Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond

The Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond is a 31.06 carats (6.21 g) fancy deep-blue diamond with internally flawless clarity. Laurence Graff purchased the Wittelsbach Diamond in 2008 for £16.4 million Sterling. In 2010, Graff revealed he had had the diamond cut by three diamond cutters to remove flaws. The diamond was now more than 4 carats (800 mg) lighter and was renamed the Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond. There is controversy, as critics claim the recutting has altered the diamond as to make it unrecognizable, that its historical integrity has been compromised.

Wittelsbach Diamond

The original Wittelsbach Diamond, also known as Der Blaue Wittelsbacher, was a 35.56-carat (7.11 g) Fancy Deep Grayish Blue diamond with VS2 clarity that had been part of both the Austrian and the Bavarian Crown jewels.

Its color and clarity had been compared to the Hope Diamond.[citation needed] The diamond had measured 24.40 millimetres (0.961 in) in diameter and 8.29 millimetres (0.326 in) in depth. It had 82 facets arranged in an atypical pattern. The star facets on the crown were vertically split and the pavilion had sixteen needle-like facets, arranged in pairs, pointing outward from the culet facet.

History

On display at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

The diamond originates from the mines of the former Indian kingdom of Golkonda. The story that King Philip IV of Spain purchased the jewel and included it in the dowry of his teenage daughter, Margaret Teresa, in 1664 is apocryphal. The first time the diamond was mentioned is about fifty years later when it was already in Vienna. It was in the possession of the Habsburg family and came to Munich when, in 1722, Maria Amalia married Charles of Bavaria, a member of the Wittelsbach family.

In 1745, the Wittelsbach Diamond was first mounted on the Bavarian Elector's Order of the Golden Fleece. When Maximilian IV Joseph von Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria in 1806, he commissioned a royal crown, which prominently displayed the diamond. Until 1918, the jewel remained on the top of the Bavarian crown. It was seen last in public at Ludwig III of Bavaria's funeral in 1921.

The Wittelsbach family tried to sell the diamond in 1931, during the Great Depression, but found no buyers. They eventually sold it in 1951.[citation needed] In 1958, the stone was shown at the World Expo in Brussels. In the 1960s, the Goldmuntz family asked Joseph Komkommer, a jeweler, to re-cut the diamond, but he recognized the historical significance of the stone and refused. Instead he, along with dealers, bought it. The diamond had been in a private collection since 1964. Later it became known that it was bought by Helmut Horten, who presented to his wife Heidi at their wedding.

On 10 December 2008, the 35.56-carat (7.11 g) Wittelsbach Diamond was sold to London-based jeweler Laurence Graff for £16.4 million Sterling, or US$23.4 million, at the time the highest price ever paid at auction for a diamond. The previous record had been held by a pear-shaped 100-carat (20 g) stone named the Star of the Season. This record was eclipsed on 16 November, 2010, when a 24.78 carat pink diamond was sold for £29 million Sterling, or US$46 million, again to Mr. Graff. 

On 7 January 2010, it was reported that the diamond had been recut to enhance the stone's color and clarity, losing over 4.45 carats (890 mg) in the process. The resulting stone has been renamed the Wittlesbach-Graff. The move was met with heavy criticism by some experts: Gabriel Tolkowsky called it "the end of culture." Shortly after the auction of the diamond, American gem cutter and replicator of famous diamonds Scott Sucher stated "In the case of the Wittelsbach, what's at stake is at minimum over 350 years of history, as every nick, chip, and scratch has a story to tell. Just because we can’t decipher these stories doesn’t mean they don’t exist."[13] The alteration of the historical stone has been compared by Professor Hans Ottomeyer, Director of the Deutsches Historisches Museum of Berlin, to the overpainting of a painting by Rembrandt. It is opined that the recutting was done to increase its market value and, by extension, that of other "fancy diamonds". As a result of the recut, the gem had been reevaluated by the Gemological Institute of America and its color grade revised from Fancy Deep Grayish Blue, the same grade given by GIA to The Hope, to the more desirable Fancy Deep Blue. The diamond’s clarity had also been revised upward, from Very Slightly Included (VS1) to Internally flawless (IF).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittelsbach-Graff_Diamond

La Peregrina pearl

La Peregrina is one of the most famous pearls in the world. Its history spans almost 500 years, and it has passed from the African slave who found it at Pearl Islands in the Gulf of Panama, to European kings and queens. Most recently, the pearl belonged to Elizabeth Taylor.

Origin of name

La Peregrina is a Spanish word. It means "the Pilgrim" or "the Wanderer".

Physical characteristics

The original weight of this pear-shaped pearl was 223.8 grains, (55.95 carats, 11.2 g). At the time of its discovery, it was the largest pearl ever found. In 1913 the pearl had to be drilled and cleaned to secure it firmly to its setting. After drilling and cleaning, the pearl's weight decreased to 203.84 grains. La Peregrina remains one of the largest perfectly symmetrical pear-shaped pearls in the world.

