Origin of name
The Agra diamond gets it's name from the city of Agra, the capital city
of the Mughal emperors of northern India, from 1526 to1658.It is in Agra
that the diamond came into the possession of the Mughal emperors, after it
was surrendered by the family of the slain Rajah of Gwalior, who was the
original owner of the stone.
Characteristics of the stone
The four Cs of the diamond, color, cut, clarity, and
carat weight are considered under the characteristics of the stone. The
diamond is a naturally colored, fancy light pink, cushion-cut stone of VS-2
clarity, having a weight of 28.15 carats and dimensions of 21.10 x 19.94 x 11.59 mm.
Early history
Being a historic diamond of the 15th century, the stone
is undoubtedly of Indian origin, because India was the only source country
for diamonds prior to the early 18th century. The mine of origin of the Agra diamond is not exactly known, but
should be one of the five groups of mines that was situated on the eastern
side of the Deccan Plateau. Even though the diamond fell into the hands of
the Mughal emperors in 1526,it must have been in the family of the Rajah of
Gwalior for at least a hundred years before that, which makes it a diamond
of the 15th century. Out of the five groups of mines in the eastern side of
the Deccan Plateau, the mines that had been worked since ancient times were
the Sambalpur mines on the banks of the Mahanadi river, which is the diamond
river mentioned by Ptolemy in his accounts of ancient India. The
diamonds of ancient origin might have come from the alluvial deposits of the
Mahanadi river, at Sambalpur. Even the Agra diamond might have had it's
origin in these mines. The Golconda mines at Kollur, came into active
production only in the 16th century, and could not be the source of the
Agra, which had been known in the 15th century.
Subsequent history
The Agra is a historic diamond having a fascinating and
enthralling story behind it, that dates back to the 16th century A.D. when
the Mughal emperors first captured parts of northern India, and set up their
seat of government in Agra. In the year 1526 the Mughal emperor Babur
captured Agra and Delhi after a fiercely fought battle with the combined
forces of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi and the Rajah of Gwalior at Panipat. Babur's
real name was Zahir-ud-deen Muhammad and he was the son of Umar Sheik, the
king of Ferghana (presently in Uzbekistan). Babur was the 5th in direct male
descent from Timur (Tamerlane) and 13th through the female line from Genghis
Khan ,the first of the great Mongol conquerors. While being a brilliant
scholar Zahir-ud-deen was also a fearless and brave soldier. This earned him
the name "Babur", meaning the" tiger". After the capture of Agra, Babur sent
his son Humayun to occupy the city. He entered the city with his army and
occupied it without any resistance, and in the process captured the members
of the family of the slain Raja of Gwalior.
However Humayun was gracious
enough to spare the lives of the captives who were subsequently pardoned and
freed. The family members of the Raja, were so overwhelmed by the
magnanimous gesture of Humayun, that they decided to present the royal
jewels of the Raja to the Moghul emperor, as an expression of gratitude. The
Agra diamond which was one of the prized possessions of the Raja of Gwalior,
thus became the property of the first Mughal emperor of India. Historical
records testify to the fact that the Agra diamond was worn by emperor Babur
on his turban.
The Agra diamond was then inherited
by a succession of Mughal emperors, which included Humayun (1530-56), Akbar
the Great (1556-1605), Jahangir (1605-27), Shah Jahaan (1628-58), Aurangazeb
(1658-1707), and eventually to Muhammad Shah (1719-48).It is on record that
even Akbar the Great, the third Mughal emperor, wore the Agra diamond on his
head-dress. During the rule of Muhammad Shah, the Persian conqueror Nadir
Shah invaded Delhi and Agra in February 1739,and sacked the two cities and
plundered their wealth. Nadir carried away Shah Jahaan's Peacock Throne, and
all the crown jewels of the Mughal emperors, which included such famous
diamonds as the Koh-i-Nur, Darya-i-Nur, Nur-ul-Ain, etc. The value of the
booty taken away by Nadir Shah was estimated to be around 70 crores (700
million rupees), and this helped him to exempt all Iranians from taxes for
the next three years. It appears that the Agra diamond had somehow escaped
being plundered by Nadir's forces. Perhaps the diamond was temporarily out
of the Mughal treasury at that crucial moment. The idea that the diamond was
recaptured and brought back to Delhi cannot be sustained, as there was not a
single soul in Delhi who could have challenged the might of Nadir and his
forces. In fact Nadir was reported to have ordered the massacre of some
30,000 Delhi citizens as reprisal for the killing of some of his soldiers.
The story of how the Agra, the pink diamond left India to England after the
disintegration of the Mughal empire and it's eventual termination in 1857
after the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah II was exiled to Rangoon for his
part in the Indian mutiny, seems to be shrouded in mystery. According to one
version, as related by Lord Donegall to Edwin Streeter-the famous London
Jeweler, who purchased the Agra in 1891-in the year 1857,the year of the
Indian Mutiny, when Lord Donegall was serving in India, the diamond was taken
away from the possession of the Mughal ruler of Delhi Bahadur Shah II. At
that time he was secretary ,and belonged to the same regiment as the young
officer who had gained possession of the stone.
