This paper aims not only to correct misconceptions, but to summarise what is already known about the discovery of the Cullinan and the events that followed, and at the same time reveal some important and unexplored evidence that eluded contemporary historians. The research is based on archival records in South Africa as well as on articles that appeared in the local and international press within the first two decades after the diamond had been found.110 years after the discovery of this exceptional crystal, perhaps the time has come to tell the full story of the Cullinan diamond, from which nine major gemstones were created, known as Cullinan I – IX. Today these diamonds adorn the Sovereign’s Sceptre, Imperial State Crown of Great Britain and other major jewels belonging to Her Majesty Queen Elisabeth II.Wonders of nature excite people’s imagination, and the Cullinan is no exception. While it is almost impossible to obtain accurate facts about the origin of historic diamonds such as the Regent, the Orlov or the Koh-i-noor, claims regarding the Cullinan can be verified. Hitherto unexplored sources from 1905–1910 have brought to light unknown and relevant facts.

https://www.diamtrader.net/2023/10/i-diamanti-africani-prima-del-1866.html, 2023

Accounts of diamonds in the pre-1866 African continent, legends, myths and written testimonies.

The Journal of Gemmology, 1984

Gems & Gemology, 1986

The authors report on their gemological examinations of four important gemstones: the Star of Bombay sapphire, the Portuguese diamond, and two large diamonds known as the Marie Antoinette earrings, all of which are part of the collection at the Smithsonian Institution. Brief historical information on some of the pieces is also included. Keller for arranging the loan of these items with John Sampson White of the Smithsonian Institution. Our thanks also go to Dr. are distinct to and blu-Anfhony Kampf for inviting us to examine the stones andallowing ish green. The refractive index (spot method) is us to use the facilities of the Los Angeles County Museum of approximately 1.76-1.77. The specific gravity Natural History.

Lithos, 2009

The Letšeng-la-Terae kimberlites are situated 3100 m above sea level in the Maloti Mountains of Lesotho, southern Africa. The principal economic bodies are two Late Cretaceous, low grade, 1-3.5 carats/hundred ton (cpht), kimberlite pipes that host high-value diamonds realising US$ 2000-2500/carat ($/ct) in 2008 terms. Locally, the larger kimberlite body is referred to as the Main Pipe (17.2 ha) and the smaller one is called the Satellite Pipe (5.2 ha). These pipes, and their associated eluvial and proximal alluvial deposits, are renowned for yielding large, "D" colour, gem quality diamonds, including +100 carat (ct) stones. Earlier artisanal effort (1959-1977) and formal mining (1977-1982) produced 335,000 carats (cts), including the 601 ct Lesotho Brown in 1968. In 2003, Letšeng Diamonds Limited re-commenced mining operations and had produced 265,000 cts by the end of July 2008, including 24 +100 ct diamonds, the largest of which was the 603 ct Lesotho Promise. We report here on the unusual characteristics of the Letšeng diamond population that include: i. 75% gem quality that is more commonly associated with alluvial diamond deposits, ii. large average stone size of ca. 1 carat/stone (ct/stn) that is also more typical of certain alluvial diamond placers, iii. high-yielding, rounded to flattened irregular, resorbed dodecahedral shapes (Main Pipe 67% and Satellite Pipe 87%) with subordinate dodecahedral macle (Main Pipe 32% and Satellite Pipe 12%) and broken (ca. 1%) forms. In both pipes the octahedral component is virtually absent (b 0.1%), iv. economically favourable colour mix (ca. 33% white colour diamonds in both pipes), v. abundance of nitrogen-free, "D" colour, Type IIa diamonds that dominate the internationally recognised "special" stone size fraction which covers all diamonds larger than +10.8 cts (Main Pipe 32% and Satellite Pipe 51%).

2020

Open access at: http://learningroads.cfs.unipi.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/SGA10-BERTOLACCI_pp-I-VIII.pdf

gemstones, which has hitherto been little studied. It analyses this interest in connection with the fourteenth-century French royal court, and especially with the collecting activities of Charles V of Valois (1338-1380), King of France. Both of these sovereigns had an interest in ancient gems and they used them in the same manner; their practices prove to have been inspired by the reinvented traditions of the saintly Capetian monarch Louis IX, King of France, and of the ancient Roman Empire. This study shows how Charles of Luxembourg and Charles of Valois sought out and used precious and semiprecious stones as instruments of their royal self-images and claims to power.

Revista Diálogos - comunicação social e produção de sentidos, 2020

The Portuguese Diamond is the largest faceted diamond in the National Gem Collection of the National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC; with an emerald cut at 127.01 carats is almost a perfect octagonal gem. Its name was given by the last private owner, Harry Winston, on the basis that once it had belonged to the Portuguese crown jewels. Yet, the mystery follows in that several authors say, with greater emphasis nowadays, that the name "The Portuguese Diamond" came from a mistaken legend. The first goal of this paper is to show that there is strong iconic evidence that the diamond belonged to King José I of Portugal in the eighteenth century and, presumably, with a lesser degree of certainty, to other following sovereigns of the house of Bragança (Braganza). Subsidiary goals are the disambiguation with some other Brazilian precious stones mentioned in news or other sources. One will also look for establishing a plausible documented origin of the Portuguese Diamond, then giving some possible clues on the fate and oblivion of the diamond for about a century, until its resurgence in the USA. Last, it is sketched a framework of its semiotic convolution as an object of desire and an index of power, from the Portuguese royalty into the veil of secrecy, and then to the American capitalist democracy.

