Cyprus Fashion 2015 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry 131

 Cyprus Fashion 2015 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry.  

By Samina Aamir

No one has ever explained why such a bulky step cut was applied to this diamond. It seems that priority was given to weight retention, since the prestige of a diamond depended at that time primarily on its weight. Dr. Kunz state "that this unprecedented number of facets was given the stone not to make it more brilliant, but less brilliant. The stone was of yellow colour, and it was thought better to give it the effect of 

a smothered, smoldering fire than one of flashing radiance."** The stone has an unusual feature, in a yellow diamond, of retaining its color by artificial light.*** The designers decided to ignore the modern rules of proportioning (such as those introduced to America by Morse) since these would have produced a Brilliant of well below the magic figure of 100 carats, which entitles a diamond to the name of 'Paragon'. Here, even the classic proportions would not have done -- a Brilliant with the width and length of this stone (27 mm × 28.25 mm) with 45° angles would have barely weighed 100 carats.

Cook Islands Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry 130

Cook Islands Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry.  

By Samina Aamir

The Tiffany Yellow, set in Jean Schlumberger's "Bird on the Rock" brooch.

Since being viewed by this distinguished visitor, the Tiffany Yellow has been seen by millions of others in almost seventy years of continuous display in Tiffany's store. It has also been shown at numerous exhibitions: they include the Chicago Columbian in 1893, the Pan-American in 1901, the Chicago Century of Progress in 1933-34 and the New York World's Fair in 1939. The first occasion on which the diamond was worn was in 1957 at the Tiffany Ball held in Newport, Rhode Island, when the chairwoman of the ball, Mrs. Sheldon Whitehouse, had the honor of wearing it, 

mounted for the occasion in a necklace of white diamonds. In 1971 the Tiffany Yellow returned to South Africa for the exhibition which marked the centennial celebrations of the Kimberly Mine. After an absence of forty years from London, Tiffany's re-opened their branch in Old Bond Street in 1986, and displayed the diamond to herald its return.

Burkina Faso Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry 129

Burkina Faso Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry.  

By Samina Aamir

The Diamond’s origin is well known to gemologists, historians and jewelry collectors. Discovered in the Kimberley diamond mines in South Africa in 1877, the 287.42-carat rough stone was acquired the following year by founder Charles Lewis Tiffany. It solidified Mr. Tiffany’s reputation as the “King of Diamonds” and made his enterprise the world’s diamond authority.

Estonia Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry 128

Estonia Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry. 

 By Samina Aamir

Image Source

The Klopman diamond is a fabulous, legendaryand huge diamond, said to have a curse associated with it.

The Klopman diamond was originally the subject of a traditional joke, a typical version of which is:

A businessman boarded a plane to find, sitting next to him, an elegant woman wearing the largest, most stunning diamond ring he had ever seen. He asked her about it.

“This is the Klopman diamond,” she said. “It is beautiful, but it’s like the Hope diamond; there is a terrible curse that goes with it.” “What’s the curse?” the man asked. She said “Mr. Klopman.”

Due to the use of the name “Klopman” and the somewhat dark humor, and the fact that it was one of Myron Cohen’s standards, this joke is sometimes characterised as Yiddish in origin. Some commentators maintain that names other than Klopman would not be as funny, and point to the fact that this joke has survived essentially unaltered for decades.

A later joke of Myron Cohen, similar in nature, goes as follows:

Comoros Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry 127

Comoros Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry.  

By Samina Aamir

Further evidence that the Tiffany Yellow Diamond must have originated in the claims of the historically important French Company is show by the fact that the gen was shipped to Paris. Experts there studied it for one year before it was cut under the supervision of the distinguished gemologist George F. Kunz in 1878. It yielded a cushion-cut brilliant of 128.54 (metric) carats, measuring 27 mm wide, 28.25 mm long and 22.2 mm deep. It was given a total of 90 facets: 48 on the pavilion, 40 on the crown, plus the table and culet. The extra facets were cut not to give the diamond more sparkle, rather to make it smolder as if it were lit by fire. The gem is high in fluorescence and retains this rich color in artificial light, but is even more beautiful by day.

Colombia Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry 126

Colombia Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry.  

