Kohinoor: The Story of the World’s Most Infamous Diamond

by William Dalrymple

The diamond was finished days after Wellington’s death. The bill for the recutting came to an eye-watering 8000 pounds – the equivalent of more than a million pounds today. Despite all the assurances from Coster and Garrard, the Koh-i-Noor did not retain ‘the majority of its size and value’. Instead, what was left was unrecognizable. The cut had more than halved the Koh-i-Noor’s mass from 190.3 metric carats to 93 metric carats. It now sparkled brilliantly, but could lie meekly in the palm of a hand. News of the reduction left Prince Albert devastated and he braced himself for savage criticism from the press and the public. In the event, however, and perhaps because the diamond had been so poorly received in its original form, Prince Albert got off lightly. All but a few newspapers praised the new and improved Koh-i-Noor. It was flatter and rounder than its original egg shape, cut into what jewellers called an ‘oval stellar brilliant’. Traditionally such diamonds were given thirty-three facets on top in ‘the table’ of the gem and twenty-five facets below, ‘in the pavilion’. However, the Dutch cutters had given the Koh-i-Noor perfect symmetry with thirty-three facets on top and underneath. In the pale light of the English sun, the Koh-i-Noor had at last learned to shine.