The officers decided to smuggle the diamond to England, without the
knowledge of the superiors in the Army or the Colonial Government, and
eventually share the proceeds, after it's sale. The officers adopted an
ingenuous method to smuggle out the diamond, by making a horse to swallow a
horse ball in which the diamond was concealed. However when the regiment
reached the port of embarkation, the horse was taken ill and had to be shot.
The diamond was then removed from it's stomach and taken to England.
According to this story, the smuggling of the diamond took place in the year
1857,but it is well known that by the year 1844,the Agra was already in the
possession of Charles, the duke of Brunswick, one of the famous jewel
collectors of the 19th century. The duke of Brunswick purchased the Agra on
22nd November 1844,from George Blogg, a partner of the well known diamond
merchants in London at that time, Blogg & Martin, for a sum of 348,600
French francs equivalent to £ 13,760.In the 1860 catalogue of the duke's
jewel collection, the Agra is listed with a note drawing attention to the
diamond being taken possession by Babur in Agra in 1526 and to it's rank as
the 14th important diamond among the world's great diamonds.
If we accept that the diamond purchased by the duke of Brunswick from Blogg
& Martin was the original Agra of Babur, then the diamond in Lord Donegall's
version was not the same stone owned by the duke of Brunswick. This points
to the existence of two separate diamonds and evidence had been put forward
showing that the smuggled stone weighed 46 carats, whereas the stone owned
by the duke weighed 41 craats .
The Agra then came into the possession of Bram Hertz, one of the foremost
diamond dealers in Paris, who re-cut the diamond from 41 carats to 31.41
carats. the purpose of re-cutting was to eliminate some black inclusions. In
the year 1891 Edwin Streeter purchased the Agra from Bram Hertz, in a barter
deal that exchanged the diamond for a pearl necklace worth £ 14,000, and £
1,000 in cash.
The Agra then featured in a famous law suit that drew much public attention
in the year 1895, when it was in the possession of Edwin Streeter's company,
Messrs. Streeter & Co. The plaintiff in the case was a 25-year old young man
named Joseph Charles Tasker, who had inherited a fortune of nearly one
million pounds sterling from a relative. The allegation made by the
plaintiff against the defendant's Messrs. Streeter & Co. was of wrongful
inducement by the defendants to make purchases of some gems which included
the Agra diamond, at inflated prices, at a time when the plaintiff was
seriously sick and incapable of entering into any business transactions. The
counsel for the Plaintiff Mr. Finlay pleaded that the alleged purchases made
by his client be declared invalid and set aside. The counsel for the
defendant in this case was the famous attorney Sir Edward Clarke, who
subsequently appeared for Oscar Wilde at his famous trial. After a
sensational trial that lasted for 5 days, which led to the leading of
evidence from experts in the gem trade ,on behalf of both the plaintiff and
the defendants, and also evidence by Mr. Edwin Streeter himself, the jury
returned a verdict for the plaintiff concerning certain items of jewelry
that included the Agra diamond ,and for the defendant concerning others.
Thus the transaction pertaining to the Agra diamond was cancelled by the
court, and the famous diamond came back into the possession of Messrs.
Streeter &Co.
The Agra remained in Messrs. Streeter's stock until Edwin Streeter retired
from the business in 1904.His successors La Cloche Freres, a Parisian firm
of jewelers acquired the premises and stock through the United Investment
Corporation. Action was taken by the Parisian firm to dispose of the stocks.
Most of the low priced items were bought by Debenham & Freebody. The more
valuable items, including the Agra were auctioned by Christie's of London on
22nd February 1905. The sale attracted a large crowd of people including a
number Indian Collectors. The highlight of the sale was the Agra, which was
described as a magnificent rose pink diamond of the highest quality weighing
31.4 carats. The bidding for the Agra opened at 1,000 guineas (a
guinea is a British gold coin worth 21 shillings or £ 1.05) but was finally
purchased by Mr. Maz Meyer of Hatton Garden for 5,100 guineas.
The Agra again made it's appearance at a public auction held in Paris 4
years later, on 24th June 1909.At this auction the jewels belonging to
Solomon Habib came under the hammer. Eight items came up for bidding of
which the 5th item was the "Idol's Eye" and the 8th item the "Hope diamond."
The 6th item undoubtedly was the Agra and was described as cushion-shaped,
rose colored, diamond weighing 31.50 carats. The Agra was withdrawn from the
auction, as the maximum bid realized was only 82,000 francs, which fell far
short of the reserve price of 300,000 francs.
Shortly afterwards the Agra was acquired by Mr. Louis Winans, the son of an
American railroad engineer from Baltimore, Mr. William Walter Winans, who
built Russia's first commercial railway from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Louis
Winans inherited a large fortune from his father and settled in Brighton,
England. where he commissioned a local firm of jewelers, Lewis & Sons to
help form his remarkable collection of colored diamonds. The Winans
collection included some spectacular stones such as the "Agra Diamond" and
the "Golden Drop". The "Golden Drop" weighing 18.49 carats is one of the
most intense and pure yellow diamonds of it's size ever known.
