Currently, there are many beautiful gems in the world, but not one of them can be compared with a huge stone, mined in 1905. The world's largest diamond was found in a South African mine near the city of Pretoria.
History of the African Mine
Thomas Cullinan began working as a bricklayer. Having accumulated a small amount of money, he decided to go in search of diamonds. A few kilometers from Pretoria, he acquired the Elandsfontein farm in 1904 and worked effectively on it. He chose very carefully and fixed his eyes on the site with a hill. The hill, as it turned out later, formed over the kimberlite pipe on which the Premier mine was located. The place got its name in honor of the head of government, who was present at the opening of the mine.
Unique find
In the afternoon, mine director Frederick Wells conducted a daily audit. His attention was attracted by an unusually bright reflection of some object. Inside the pit 5.5 meters deep, he saw a splinter. The subject strongly reflected the rays of the sun and did not look like glass. Going down into the pit, he carefully using a knife to dig out the largest diamond in the world from the wall. After checking its hardness, he was happy to see that he was facing a gem of high quality. Wells received a reward of $ 10, 000 for his unusual find, and she herself was named after the head of the diamond mining company, Sir Thomas Cullinan, who arrived at the mines that day.
African giant
It was clear to the mining experts that the stone found was part of a larger giant, the dimensions of which could be 2-3 times larger. The world's largest diamond was the size of a large fist of an adult and was significantly superior to all the crystals ever found in all corners of the world. Its initial weight was 3106 metric carats. The stone surprised not only with its impressive parameters, but also with excellent quality. It was completely transparent and colorless. A small crack has formed on its surface. It was because of this small defect that it was decided to split the giant into several separate stones.
A huge nugget was sold to the Transvaal government for 150 thousand British pounds.
Gorgeous Crystal Travels
According to the official version, in November 1907 the stone was donated to the birthday of the great monarch Edward VII as a sign of the loyalty of the annexed colony after the Boer Wars. In fact, the “gift” cost the British treasury very expensive (almost a million dollars), and the diamond was sold.
At the end of January 1908, the diamond was handed over to the Amsterdam company for cutting, and on February 10, master Abraham Asscher set to work. The most interesting thing is that from Africa the insured largest diamond in the world traveled on a warship, and calmly moved through the English Channel in the pocket of a jeweler on a simple ferry for passengers.
Royal diamonds
In order to study the structure of the giant and correctly determine the place of impact for its split into several parts, it took some time. An incision was made in the stone, a special knife was placed in it, and with one powerful swing they smashed it. Not every master has to break a giant diamond, which for a long time calmly dozed in the bowels of the earth, into several smaller stones. The master was very nervous. The crystal was so strong that only on the second attempt it was possible to split it into two large stones, the sizes of 2029.94 and 1068.09 carats, and three small pieces. The first Cullinan (the photo shows it in the form of a drop with 74 faces and weighing 530.2 carats), King George V called the "Big Star of Africa." He became the largest diamond in the world. He was placed in the upper part of the sovereign scepter, which is located in the Tower of London. Jewelers made 317.4 carat Cullinan 2 diamond from the second large stone, having 66 facets - the second largest crystal in the world. For this giant (base parameters - 4.3x4.1 cm), the place was determined in the imperial crown, which is located in the Tower. Of the remaining pieces of diamond material, two more large diamonds were made - pans, whose weight was 94.4 carats (Cullinan 3) and a square crystal weighing 63.65 carats (Cullinam 4). Since 1911, they are in the crown of the Queen of England. Later, in 1959, they were assigned a place in the brooch.
Cullinan 5 weighing 18.8 carats was cut in the shape of a heart and inserted into a brooch. He intended for Queen Mary. Later, he was removed from there and inserted into the crown of the female crown. Elizabeth II was very fond of Cullinan 6 weighing 8.8 carats with the Marquise cut. She gave the order to strengthen the crystal in a diamond-emerald necklace, which she often wore in her youth. Diamond Cullinan 7 has a weight of 11.5 carats and a Marquise cut, Cullinan 8 has an emerald cut and a weight of 6.8 carats, Cullinan 9 has a weight of 4.4 carats, a pear-shaped cut.
In addition to large diamonds, smaller ones were made from the largest diamond: 5 weighing up to 4.4 carats and 96 miniature gems weighing 7.55 carats. The total weight of all precious stones together is 1063.65 carats. During jewelry processing, there were 65.75% of losses from the entire mass of the giant found.
The artistic cutting of all the stones after the split took four years. As a result, 105 diamonds were made. The largest diamonds in the world are nine large gemstones that are the pride of the English crown.
