Facts Relating to this book:
1 carat = 0.2 grams
In London in the mid-1870s, 25 shillings-about $85 in today's terms-went a long way. You could buy 7 grams of gold, 40 liters of rum, or about a half kilogram of opium. Where you couldn't get a bargain, however, was the jewelry store. That same amount of money bought just 1 carat, or 0.2 gram, of a gem called tiger's-eye. When rich sources of that precious stone were found in western South Africa in the 1880s, prices plummeted. By 1900, tiger's-eye was considered merely semiprecious. Today, a savvy shopper can purchase the gem for about $1.50 per carat.
In its natural state, tiger's-eye is an unremarkable rock with a dull sheen. When polished and illuminated, however, the stone reflects a narrow band of light that changes position as the gem is turned back and forth. This effect, called chatoyancy, gets its name from the French phrase for "cat's eye" because of its resemblance to a feline's slitted pupil. Chatoyancy occurs when light reflects from minute, parallel ridges, fibers, or tubes within a transparent material.
Great Mogul Diamond is believed to have been discovered around 1650 most probably around Kollur Mine in the Golconda region of southern India. Tavernier described the diamond as "The stone is of the same form as if one cut an egg through the middle.
Fabled 280-carat (56 g) mogul-cut diamond, now lost, although presumed by historians to have been re-cut as the Orlov. An Indian mogul cut rumored to have served as the eye of a Hindu statue, and currently is part of the Kremlin diamond fund, weighing approximately 190 carats (38 g).
The rough diamond was gifted by Emir Jemla to Shah Jahan, The Emperor Of India as part of diplomacy between the two families.
Jemla described it as “that celebrated diamond which has been generally deemed unparalleled in size and beauty.”
A Venetian lapidary named Ortensio Borgio was assigned to cut the stone. It is believed that the Great Mogul Diamond exhibited several inclusions. Rejecting the idea of cutting the diamond into several fine stones, Borgio decided to address the inclusion problem by grinding away at it until the unwanted flaws were gone. Much to the horror of the Emperor, Borgio’s work yielded very poor results, including a great loss of weight. Showing great restraint, Shah Jehan spared Borgio’s head, instead fining him 10,000 rupees (all the money he had) for his ineptitude.
Around 1665 the Shah’s son, Shah Aurangzeb, showed the stone to the famous jeweler and world traveler Jean Baptiste Tavernier. At that time Tavernier wrote in his Six Voyages: “The first piece that Akel Khan(Chief Keeper of the King's jewels) placed in my hands was the great diamond, which is rose cut, round and very high on one side.
Later, the Great Mogul Diamond became part of the spoils of war when India was invaded and Delhi sacked by the Persian ruler Nadir Shah. Nadir Shah returned with the stone to his home in Isfahan in 1739. However, Nadir Shah’s ownership proved shorted-lived. He was assassinated in 1747 and the stone disappeared.
There are many legends regarding its fate. Some believed it to be the stone from which the Koh-i-noor was cut, or perhaps the Darya-ye-Noor, but most popularly it is speculated to be the Orlov Diamond because its bluish tinge and rose cut are similar to the Great Mogul Diamond. A more probable explanation is that it was stolen and cut into smaller gems to disguise its origin.
Some of the most famous diamonds mined in the Kollur mines are:
Koh-i Nūr (186ct) - in the British Crown Jewels, London
The Great Moghul Diamond (787ct) (uncut) - Lost after Nādir Shāh sacked Delhi
The Pitt or Regent Diamond (410ct) - in the Apollo Gallery, Louvre Museum, Paris
The Orloff Diamond (300 ct) - in the Diamond Treasury, Kremlin, Moscow
Nizām Diamond (340ct) - in the Nizām's Treasury, Hyderabad
Daryā-ye Nūr (182 ct) - in the Iranian Crown Jewels, on display Central Bank of Iran, Tehran
The Hope Diamond (67ct) - in the American Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian Institution, Washington
The Golconda (135ct) - belonging to Dunklings Jewellers, Melbourne, Australia.
The Kolluru Diamond (63ct) - Purchased by Tavernier and present location unknown.
Dresden Green Diamond (41 ct) - The New Green Vault" in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.