A large stone found in the Golconda mines and said to have weighed 787
carats in the rough, before being cut by a Venetian lapidary, was seen
in the treasury of Aurangzeb in 1665 by Tavernier, who estimated its
weight after cutting as 280 (?) carats, and described it as a rounded
rose-cut-stone, tall on one side. The name _Great Mogul_ has been
frequently applied to this stone. Tavernier states that it was the
famous stone given to Shah Jahan by the emir Jumla. The _Orloff_, stolen
by a French soldier from the eye of an idol in a Brahmin temple, stolen
again from him by a ship's captain, was bought by Prince Orloff for
L90,000, and given to the empress Catharine II. It weighs 194-3/4 carats,
is of a somewhat yellow tinge, and is among the Russian crown jewels.
The _Koh-i-nor_, which was in 1739 in the possession of Nadir Shah, the
Persian conqueror, and in 1813 in that of the raja of Lahore, passed
into the hands of the East India Company and was by them presented to
Queen Victoria in 1850. It then weighed 186-1/16 carats, but was recut in
London by Amsterdam workmen, and now weighs 106-1/16 carats. There has
been much discussion concerning the possibility of this stone and the
Orloff being both fragments of the Great Mogul. The Mogul Baber in his
memoirs (1526) relates how in his conquest of India he captured at Agra
the great stone weighing 8 mishkals, or 320 ratis, which may be
equivalent to about 187 carats. The Koh-i-nor has been identified by
some authors with this stone and by others with the stone seen by
Tavernier. Tavernier, however, subsequently described and sketched the
diamond which he saw as shaped like a bisected egg, quite different
therefore from the Koh-i-nor. Nevil Story Maskelyne has shown reason for
believing that the stone which Tavernier saw was really the Koh-i-nor
and that it is identical with the great diamond of Baber; and that the
280 carats of Tavernier is a misinterpretation on his part of the Indian
weights. He suggests that the other and larger diamond of antiquity
which was given to Shah Jahan may be one which is now in the treasury of
Teheran, and that this is the true Great Mogul which was confused by
Tavernier with the one he saw. (See Ball, Appendix I. to Tavernier's
_Travels_ (1889); and Maskelyne, _Nature_, 1891, 44, p. 555.).
The _Regent_ or _Pitt_ diamond is a magnificent stone found in either
India or Borneo; it weighed 410 carats and was bought for L20,400 by
Pitt, the governor of Madras; it was subsequently, in 1717, bought for
L80,000 (or, according to some authorities, L135,000) by the duke of
Orleans, regent of France; it was reduced by cutting to 1361-4/16 carats;
was stolen with the other crown jewels during the Revolution, but was
recovered and is still in France. The _Akbar Shah_ was originally a
stone of 116 carats with Arabic inscriptions engraved upon it; after
being cut down to 71 carats it was bought by the gaikwar of Baroda for
L35,000. The _Nizam_, now in the possession of the nizam of Hyderabad,
is supposed to weigh 277 carats; but it is only a portion of a stone
which is said to have weighed 440 carats before it was broken. The
_Great Table_, a rectangular stone seen by Tavernier in 1642 at
Golconda, was found by him to weigh 242-3/16 carats; Maskelyne regards it
as identical with the _Darya-i-nur_, which is also a rectangular stone
weighing about 186 carats in the possession of the shah of Persia.
Another stone, the _Taj-e-mah_, belonging to the shah, is a pale rose
pear-shaped stone and is said to weigh 146 carats.
Other famous Indian diamonds are the following:--The _Sancy_, weighing
531-2/16 carats, which is said to have been successively the property of
Charles the Bold, de Sancy, Queen Elizabeth, Henrietta Maria, Cardinal
Mazarin, Louis XIV.; to have been stolen with the Pitt during the French
Revolution; and subsequently to have been the property of the king of
Spain, Prince Demidoff and an Indian prince. The _Nassak_, 78-5/8 carats,
the property of the duke of Westminster. The _Empress Eugenie_, 51
carats, the property of the gaikwar of Baroda. The _Pigott_, 49
carats(?), which cannot now be traced. The _Pasha_, 40 carats. The
_White Saxon_, 48-3/4 carats. The _Star of Este_, 251-3/32 carats.
Coloured Indian diamonds of large size are rare; the most famous are:--a
beautiful blue brilliant, 67-2/16 carats, cut from a stone weighing
112-3/16 carats brought to Europe by Tavernier. It was stolen from the
French crown jewels with the Regent and was never recovered. The _Hope_,
44-1/4 carats, has the same colour and is probably a portion of the missing
stone: it was so-called as forming part of the collection of H. T. Hope
(bought for L18,000), and was sold again in 1906 (resold 1909). Two
other blue diamonds are known, weighing 13-3/4 and 1-3/4 carats, which may
also be portions of the French diamond. The _Dresden Green_, one of the
Saxon crown jewels, 40 carats, has a fine apple-green colour. The
_Florentine_, 133-1/5 carats, one of the Austrian crown jewels, is a very
pale yellow.