Journal of British Studies, 2009

KINSEY mond consumption and the diamond trade in a highly negative light, associating the consumer with the rapacity of a corrupt brand of plunder imperialism. 3 When the Koh-i-Noor Diamond entered public discourse in Britain, however, the court and the colonial government used the biography of the stone to cast British conquest in India in a progressive light. The dominance of this narrative was severely challenged once the Koh-i-Noor went on display in 1851: the stone's physique did not conform to exhibition-goers' aesthetic expectations. Easily one of the biggest attractions at the exhibition, the gemstone was nevertheless found by spectators to be dull and disappointing. The satirical magazine Punch referred to it as the "Mountain of Darkness," making a play on the English translation of Koh-i-Noor as "Mountain of Light." 4 Following the exhibition, the prince consort had the diamond, then about 186 carats, recut. In the context of the rest of the exhibition, the diamond registered more as an emblem of a frivolous, feminized, and orientalized luxury commodity than as a proper mascot for the "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations." Controversy ensued: gendered arguments about diamond consumption threatened to denigrate Victoria as the recipient of the gem. Spectators and commentators were more apt to read the diamond as an emblem of old-fashioned plunder imperialism than as a progressive acquisition fit for the figurehead of a modern Britain. The language of mid-nineteenth-century imperialism depicted colonial exploitation as ensuring the future of Britain's industrial progress by furthering the "civilizing mission." The degree to which the Koh-i-Noor-and Victoria's public, gendered appropriation of it-did not seem to fit in with these midcentury "respectable" values set the stage for the stone's recutting. I argue that the Koh-i-Noor's refashioning was an attempt to reconstitute the stone as a gemological component of Britain's civilizing mission, where the weight of British science and machinery was literally brought to bear on the diamond's structure. Recent studies of material culture have asked us to appreciate the mutually constitutive condition of things and their contexts as they move through both time and space, shifting from being things to being commodities to being things again, all the while performing different cultural, economic, and ideological work for different audiences. Things can oppress, constrain, and literally weigh a person down; they can also enable the performance of identity, inculcate ideology, and effect a sense of individualism, liberty, and empowerment. 5 Elaine Freedgood has shown that the process of disassociating the product from its conditions of production and distribution, so integral to Marx's explanation of the commodity fetish, was far from complete in the nineteenth century. Indeed, Victorian consumers-of products, spectacles, and ideas-were in many ways hyperaware of where things came from and the networks of exploitation that were in place to deliver these goods. This knowledge inhered in the meanings of things within

In: Collecting and Collectors from Antiquity to Modernity, edited by Alexandra Carpino, Tiziana D’Angelo, Maya Muratov, and David Saunders. Selected Papers on Ancient Art and Architecture, vol. 4. Series Editor Mireille M. Lee. Boston: Archaeological Institute of America, 2018

A Cambridge don with particular interests in classical literature and minerals, Charles W. King devoted most of his life to the study and collecting of antique gems. This essay attempts to shed light on the development of a new concept of artistic authenticity in the latter half of the 19th century. While for other collectibles forgeries were in part responsible for the growing appreciation of the original objects, King condemned this “fraudulent ingenuity” and identified it as one of the main causes of the crisis of gem collecting in his time. His papers, bequeathed to Trinity College upon his death, offer valuable insights into the nature and characteristics of 19th-century gem forgeries. In spite of his expertise, King’s collection of Greek and Roman engraved gems, acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1881, counts a number of modern imitations, which will help explore the criteria and methodology he adopted in the evaluation of antique gems. By focusing on Charles W. King, this essay aims to reassess the impact of modern forgeries and interpolations of classical engraved gems in the 19th century, thus reaching a better understanding of a transitional and critical phase in the history of gem collecting.

AI

Gems & Gemology, 2006

History of famous diamonds

2012

A study on the misconseptions about ASEA:s annpunciation of their success in producing synthetic diamonds in the 1950s. Many newer works, both books and educational material on gemmology mentions that ASEA did not announce their production of synthetic diamonds until 1986. A statement that is obviously wrong and the reasons are discussed in this short paper written 2015.