By Samina Aamir

Sine if the Kimberly Central's shareholders, however, disapproved of Barnato selling out to Cecil Rhodes and challenged the merger in the Courts. It was the judge who told them that if Barnato agreed to put Kimberly Central into voluntary liquidation, De Beers could simply purchase its assets. Accordingly this is what the company did: Rhodes wrote out a check for £5,338,650 for the assets of Kimberly Central, which, in those days, was the largest sum of money ever covered in a single check.

Cocos (Keeling) Islands Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry 125

 Cocos (Keeling) Islands Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry. 

 By Samina Aamir

The stage was now set for a titanic battle for the remainder of the Kimberly Central's issued capital. Both Rhodes and Barnato bought recklessly, and at a time when the price of diamonds barely covered the cost of production, the company's shares soared from £14 to £49 within a few months. Eventually Rhodes and his associates could claim to own three-fifths of Kimberly Central's issued capital and Barnato realized he had been beaten. He surrendered in March of 1888, accepting the terms which gave Rhodes the control he had sought. On March 12th, De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited was formerly incorporated. The new company took over assets which represented the whole of the De Beers Mine, three-quarters of the Kimberly Mine and a controlling interest in the Bultfontein and Dutoitspan Mines. Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato were appointed among the company's first Life Governors.

Christmas Island Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry 124

Christmas Island Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry.  

By Samina Aamir

Since his company was going so well, Barnato saw no reason at all why he should join any scheme of Rhodes for amalgamation. However, one obstacle lay in the path of the Kimberly Central, namely the Compagnie Français de Diamant du Cap. By virtue of its position within the Kimberly Mine and the policy it pursued, the French Company impeded any success of future operations by Barnato's company. Consequently Barnato made proposals to the French: but Rhodes had already done likewise and had succeeded in raising the finance necessary for the 

purchase of the French Company in Paris. Rhodes then laid a trap for his rival. He told Barnato that he could acquire the French Company if he wanted it and would not ask for cash in payment, only the equivalent of the price paid in Kimberly Central's recently issued new shares. By this means Rhodes was able to secure a useful foothold in the form of one-fifth of Kimberly Central's issued capital; all the time this had been his real objective, not the control of the French Company. Barnato acquiesced in his plan, falling right into the trap Rhodes had set for him.

Chinese Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry 123

Chinese Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry.  

By Samina Aamir

Born Barnett Isaacs in 1852, the son of a small shopkeeper off Petticoat Lane, one of the best-known streets in London's East End, Barnato was in every respect the complete antithesis of Rhodes. Barnato was an extroveving school at fourteen, he obtained a number of odd jobs including being a 'bouncer' at a public house and appearing on stage at a music hall. Several of his relatives left for South Africa after hearing of the discovery of diamonds there, so Barney eventually followed them. His only capital on arrival at the diamond fields consisted of a box of 

cigars - of doubtful quality - which he hoped to sell to the diggers. He became an itinerant buyer of diamonds, his genial personality proving a useful asset. In time, he bought for claims in the center of the Kimberly Mine and prospered so that he was able to form the Barnato Diamond Mining Company. Like Rhomerged his company with that of Baring-Gould's Kimberly Central Mining Company, thus giving him a strong hold in the Kimberly Mine as that of Rhodes in the De Beers Minert, imbued wides, Barnato kept on buying up claims. In 1885 Barnato th Jewish-Cockney wit and humor. After lea

Bulgaria Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry 122

Bulgaria Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry.  

By Samina Aamir

Resetting the Tiffany Diamond represents a commitment to the future and design innovation,” said Jon King, executive vice president of Tiffany & Co. “The diamond is the most important gemstone in the world and honors the vision of our founder, whose acquisition of the stone established Tiffany’s diamond heritage.”

Chile Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry 121

Chile Fashion 2014 Wedding Diamond Great Jewelry.  

By Samina Aamir

A publicity photo of Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film Breakfast At Tiffanys. Believe it or not, the

film did alot for the Tiffany image -- the store and the film are now forever associated with each other. This photo

shows the stone set in the "Bird on the Rock" brooch, which was designed by the famous Tiffany jeweler

Jean Schlumberger. The piece is the Tiffany Yellow's most well-known setting, and is the setting it remains in to this day.

In the belief that the only solution to the problems posed by the inefficient and haphazard mining methods employed by the Kimberly deposits lay in the amalgamation of the multitude of claims into one unit, by 1887 Cecil Rhodes and his colleagues had succeeded in making the De Beers Mining Company, which was then headed by the flamboyant Barney Barnato.