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The biggest polished diamond of the world weighs 530.20 carats and is known as the Great Star of Africa. This gemstone is one of the precious pieces present in the jewels of the British crown. This exquisite piece has 74 facets reflecting light brilliantly. Diamonds are used to form beautiful jewelry pieces, such as diamond necklace, bracelets and earrings, which can serve as cherished gift for forever. These gemstones are known to confirm your love for a near and dear one.
One of the most popularly publicized and romantic gift given in modern times are the diamond jewels gifted to Elizabeth Taylor by Richard Burton. These jewels are known to contain a $14 million diamond weighing 33 carat and a Taylor-Burton diamond weighing 69 carats in pear shape.
3 Popular Diamond Necklaces of the World
Diamonds are known to survive centuries, being the hardest known substance. Some diamond pieces have made history because of their size, price and interesting stories attached to them. This article will talk of some of the famous diamond necklaces worldwide:
The Queens Necklace
This piece of history has many scandals attached. It was made on Louis XVs request for his mistress, Madame du Barry, in 1772. This diamond necklace was estimated to be 2,000,000 livres at that time. However, before it was completed, the king died of small pox and the courtesan was banished from the kingdom. The jewelers got bankrupt while making this necklace and tried their level best to sell it to Queen Marie Antoinette who refused it. The necklace was made of many of big diamonds, which formed a part of the design, consisting of tassels, pendants and festoons.
Napolean Diamond Necklace
Napoleon I, ruler of France, divorced Empress Josephine as she could not bore him an heir. After two months, he married Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria who gave birth to a son within a year. To celebrate this, he commissioned Nitot et Fils, a Parisian jewelry firm to make this necklace which cost 376,274 French francs. This necklace was made of 28 diamonds in a single thread with alternating briolette and pendeloque diamond cuts. The diamond pendoloques are present in two shapes, which are:
Five pendoloques in pear shape
Four pendoloques in oval shape
Cullinan Diamond Necklace
In 1905, miners working at the Premier Diamond Mine of South Africa found a huge diamond weighing 3,106.75 carats. Although Thomas Cullian, the mines owner, promised his wife that he would gift the biggest diamond of the world to her when he found it, he sold it to the Transvaal Government at 150,000. Later, it was further gifted by Transvaals Prime Minister to King Edward VII in 1907. In 1908, Joseph Asscher, a diamond cutter, cut nine stones out of this large one.
In 1910, Cullinan in honor of being made a knight commissioned a necklace for his wife which contained all the nine blue diamonds. This necklace was made in classic Edwardian style containing many bows and laces. The biggest of the nine diamonds weighed 530.2 carats, is now known as the Star of Africa, and is present in the British Royal Scepter. The second biggest weighing 317.4 carats and is known as Cullinon II and is set at the center of Great Britains Imperial State Crown.
These are some of the most popular diamond necklaces along with the tales, which make us wonder about the life and times of the bygone era. Most of these are now placed in the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. However, some of the biggest and rare diamonds now form a part of the British Royal Treasury.
