormous debt from the purchase of the diamond and died, poor and insane, in a Russian asylum in 1783.
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Ana Echeverria AristoguiThe history of the blue Tavernier then becomes a merry-go-round of owners, who acquire it for an enormous amount, go bankrupt and sell it. Among them, King George IV of England, whose descendants quietly sold it after his death in 1830. Its next known owner was the wealthy collector Henry Philip Hope, after whom it was named.
The last private owner of it was the American millionaire Evalyn Walsh, who bought it in 1910. The Hope became part of her valuable jewelry collection, which was auctioned in 1949. Today it is exhibited in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington .
engagement rings
Evalyn Walsh was not the only American millionaires crazy about diamonds. When, in the 1930s, the marketing department of mighty De Beers invented the tradition of the engagement ring, diamond fever swept America. And the rich heiresses competed to have the best.
No one could, however, emulate Barbara Hutton, compulsive collector and owner of the Pasha: a diamond of almost forty carats, slightly octagonal, considered the best jewel in the Egyptian royal treasure. But the millionaire did not like her shape, and she had it recarved and mounted in a spectacular ring that she wore until her death, in 1979.
The Florentine is an emblem in a subcategory within diamonds: that of the great lost diamonds
Because of their rarity, colored diamonds have also been highly coveted throughout history. But none like the Florentine, a fabulous yellow stone, also of Indian origin. Its history is also riddled with legends, such as, for example, that it belonged to Charles, the warrior duke of Burgundy (1433-1477), who would have lost it during a battle, where he wore it as an amulet.
However, its European origins date back to the Portuguese presence in Goa. From there, the diamond traveled to Europe, where Ferdinand de' Medici acquired it through the Jesuits in Rome. Its presence at the Florentine court was confirmed by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier in 1657. The dealer drew it, noting that, at 137 carats, it was the largest diamond in Europe.
In 1743 the Florentine became the property of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria through her husband Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany. The stone was part of the royal treasury, but after World War I and the collapse of the Empire, the Habsburgs took it into exile in Switzerland. There his track was lost, which made him the emblem of a subcategory within the great diamonds: that of the great lost diamonds.
A diamond in a shoe
Lost for decades was the Jacob, another colored diamond that, despite its South African origin, ended up being part of the treasure of the nizams of Hyderabad, India. The nizams, emblem of the Muslim aristocracy and whose ancestors had served the Mughals, also had an inordinate passion for jewelry.
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Rafael BladeDiamonds have always been linked to the aristocracy. Therefore, it makes sense that Hollywood divas, the queens of the 20th century, would also treasure them. Among them, Elizabeth Taylor stands out, owner of the Taylor-Burton, a large teardrop-shaped diamond, found in the extremely rich Cullinan mine in South Africa, in 1966.
At 69.42 carats, it was a gift from her husband, Richard Burton. Taylor wore the jewel as only she could, although she sold it after divorcing Burton for the second time. Some of her money went to build a hospital in Botswana.
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