The most famous Brazilian stones are:--The _Star of the South_, found in
1853, when it weighed 254-1/2 carats and was sold for L40,000; when cut it
weighed 125 carats and was bought by the gaikwar of Baroda for L80,000.
Also a diamond belonging to Mr Dresden, 119 carats before, and 76-1/2
carats after cutting.
Many large stones have been found in South Africa; some are yellow but
some are as colourless as the best Indian or Brazilian stones. The most
famous are the following:--the _Star of South Africa_, or _Dudley_,
mentioned above, 83-1/2 carats rough, 46-1/2 carats cut. The _Stewart_,
288-3/8 carats rough, 120 carats cut. Both these were found in the river
diggings. The _Porter Rhodes_ from Kimberley, of the finest water,
weighed about 150 carats. The _Victoria_, 180 carats, was cut from an
octahedron weighing 457-1/2 carats, and was sold to the nizam of
Hyderabad for L400,000. The _Tiffany_, a magnificent orange-yellow
stone, weighs 125-1/2 carats cut. A yellowish octahedron found at De
Beers weighed 428-1/2 carats, and yielded a brilliant of 288-1/2 carats.
Some of the finest and largest stones have come from the Jagersfontein
mine; one, the _Jubilee_, found in 1895, weighed 640 carats in the rough
and 239 carats when cut. Until 1905 the largest known diamond in the
world was the _Excelsior_, found in 1893 at Jagersfontein by a native
while loading a truck. It weighed 971 carats, and was ultimately cut
into ten stones weighing from 68 to 13 carats. But all previous records
were surpassed in 1905 by a magnificent stone more than three times the
size of any known diamond, which was found in the yellow ground at the
newly discovered Premier mine in the Transvaal. This extraordinary
diamond weighed 3025-3/4 carats (11/3 lb.) and was clear and water
white; the largest of its surfaces appeared to be a cleavage plane, so
that it might be only a portion of a much larger stone. It was known as
the _Cullinan Diamond_. This stone was purchased by the Transvaal
government in 1907 and presented to King Edward VII. It was sent to
Amsterdam to be cut, and in 1908 was divided into nine large stones and
a number of small brilliants. The four largest stones weigh 516-1/2
carats, 309-3/16 carats, 92 carats and 62 carats respectively. Of these
the first and second are the largest brilliants in existence. All the
stones are flawless and of the finest quality.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Boetius de Boot, _Gemmarum et lapidum historia_ (1609);
D. Jeffries, _A Treatise on Diamonds and Pearls_ (1757); J. Mawe,
_Travels in the Interior of Brazil_ (1812); _Treatise on Diamonds and
Precious Stones_ (1813): Pinder, _De adamante_ (1829); Murray, _Memoir
on the Nature of the Diamond_ (1831); C. Zerenner, _De adamante
dissertatio_ (1850); H. Emanuel, _Diamonds and Precious Stones_
(1865); A. Schrauf, _Edelsteinkunde_ (1869); N. Jacobs and N.
Chatrian, _Monographie du diamant_ (1880); V. Ball, _Geology of India_
(1881); C. W. King, _The Natural History of Precious Stones_ _and
Precious Metals_ (1883); M. E. Boutan, _Le Diamant_ (1886); S. M.
Burnham, _Precious Stones in Nature, Art and Literature_ (1887); P.
Groth, _Grundriss der Edelsteinkunde_ (1887); A. Liversidge, _The
Minerals of New South Wales_ (1888); _Tavernier's Travels in India_,
translated by V. Ball (1889); E. W. Streeter, _The Great Diamonds of
the World_ (1896); H. C. Lewis, _The Genesis and Matrix of the
Diamond_ (1897); L. de Launay, _Les Diamants du Cap_ (1897); C.
Hintze, _Handbuch der Mineralogie_ (1898); E. W. Streeter, _Precious
Stones and Gems_ (6th ed., 1898); Dana, _System of Mineralogy_ (1899);
Kunz and others, _The Production of Precious Stones_ (in annual,
_Mineral Resources of the United States_); M. Bauer, _Precious Stones_
(trans. L. J. Spencer, 1904); A. W. Rogers, _An Introduction to the
Geology of Cape Colony_ (1905); Gardner F. Williams, _The Diamond
Mines of South Africa_ (revised edition, 1906); George F. Kunz,
"Diamonds, a study of their occurrence in the United States, with
descriptions and comparisons of those from all known localities" (U.S.
Geol. Survey, 1909); P. A. Wagner, _Die Diamantfuhrenden Gesteine
Sudafrikas_ (1909).
Among papers in scientific periodicals may be mentioned articles by
Adler, Ball, Baumhauer, Beck, Bonney, Brewster, Chaper, Cohen,
Crookes, Daubree, Derby, Des Cloizeaux, Doelter, Dunn, Flight,
Friedel, Gorceix, Gurich, Goeppert, Harger, Hudleston, Hussak,
Jannettaz, Jeremejew, de Launay, Lewis, Maskelyne, Meunier, Moissan,
Molengraaff, Moulle, Rose, Sadebeck, Scheibe, Stelzner, Stow. See
generally Hintze's _Handbuch der Mineralogie_. (H. A. MI.)