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GEMS |
Written by Ron Toft
Photographs courtesy of the Natural History Museum
People have stolen them, fought over them, used them to finance wars and also given them as tokens of love and affection. For thousands of years, the only source of these miracles of nature was a remote area of India. They are diamonds, and the UK's biggest-ever exhibition of them can be seen at London's world-famous Natural History Museum until 26 February 2006.
Kimberlite and lamproite
Fifty-eight times harder than the next hardest mineral, diamonds were forged deep within the Earth, under conditions of intense heat and colossal pressure. Later, they were enveloped in volcanic magma and blasted towards the surface of our planet at incredible speeds. When the magma solidified, it became kimberlite and lamproite - rare rocks from which four-fifths of all stones are extracted. Alluvial diamonds are those found in rivers and coastal waters as a result of erosion.
Tonnes of diamonds
Around 23 tonnes of diamonds - equivalent to 114 million carats - are recovered annually. If all the diamonds ever polished were brought together, they would fill just one double-decker bus. The youngest diamonds are 'merely' 900 million years old, whereas the oldest were formed thousands of millions of years ago when life on Earth was still in its molecular infancy. Not all diamonds are terrestrial in origin. Some were formed when meteorites - chunks of celestial flotsam - slammed into the Earth's surface. Others, much too small for the eye to see, are scattered throughout the solar system as stardust.
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
The blockbuster Diamonds exhibition is being billed as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see some of the world's most spectacular and historically important stones.
De Beers Millennium Star
Pride of place goes to the pear-shaped, 203-carat De Beers Millennium Star - the only internally and externally flawless diamond. Cut from a rough stone of 777 carats, the Millennium Star was unveiled in 1999 at the Millennium Dome. It is the world's sixth largest white diamond.
Fancy
Although white diamonds are the commonest, the most sought-after and most valuable stones are the 'fancy' or coloured ones. Such diamonds are exceedingly rare. In fact, only one fancy is found for every 10,000 white diamonds.
The Steinmetz Pink
One of the jaw-droppingly beautiful coloured diamonds on display is the Steinmetz Pink which took nearly two years to cut. At 59.60 carats, this oval-shaped gem is the world's biggest, flawless vivid pink fancy. It was first seen in Monaco in May 2003, gracing the neck of model Helena Christensen. Initially, there was talk of creating a 531-carat gem from the 890-carat 'rough' Incomparable, which would have made it the world's largest cut diamond. Once cutting began, however, flaws were found inside the diamond.
'They could have made a flawed 531 stone or a flawless 407,' remarked museum mineralogist Alan Hart who was one of many people involved in planning and preparing the exhibition. 'In the end, they decided to cut a smaller flawless stone the size of a small hen's egg, and I think that was the right decision.' At 407.48 carats, the yellow Incomparable is the world's third largest cut diamond.
Ocean Dream
Ocean Dream is the world's biggest natural green fancy. 'Its incredible colour, caused by exposure to natural radiation inside the Earth, makes this one of the world's rarest diamonds,' said Hart. 'In some green diamonds, only the outer layers are coloured. Ocean Dream, however, is green right through, and that makes it very special indeed.'
The Moussaief Red
Red diamonds are the rarest of the 12 recognised colour varieties. In fact, very few true red stones have ever been found. One of the best is the 5.11-carat Moussaief Red. 'To find a deep red diamond of this quality is truly outstanding,' continued Hart.
The Heart of Eternity
Among the other fancy diamonds on show are the 30.82-carat vivid blue Heart of Eternity and the 101.29-carat yellow Allnatt. Being displayed in Europe for the first time, and on loan from New York diamond collectors Alan Bronstein and Harry Rodman, is the Aurora Collection of 296 exceptionally rare coloured diamonds. Then, in complete contrast, is an uncut pale yellow rough known simply as 616 because of its weight. It is displayed just as it was found and is the largest single diamond in the world.
The Shah Jahan
One of the most important stones historically is the Shah Jahan, which was named after the seventeenth century Indian Mogul emperor who once owned it. 'We are exhibiting the stone with a print of a Victoria & Albert Museum portrait of the Shah in 1616 showing him holding a turban ornament featuring a lovely emerald and a huge, flat diamond,' said Hart. 'A diamond that turned up in the 1980s was found to be identical in every way to the one in the portrait, so we know that this is the very stone worn by the Shah. 'I find it amazing that we can match a long-lost diamond with one pictured in a centuries-old painting and bring both gem and portrait together for the first time since the seventeenth century. 'To me, the Shah Jahan demonstrates the power and endurance of diamonds. I call them history's survivors. They are icons of power and wealth.
The
Star of South Africa
Other historically important items on display include a third century Roman ring, the George III Garter Star, and Queen Victoria's Lesser George from the Royal Collection. Additionally, there is the 10.73-carat Eureka diamond the first authenticated diamond discovered in South Africa, and the 47.69-carat Star of South Africa. This is credited with starting South Africa's diamond rush in the late nineteenth century.
Diamond-encrusted outfits and accessories
Among the diamonds and diamond-encrusted outfits and accessories associated with celebrities are the Edwardian tiara worn by Catherine Zeta Jones when she married Michael Douglas, the dress worn by Samantha Mumba at the premiere of the Spiderman II movie, a cube-shaped ring worn by Sharon Osbourne, R & B star Usher's watch on which his face is outlined in 1,106 yellow diamonds, and the pink and white diamond, heart-shaped purse presented to Nicole Kidman by Robbie Williams in Somethin' Stupid .
Unconquerable
The word diamond comes from the Greek term adamas, meaning unconquerable. The Greeks thought diamonds were solidified tears, while the Romans believed they were shards from the stars. Aware of the power of diamonds, King Louis IX of France passed a law, in 1283, outlawing the wearing of them by commoners.
Scribbling rings
The romantic tradition of giving a diamond ring as a token of love began in Austria in the fifteenth century. The custom of wearing a diamond ring on the fourth finger of the left hand comes from the Ancient Egyptians who believed that the vena amoris ran directly from that finger to the heart. Diamond rings were often referred to as scribbling rings because lovers used them to engrave romantic messages on window panes.
Cutting techniques
Until the fourteenth century, diamonds were left uncut. Today, cutting techniques are still being refined and new ones developed. Once diamonds have been extracted from the ground, they are sorted into no fewer than 16,000 different categories based on cut, clarity and colour before being polished. By the time rough diamonds have been turned into exquisite pieces of jewellery, their combined annual retail sales value is approximately US $ 56 billion.
Carob seeds
The word carat, used to describe a
diamond's size, comes from the carob tree because carob seeds were
once the standard for weighing precious stones. 'What I find
particularly fascinating about diamonds is that they appear for a
while and then disappear for decades or centuries, before
reappearing in another guise, in another country perhaps,' said
Hart. 'Some are handed down from generation to generation in a
clearly traceable lineage, while others are lost or stolen.
'Diamonds are time travellers. No-one really owns them. We are
simply custodians of these miracles of nature for a brief time
during their passage through history.'