De Beers Diamond

Origin of name

The De Beers diamond gets its name from the mine where the diamond was discovered in 1888, the De Beers mine, one of the two mines that were dug initially on the farm belonging to Nicolas and Diederick de Beer, near Kimberley, after diamonds were discovered in this farm in the mid-1860s.

Characteristics of the diamond

The De Beers diamond is a 234.65-carat, pale yellow, cushion cut diamond of unknown clarity grade. It is the 2nd largest faceted yellow diamond (disregarding the un-cut Oppenheimer) and the largest cushion-cut yellow diamond in the world. It is also the 7th largest faceted diamond in the world. See table below and the famous diamonds rank order list.

List of famous yellow diamonds greater than 100 carats in weight

S/N	Name	Carat Weight	Shape/Cut	Color
1	Incomparable	407.48	shield shaped	fancy brownish yellow
2	Oppenheimer-uncut	253.70	natural octahedral	yellow
3	De Beers	234.65	cushion	light yellow
4	Red Cross	205.07	cushion	canary yellow
5	unnamed	200.87	pear	yellow
6	Moon	183.00	round	pale yellow
7	unnamed	180.85	briolette	yellow
8	Star of Peace	170.49	pear	brownish yellow
9	Hope of Africa	151.91	cushion	fancy yellow
10	Unnamed	150.00	emerald	yellow
11	Florentine	137.27	double rose cut	light yellow
12	Algeiba Star	135.03	square brilliant	yellow
13	Sarah	132.43	cushion	fancy vivid yellow
14	Golden Hue	132.42	cushion	yellow
15	Tiffany Yellow	128.54	cushion	canary yellow
16	Stewart	123.00	brilliant	yellow
17	Meister	118.00	cushion	yellow
18	Vainer Briolette	116.60	briolette	fancy light yellow
19	Unnamed	114.64	briolette	yellow
20	Unnamed	114.03	cushion	yellow
21	Mouna	112.50	cushion	fancy intense yellow
22	African Yellow	112.00	-	yellow
23	Anon	108.04	emerald	yellow
24	Rojtman	107.46	cushion	yellow
25	Golden Sun	105.54	emerald	yellow
26	Golden Door	104.95	pear	yellow
27	Alnatt	101.29	cushion	fancy vivid yellow
28	Sunrise	100.52	emerald	yellow

 

The diamond is most probably a Type IaAB diamond, being a pale yellow diamond, in which the yellow color is caused by groups of 3-atoms of nitrogen, known as N3 centers, which absorb visible light in the blue region of the spectrum, causing it's complementary color yellow color to manifest. The diamond also has A-aggregates (Groups of 2-atoms), and B-aggregates (groups of 4-atoms), but these do not affect the color of the diamond.

 

History

After the discovery of diamonds in South Africa in the mid-1860s on the farm belonging to Nicholas and Diederick de Beer, two diamond mines were dug on the farm, one known as the Kimberley and the other De Beers. In the year 1871, the English entrepreneur Cecil Rhodes, made an investment on these mines, and eventually after the expansion of his investment bought up most of the diamond mines in Southern Africa. In the month of March, year 1888, Rhodes incorporated the De beers Consolidated Mines Ltd.

Johannes Nicholas de Beer

Not long after the formation of this new company, a very large, naturally formed, octahedral, light yellow diamond crystal was discovered in the De Beers mine, weighing 428.50 carats. The octahedral crystal had dimensions of 38 mm square at the center and 47.6 mm along it's long axis. It was the second largest gem-quality rough diamond to be discovered, after the 787 carat Great Mogul diamond. However after the discovery of the 995-carat Excelsior in 1893 and the 650.80-carat Jubilee in 1895, the De Beers diamond was pushed to the 4th place by the end of the 19th century. Today, the De Beers diamond occupies the 14th place in this list of largest gem-quality rough diamonds ever discovered. See table below.

 

List of largest gem-quality rough diamonds ever discovered

Name	Year of discovery	Carat Weight	Position
Cullinan	1905	3,106	1
Excelsior	1893	995	2
Incomparable	1980s	890	3
Great Mogul	1650	787	4
Millennium Star	1990	777	5
Golden Jubilee	1985	755	6
President Vargas	1938	726.6	7
Jonker	1934	726	8
Jubilee	1895	650.80	9
Kimberley Octahedral		616	10
Lesotho Promise	2006	603	11
Centenary	1986	599	12
De Grisogono		587	13
De Beers	1888	428.50	14
Niarchos	1954	426.50	15

 

The discovery of the largest rough diamond in the four mines at Kimberley around this period, provided an added incentive for further mining activity.

Even though the country where the De Beers diamond was cut is not known precisely, it must have been at Amsterdam in the Netherlands, because around this time Amsterdam was the leading diamond cutting center in the world, and most of the diamonds mined in South Africa were eventually reaching there. The rough diamond was transformed by the cutters, into a 234.65-carat, cushion-cut, pale yellow stone.

The De Beers diamond was purchased by the Maharajah of Patiala, after it was displayed at an exhibition held in Paris. Patiala was a princely state in Punjab, in Northwestern India, which at the time of independence, merged with India in 1947. The Princes and Princesses of the former princely states of India, were granted special privileges even after independent India came into existence in 1947. These privileges were subsequently withdrawn during the period of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, as Prime Minister, by a constitutional amendment passed in 1970.

Bhupendra Singh, Maharajah of Patiala

In 1928 at the request of the Maharajah of Patiala, the jewelry firm Cartier's of Paris set the De Beers diamond, as the centerpiece of a ceremonial necklace  that came to be known as "Patiala Necklace," which without any doubt was one of the most spectacular pieces of jewelry ever created. In addition to the De Beers  diamond weighing  234.69 carats, there were seven other big diamonds ranging from 18 to 73 carats, incorporated into the necklace. Several expensive Burmese Rubies were also placed in the necklace. In all, the necklace also contained 2,930, smaller diamonds, weighing about 962.25 carats. Had this unique jewelry masterpiece existed today, by current market values, in addition to it's great historic significance which also adds to it's value, the price of this spectacular necklace, would have been beyond estimation.

Patiala Necklace by Cartier

But unfortunately after the abolition of the Patiala Raj with India's independence in 1947, the Patiala necklace too disappeared. Perhaps, it was disposed of by the royal family fearing it's confiscation by the new Indian Government. Then in 1998, the remnants of the Patiala necklace were accidentally discovered in a second hand jewelry shop in London, by a curious customer. All the big stones in the necklace, which included the De Beers diamond  and the seven other big diamonds ranging from 18 to 73 carats, and the rubies had all been disposed of. Cartier's acquired the remains of the necklace from the London jewelry store, and embarked upon the most difficult task of trying to restore the necklace to it's former pristine glory. It took them four long years to complete the job. At first they tried to replace the missing diamonds with natural white sapphire or white topaz, but the results were very disappointing. Subsequently, they decided to use cubic zirconium to replace the seven large diamonds. The resulting effect was encouraging, though not as good as the original diamonds. Colorless zirconium resemble diamond in it's luster and brilliance. The missing De beers diamond was replaced with an exact replica made either of  yellow cubic zirconium or synthetic yellow sapphire. The original Burma rubies were substituted with synthetic rubies.

The De beers diamond suddenly surfaced again on May 6th, 1982, when it's anonymous owner put it up for auction at Sotheby's in Geneva. The speculation in the diamond trade was that the bidding for the stone could reach as much as $ 4.5 million, but eventually the stone was purchased at the top bid of $ 3.16 million, by an anonymous buyer, still much below it's undisclosed reserve.

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