Economic Geology, 2010

Diamonds form in the upper mantle during episodic events and have been transported to the Earth's surface from at least the Archean to the Phanerozoic. Small diamonds occur as inclusions in robust minerals in tectonically activated, ultrahigh-pressure metamorphosed crustal rock, establishing an association with subduction processes and recycled carbon, but providing no economic deposits. Diamonds in economic deposits are estimated to be mainly (99%) derived from subcontinental lithospheric mantle and rarely (approx. 1%) from the asthenosphere. Harzburgite and eclogite are of roughly equal importance as source rocks, followed by lherzolite and websterite. Diamonds which provide evidence of extensive residence time in the mantle are, with minimal exceptions, smooth-surfaced crystalline diamonds (SCD) with potential commercial value. The oldest prolific SCD formation event documented on the world's major diamond producing cratons occurs in Archean lithospheric mantle harzburgite, metasomatized by likely subduction-related potassic carbonatitic fluids. Disaggregation of the diamondiferous carbonated peridotite on decompression during volcanic transit gives rise to the association between diamonds, G10 garnets, and diamond inclusion-type chromites, well used in diamond exploration. Within the mantle domains of diamond stability, there have been repeated episodes of further diamond crystallization and /or growth. These are associated with old, often Proterozoic, subductionrelated melt generation, metasomatic fluid migration, and reaction with preexisting mantle eclogite, websterite, and peridotite. Using improved methods of isotope analysis, diamond formation ages can be correlated with specific major processes such as craton accretion, craton edge subduction, and magmatic mantle refertilization. Fibrous cuboid diamond and fibrous coats on SCD are rough-surfaced diamonds with abundant fluid inclusions. They have low mantle residence time, forming rapidly from late stage metasomatic fluids in diamond stable domains that may already contain SCD. The symbiotic relationship between formation of fibrous diamond and magmatic sampling and transport of diamonds into the crust suggest that the associated fluids contribute diamond-friendly volatile loading of the deep lithospheric mantle shortly before the triggering of a volcanic eruption, continuing a process of volatile enrichment in the lithospheric mantle already identified in the Archean harzburgite diamond event. Mantle-derived SCD commonly shows evidence of resorption, illustrating that diamond-unfriendly processes, including lamproite and kimberlite generation, are also active and may have a substantial negative effect in extreme cases on SCD crystal size. Exposure of SCD to a long period of changing conditions during mantle residence contributes to the difficulty of assigning specific parageneses and ages to individual inclusion-free diamonds with our current state of knowledge.

Gems in the Early Modern World: Materials, Knowledge & Global Trade 1450-1800, pub. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019

Laske is the most common Indian cut. Europeans regarded these irregular shaped diamonds as inferior to rose or brilliant cuts. Described as flat tablets cut from cleavage pieces, criticism intensified after the Koh-i-noor was exhibited in 1851. Laskes were set in diplomatic gifts and used to cover miniatures. Among importers in the seventeenth century there was no consensus. The Cholmleys, importing for a commercial market, found laskes more expensive than rough stones; they sought small rough stones with good colour and clear water. By contrast, the diamonds imported by Flemish and Portuguese merchants and stolen in 1631 contained a majority of laskes and many laskes were acquired for the French crown. From the end of the seventeenth century laskes were re-cut to satisfy European taste.

Journal of the Decorative Arts Society, 2014

Gems & Gemology, 2005

REGULAR FEATURES _____________________ Lab Notes Two unusual fracture-filled diamonds • Large diamond with micro-inclusions of carbonates and solid CO 2 • Light blue diamond with type IIb and IIa zones • Natural type Ib diamond with unusually high N content • Diamond with unusual laser drill holes • Yellowish orange magnesioaxinite • Cultured pearl with cultured-pearl nucleus • Dyed "golden" freshwater cultured pearls • More on Cubearing color-change tourmaline from Mozambique Gem News International Demantoid from northern Pakistan • Pyrope-almandine from Ethiopia • New ruby and pink sapphire deposit in Kenya • Faceted orange and brown sunstone from India • Staurolite in kyanite from Brazil • Obsidian with spessartine inclusions • Fluorite inclusions in quartz from Madagascar • Bismuthinite inclusions in rose quartz from Madagascar • Yellow hydrothermal synthetic sapphires seen in India • Interesting heated citrine • "Chocolate" Tahitian cultured pearls • Lead glass-filled rubies appear in the Middle East • GemmoBasel 2005 report Book Reviews

Gems & Gemology, 2018

Large and relatively pure diamonds like the historic 3,106 ct Cullinan, found in South Africa in 1905, have long been regarded as unusual based on their physical characteristics. For example, they often exhibit exceptional color and clarity, while routinely qualifying as type IIa, a rare designation of chemical purity. A new research discovery about these Cullinan-like diamonds is that they contain heretofore unknown, deeply derived inclusions that originate below the continental mantle keel and are thus known as "superdeep" diamonds (Smith et al., 2016). Originating from a depth between 360 and 750 km, they reveal information about the conditions within the convecting mantle, beneath the earth's rigid tectonic plates. Here we review the previously published findings, compare the Cullinan-like diamonds to the more abundant lithospheric diamond population, and offer evidence from some additional diamond samples that further verifies their superdeep origin. Cullinan-like diamonds contain minute and rare silicate and iron-rich metallic inclusions surrounded by a fluid jacket composed of methane and hydrogen. The inclusion compositions suggest that this deep mantle environment contains small pockets of oxygen-deficient metallic liquid out of which the diamonds crystallized. This new and unexpected observation made on the world's most expensive diamonds is important for understanding the chemical reactions between mineral assemblages in the deep earth. It shows that deep regions of the mantle contain metallic iron, as opposed to the shallower, more oxidized mantle rocks actively participating in plate tectonics and its associated volcanism.

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