Cutting diamonds has been a secretive activity. The King's Diamond was cut in a secret location in Amterdam in 1908. It is one of the Cullinan diamonds and was part of the crown jewels.
The Cullinan Diamond is very famous - it is the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever discovered. The rough stone weighed 3100 carats. Cullinan was the owner of the mine. The stone was so large that the original miner who found it thought it was a practical joke of a large piece of glass hammered in by colleagues.
Turning a rough stone into a diamond starts with the "splitting operation." It sounds medical. It took place in the presence of several experts and a small number of privileged persons in the trade, who have obtained special permission from the authorities in London. That was 1908.
Hard thinking and studying went into the time between when the "firm" received the great diamond and the cutting activity.
From the 1908 account: "The first problem that Mr. Joseph Asscher, the head of the firm, had to solve was how to cut the diamond so as to eliminate some very bad spots existing in it. For this purpose, a special model of the diamond in clay was made. On this model has been concentrated the attention of the firm. It was cut into pieces to give an idea of what would happen if the genuine stone were treated in the same way."
Below are two pictures - the first is the original Cullinan diamond and the second shows the nine major diamonds that resulted from the cutting of the Cullinan Diamond; the largest two stones, the Cullinan I and Cullinan II (considered siblings), are now set in the Sovereign’s Sceptre with Cross and the Imperial State Crown. These featured in the coronation of King Charles III.
There is so much legend in precious stones. And there is much scientific exploration that takes place to understand how and where they are formed. There are metals in tiny pockets of diamonds that provide chemical clues to how the diamonds were formed and how deep below the surface. The Cullinan mine diamonds were some of the deepest.
It makes me appreciate the mystical quality of gemstones. I hadn't thought about the complexity of creating the diamond jewel and all the intrigues and adventures that went along with something so valuable.
There's my own version of diamonds - little ice crystals at TBG one winter.
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