Last transaction and present owners of the
diamond
The Louis Winans collection was inherited by one of his descendants, a lady, in the
year 1927.During world war ii, she placed the collection of jewels which she
inherited from Louis Winans, including the Agra, in an iron casket, which
was then buried in her garden, and was subsequently recovered safely by her
at the end of the war. The Agra and two other diamonds from this collection
were put up for sale at the Christie's auction held on 20th June 1990 .Even
though the stone was expected to fetch a price of 1.5 million sterling
pounds, it eventually sold at an enhanced price of 4.07 million sterling
pounds, after fierce bidding at the auction. The winning bid was made by
telephone by the SIBA Corporation of Hong Kong, who have become the proud
owners of this ancient and historical diamond. SIBA also lays claim to
another prized possession-viz. The Alnatt diamond weighing 101.29 carats,
which it purchased at the Christie's auction in May 1996 for $3,043,496.The
32.34-carat Agra has now been re-cut for the second time, to a modified
cushion shape, and now weighs 28.15 carats.
List of famous pink diamonds
(arranged in descending order of carat weights)
|
S/No |
Name |
Carat Weight |
Color |
|
1 |
Darya-i-Nur |
186 |
light pink |
|
2 |
Nur-ul-Ain |
60 |
light pink |
|
3 |
Steinmetz pink |
59.60 |
fancy vivid pink |
|
4 |
Shah Jahaan |
56.71 |
light pink |
|
5 |
Agra |
32.34 |
fancy light pink |
|
6 |
Pink Sunrise |
29.79 |
fancy pink |
|
7 |
Mouawad Lilac |
24.44 |
fancy pink |
|
8 |
Graff Pink Orchid |
22.84 |
fancy purplish pink |
|
9 |
Mouawad Pink |
21.06 |
fancy pink |
|
10 |
Hortensia |
20.00 |
light orange pink |
|
11 |
Conde Pink |
9.01 |
light pink |
Chemistry of colored diamonds
Diamonds are of two types -Type I and Type II
Type I diamonds contain trace amounts of Nitrogen (less than 0.1%)as
impurities. The Nitrogen atoms are associated in the crystal structure
of diamond.98% of natural diamonds are type I.
Type II diamonds do not contain detectable amounts of Nitrogen. Type II
diamonds are 1-2% of all natural diamonds.
Type I diamonds can have Nitrogen atoms as aggregates of even numbers eg:-2,4
or odd numbers eg:- 1 (single atoms),3.
Diamonds containing aggregates of even numbers of Nitrogen atoms are
colorless.
Diamonds containing scattered single atoms of Nitrogen or aggregates of 3
atoms have a color range from pale to intense yellow or brown.
Type II diamonds can be type IIa or type IIb
Type IIa diamonds are without any detectable amounts of Nitrogen and
absolutely colorless and considered as the "purest of the Pure". eg:-the
Cullinan diamond, the Koh-i-Nur diamond. They are 1-2% of all natural
diamonds.
Sometimes type IIa diamonds can have structural anomalies due to plastic
deformation such as twisting and bending of the crystal structure, as the
diamond rose to the surface of the earth. This leads to absorption of light
in certain regions of the spectrum imparting pink, red, purple, or brown
colors to the stones. They are less than 0.1 % of all natural diamonds.
Type IIb diamonds do not contain Nitrogen but instead contain trace amounts
of Boron, which imparts a grayish blue or blue color to the diamonds. They
are less than 0.1% of all natural diamonds.
Green diamonds are formed by natural irradiation of the diamonds over a
period of millions of years.
Pink diamonds are therefore type IIa diamonds in which the pink coloration
appears to be caused by plastic deformation of the crystal structure.
Occurrence of pink diamonds
Pink diamonds are extremely rare in occurrence like red, purple, and blue
diamonds. The occurrence of these fancy colored diamonds is less
than 0.1% of all natural diamonds.
Along the course of history the source of pink diamonds in the world had
also changed. The earliest sources of pink diamonds were the
groups of diamond mines on the eastern side of the Deccan Plateau in India,
particularly the Kollur mines east of Golconda, in Southern India. The
Darya-i-Nur ,Nur-ul-Ain, and other historic pink diamonds from India, might
have originated in these mines. After the late 19th century the South
African diamond mines became the main source of pink diamonds in the world.
The Steinmetz Pink, the Mouawad Lilac, the Mouawad Pink etc. might have
originated in these mines. But today the main source of pink diamonds in the
world is the Argyle diamond mines of Western Australia. Out of the total
production of diamonds in the Argyle mines less than 1.0% consists of high
quality colored diamonds which are mainly pink. The Argyle mines have become
a consistent source of pink diamonds in the world, even though the stones
are quite small. The size of polished pink diamonds from Argyle averages
about 1.0 carat, and about 50 carats are produced annually. Since 1985,more
than 700 pink diamonds weighing over 550 carats have been sold by Argyle.
The rarity of pink diamonds at Argyle is clearly shown by the following
statistical evidence. Only a single carat of pink diamond is produced for
every one million carats of rough diamonds. This works out to an
unbelievably low percentage of 0.0001% of the total production.
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