Cullinan I
The Cullinan, the most important gem high quality diamond ever discovered, was found on the Premier Mine on 26th January 1905. The rough diamond was nearly flawless and named the Cullinan in honour of Sir Thomas Cullinan, the founder of the Premier Mine, who was visiting that very day. Louis Botha, premier of the Transvaal, persuaded his authorities to buy the diamond for approx. US $1 million and presented it to England’s King Edward VII as a token of thanks for granting Transvaal its personal structure.
It was believed to have an excellent mystical energy that surrounded this unusual size and unique colour, a deep indigo blue. Van Niekerk entrusted the stone to John O’Reilly, a travelling peddler, who sent it in an unsealed envelope to Dr. W.G. Atherstone of Grahamstown, one of the few individuals who knew anything about minerals and gems. Dr. Atherstone recognized the stone as a 21.25ct brownish-yellow diamond and was offered to Sir Phillip Wodehouse for GBP 1,500.
Cullinan Vii
For that quantity, and after they have been divorced, he was absolutely entitled to bestow his name upon the diamond which he generously lent to many exhibitions. In 1966 the Niarchos returned to South Africa for the famous centennial ‘Jewel Box 1966′ exhibition. Since his death in April of 1996, no further information about the Niarchos Diamond has been forthcoming.
- The Cullinan was discovered by Frederick Wells, a mine superintendent in Transvaal, South Africa in 1895 on an inspection tour of the Premier Mine.
- The Centenary was discovered on 17th July 1986 by the electrical X-ray restoration system at the Premier Mine.
- The largest stone weighs 530.2 carats (106.04 g) and is named the Great Star of Africa .
- The Crown additionally features the Black Prince’s Ruby, as well as St. Edward’s Sapphire, and the Stuart Sapphire.
- After his dying she gave the jewel to Queen Mary, who had it set as a pendant hanging from the diamond-and-emerald Delhi Durbar necklace, a part of the parure.
Weighing 234.sixty five carats, the De Beers is the seventh largest faceted diamond on the planet, not together with the Nizam, a now-misplaced stone which is said to have been solely partially reduce. It isn’t identified the place the De Beers was cut, but due to its pre-eminence as a chopping centre on the time it is rather likely that the work was carried out in Amsterdam. The Centenary was found on 17th July 1986 by the electric X-ray recovery system on the Premier Mine.
The Good Star Of Africa Images
Cullinan IV, also referred to as a Lesser Star of Africa, is sq.-reduce and weighs 63.6 carats (12.72 g). It was additionally set within the base of Queen Mary’s Crown but was removed in 1914. On 25 March 1958, whereas she and Prince Philip were on a state go to to the Netherlands, Queen Elizabeth II revealed that Cullinan III and IV are recognized in her family as “Granny’s Chips”. They visited the Asscher Diamond Company, the place Cullinan had been cut 50 years earlier.
It was reduce from a rough stone weighing 240.eighty carats discovered within the Premier Mine in 1966 and subsequently bought by Harry Winston. After the tough piece of 240.eighty carats arrived in New York, Harry Winston and his cleaver, Pastor Colon Jr. studied it for six months. Markings had been made, erased and redrawn to show the place the stone might be cleaved.
Cullinan Ii
Abraham Asscher collected it from the Colonial Office in London on 23 January 1908. He returned to the Netherlands by train and ferry with the diamond in his coat pocket. Meanwhile, to much fanfare, a Royal Navy ship carried an empty box across the North Sea, once more throwing off potential thieves.
Recent Comments