History

The pearl was found by an African slave on the coast of the isle of Santa Margarita in the Gulf of Panama in the mid-16th century. Some stories claim that the pearl was found in 1513, but at that time there were no African slaves on the islands. The pearl was given to Don Pedro de Temez, the administrator of the Spanish colony in Panama. The slave who found it was rewarded with freedom.

The pearl was carried to Spain and given by Temez to Philip II of Spain. It was in anticipation of his marriage to Mary I of England that Philip II presented the "La Peregrina" pearl to Mary Tudor. Queen Mary wore the pearl as a pendant to a brooch, as seen in the famous portrait of Queen Mary by Hans Eworth, which is exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery in London, as well as other portraits drawn by various artists between 1553 and 1558.

After her death in 1558, the pearl was returned to the Crown of Spain, where it remained as part of the crown jewelry for the next 250 years. It became one of the favorite ornaments for the Spanish queen consorts of that time. Margaret of Austria, Queen of Spain, the wife of Philip III of Spain, wore the pearl for the celebration of the peace treaty between Spain and England in 1605. Portraits made by Diego Velázquez are evidence that the pearl was prized by both wives of Philip IV of Spain.The equestrian portrait of Queen Elisabeth of France also shows the queen wearing the pearl. Mariana of Austria, the second wife of Philip IV, was painted with the pearl as well.

In 1808 the elder brother of Napoleon, Joseph Bonaparte, became the king of Spain. His rule continued for five years, and when he was forced to leave the kingdom, after the defeat of the French forces at the Battle of Vitoria, he took some of the crown jewels with him, including La Peregrina. At that time, the pearl got its name "La Peregrina - the Wanderer." In his will, Joseph Bonaparte left the pearl to his nephew Louis-Napoléon, later Emperor Napoleon III. During his exile in England, the Emperor sold it to James Hamilton, Marquess and later Duke of Abercorn. The Marquess bought the pearl for his wife, Louisa. The pearl was very heavy and it fell out of its necklace's setting on at least two occasions. The first time, the pearl got lost in a sofa in Windsor Castle; the second time, during a ball at Buckingham Palace. On both occasions, the pearl was recovered. The Hamilton family owned the pearl until 1969 when they sold it at auction at Sotheby's in London.

Richard Burton purchased the pearl at the Sotheby's auction for $37,000. He gave it to his wife Elizabeth Taylor as a Valentine's Day gift during their first marriage. On one occasion, the pearl went missing in the Burtons' suite at Caesar's Palace, Paradise, Nevada. In her book Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair with Jewelry, Taylor writes:

At one point I reached down to touch La Peregrina and it wasn't there! I glanced over at Richard and thank God he wasn't looking at me, and I went into the bedroom and threw myself on the bed, buried my head into the pillow and screamed. Very slowly and very carefully, I retraced all my steps in the bedroom. I took my slippers off, took my socks off, and got down on my hands and knees, looking everywhere for the pearl. Nothing. I thought, "It's got to be in the living room in front of Richard. What am I going to do. He'll kill me! Because he loved the piece.

After few minutes of mental anguish, Taylor looked at their puppies. One of them was apparently chewing on a bone, but nobody gave bones to the puppies. Taylor continues:

I just casually opened the puppy's mouth and inside his mouth was the most perfect pearl in the world. It was—thank God—not scratche

Burton sought a portrait of Queen Mary wearing the pearl. Upon the purchase of such a painting, the Burtons discovered that the British National Portrait Gallery did not have an original painting of Mary, so they donated the painting to the Gallery.[unreliable source]

Taylor commissioned Cartier to re-design the necklace, setting La Peregrina with pearls, diamonds, and rubies. In 2005 Taylor lent it to Smithsonian Institution for their "The Allure of Pearls" exhibition.

In December 2011 the pearl sold for a record price of more than $11 million (£7.1m). La Peregrina was sold as part of Elizabeth Taylor's collection, which was being auctioned at Christie's in New York. It was sold mounted on the diamond Cartier necklace. Its value had been estimated at $3 million, but the bidding vastly exceeded the estimate and reached $10.5 million - increasing to more than $11 million once the various fees were factored in.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Peregrina_pearl

“The Lone Star”- Blue Sapphire

It is not known exactly what inspired the name “The Lone Star” for this massive blue star sapphire weighing 9,719.5 carats, discovered in the mountains of North Carolina in June, 1989, by Harold Roper, a resident of the small hamlet of Marble. Previously, the largest blue sapphire in the world was the 563.35-carat “Star of India”, a Sri Lankan gemstone owned by the American Museum of Natural History, New York City. In terms of weight “The Lone Star” is 17 times larger than its immediate rival, the “Star of India.” In this sense Harold Roper’s star sapphire is indeed a “Lone Star”, propelled to the coveted position of the largest blue sapphire and the largest blue star sapphire in the world, with no immediate prospect of a rival surfacing in the foreseeable future. The massive size of the blue star sapphire isolated it from the rest of the famous blue star sapphires in the world whose weights were around 500 carats and less, making the sensational stone an incomparable star sapphire among other star sapphires in the world, appropriately named “The Lone Star” sapphire.

http://jewelry-blog.internetstones.com

Pearl of Lao Tzu

The Pearl of Lao Tzu (also referred to as Pearl of Lao Tze) is the largest known pearl in the world. It is not a gem-quality pearl, but is instead what is known as a "clam pearl" or "Tridacna pearl" from a giant clam. It measures 24 centimeters in diameter (9.45 inches) and weighs 6.4 kilograms (14.1 lb). It is an interesting piece of natural history that has accumulated more than one story or legend.

While biologists would regard this object as a kind of pearl, gemologists regard it as a non-nacreous pearl, without the iridescence of pearls that come from oysters and mussels. The interior of a giant clam has no nacre (mother of pearl); instead it is porcellaneous. Because of its great size, a giant clam can create a very large pearl, but not an iridescent, gemlike one. The GIA and CIBJO now simply use the term "pearl" (or, where appropriate, the more descriptive term "non-nacreous pearl") when referring to such items, rather than the term "calcareous concretion" and, under U.S. Federal Trade Commission rules, various mollusc pearls may be referred to as "pearls" without qualification.

The pearl came from the Bataraza, Palawan in the Philippines. Wilburn Cobb, an American who brought the pearl from the Philippines in 1939 and owned it until his death in 1979, published an account of how he came to own it in Natural History Magazine. According to Cobb, he wanted to buy it from a Philippine tribal chief when he first heard of it in 1934, but the chief did not want to sell. However, in 1936 Cobb supposedly saved the life of the chief’s son, who was stricken with malaria, and was given the pearl as a token of gratitude.

In America, the pearl was exhibited at the Ripley's Believe It or Not! Odditorium in New York, valued at $3.5 million.

Much later, Cobb wrote a new account in the February 1969 Mensa Bulletin, this time promoting the pearl as an artifact of Chinese legend. He alleged he had been approached by a Chinese fellow named Li, who told him that the pearl had first been grown in a much smaller clam around a jade amulet inserted by a disciple of the legendary sage Laozi more than 2,500 years ago, and been transferred over the centuries to ever larger clams, growing to record size. Wars had supposedly been fought over the artifact, and it had been sent off to the Philippines as a protective measure, where it was lost in a storm.

After Cobb’s death in 1980, Peter Hoffman and Victor Barbish bought the pearl from his estate for the much smaller sum of $200,000. Barbish has claimed to have had further contact with other Li family members. (The legend of a ”Pearl of Laozi”, however, is only known from the claims of Cobb and Barbish.)

When Victor Barbish borrowed money from a Joseph Bonicelli, he gave him an interest in the pearl. In 1990, Bonicelli took Barbish to court to collect his loan, and the court ruled that Hoffman, Barbish and Bonicelli were equal partners in the pearl. Bonicelli died in 1998, and after more legal proceedings, the court ordered the pearl to be sold (it has not been), with a third of the money going to Bonicelli’s children.

The pearl is not on display to the public and is currently held as part of the probate inventory of Victor M. Barbish. The pearl is presently owned in three equal shares by the heirs of Joe Bonicelli, Peter Hoffman, and Victor Barbish.[citation needed]

[edit]Value

Gemologist Michael Steenrod in Colorado Springs has appraised the pearl at $60 million (1982) and $93 million (2007). Another 1982 appraisal, by Lee Sparrow of the San Francisco Gem Lab, put the pearl at $42 million.

The Palawan Princess, considered the second largest pearl, was offered at auction by Bonhams and Butterfields of Los Angeles on December 6, 2009.Though the five pound pearl was estimated to bring $300,000 to $400,000, it was not sold.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_of_Lao_Tzu

Regent Diamond

The Regent Diamond is a diamond which is on display in the Louvre. In 1698, a slave found the 410 carat (82 g) uncut diamond in a Golkonda mine, more specifically Paritala-Kollur Mine in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India and concealed it inside of a large wound in his leg[1]. An English sea captain stole the diamond from the slave after killing him and sold it to an Indian merchant[2]. Governor Thomas Pitt acquired it from a merchant in Madras in 1701. Because of Pitt's ownership it is sometimes known as the Pitt Diamond.[3]

Pitt bought the diamond for £20,400 (£2,964,490 as of 2012),[4], and had it cut in to a 141 carats (28 g) cushion brilliant. After many attempts to sell it to various European royalty, including Louis XIV of France, it was sold to the French Regent, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans in 1717 for £135,000 (£18,634,090 as of 2012),[4]. The royals used the stone in many ways including being set in the crown of Louis XV for his coronation in 1722, in a new crown for the coronation of Louis XVI in 1775, and as an adornment in the hat of Marie Antoinette. In 1791 its appraised value was £480,000 (£46,922,530 as of 2012),[4].

Detail of Napoleon's portrait with sword

In 1792 during the revolutionary furor in Paris, "Le Régent," as the diamond came to be known, was stolen along with other crown jewels of France, but was later recovered, after being hidden in some roof timbers in a Paris attic. The diamond was used as security on several occasions by the Directoire and later the Consulat, before being permanently redeemed by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1801.

Napoleon used it to embellish his sword, designed by the goldsmiths Odiot, Boutet and Marie-Etienne Nitot. In 1812, it appeared on the Emperor's two-edged sword, the work of Nitot. Napoleon's second wife, Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, carried the Régent back to Austria upon his death. Later her father returned it to the French Crown Jewels. The diamond was mounted successively on the crowns of Louis XVIII, Charles X and Napoleon III.

Today, mounted in a Greek diadem designed for Empress Eugenie, it remains in the French Royal Treasury at the Louvre. It has been on display there since 1887.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regent_Diamond

Mogul Mughal Emerald

The Mogul Mughal Emerald is one of the largest emeralds known. Auction house Christie's described it as:

The rectangular-cut emerald known as 'The Mogul Mughal' weighing 217.80 carats, the obverse engraved with Shi'a invocations in elegant naskh script, dated 1107 A.H., the reverse carved all over with foliate decoration, the central rosette flanked by single large poppy flowers, with a line of three smaller poppy flowers either side, the bevelled edges carved with cross pattern incisions and herringbone decoration, each of the four sides drilled for attachments, 2 1/16 x 1 9/16 x 7/16 in. (5.2 x 4x 1.2 cm.)

Originally mined in Colombia, it was sold in India, where emeralds were much desired by the rulers of the Mughal Empire. The Mogul Mughal is unique among Mughal emeralds[2] in bearing a date - 1107 A.H. (1695-1696 AD) - which is within the reign of Aurangzeb, the sixth emperor. However, the Mughal rulers were Sunni, whereas the inscription is Shi'a, making it likely that it belonged not to Aurangzeb, but to one of his courtiers or officers.

It was sold on 27 September 2001 by Christie's for £1,543,750 (US $2,272,400), including buyer's premium.[1] As of 17 December 2008, it is in the possession of the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogul_Mughal_Emerald

Tiffany Yellow Diamond

The Tiffany Yellow Diamond is one of the largest yellow diamonds ever discovered; it weighed 287.42 carats (57.484 g) in the rough when discovered in 1878 in the Kimberley mine in South Africa, and was cut into a cushion shape of 128.54 carats (25.708 g) with 90 facets—32 more than a traditional round brilliant—to maximize its brilliance.

Discovered in South Africa in 1877, the stone was purchased by New York jeweler Charles Tiffany. His gemologist, George Frederick Kunz, studied the gem for a year before beginning to cut it; reducing it from 287 carats (57.5g) to its current size. The cutting was carried out in Paris. Kunz was a mere 23 years old at the time. It was mounted by Jean Schlumberger.

"In 1879, the Tiffany branch in Paris obtained the Tiffany Diamond, which weighed 287.42 carats in the rough. It was the largest yellow diamond found up to that time. The formidable task of supervising the cutting of this extraordinary stone was the responsibility of one George Frederick Kunz (1856-1932), a twenty-three year old gemologist who had just joined the firm. The cutting process took exceptional courage and insight. Kunz added an additional 32 facets to the accepted square antique brilliant cut, bringing the total to ninety. The result is an exceptionally scintillating cut which returns a great deal of light to the eye. Large diamonds of comparable brilliance were not fashioned until well into the 20th century."

The gem was on loan from Tiffany & Co. to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. and was on display from April 18th, 2007 until September 23rd, 2007. At the time, Jeffrey E. Post, the museum`s gem curator, said that this is the largest diamond on display in the U.S. The famous Hope Diamond is only 45.5 carats, which is two and a half times less than the Tiffany Yellow Diamond.

The diamond is known to have been worn by only two women during its lifetime. It was worn by Mrs. Sheldon Whitehouse at the 1957 Tiffany Ball held in Newport, Rhode Island, mounted for the occasion in a necklace of white diamonds. It was subsequently worn by Audrey Hepburn in 1961 publicity photographs for Breakfast at Tiffany's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiffany_Yellow_Diamond