(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
The oval, flat-bottomed Citty was a well-known diamond in its time. According to Cletscher, it had a richly faceted crown, was of beautiful water, weighed 24 ct and cost die van Londen (the Londoners) £12000 when it was purchased and offered to King Charles I. It is generally assumed that the diamond was named after the City of London, which presented it to the King.
The Citty is mentioned in the Correspondance Politique as one of the jewels which Queen Henrietta Maria pawned and finally sold in order to finance the Cavaliers who fought for her husband against Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads. It was eventually purchased by the French queen, Anne of Austria, who left it and twenty one other large diamonds to her son, the Duke of Orleans, brother to Louis XIV. In the duke’s inventory (1701) it is described as ‘un autre diamant de forme ovalle brilliant long taillé par dessus en petits lozenges de trés belle eau et nette appélé Le Cité, prise la somme de cent vingt mil livreś.
Here, the word brilliant obviously does not mean the type of cut, but merely indicates sparkling light effects. Taillé par dessus means simply that the crown was faceted. With its weight of 24 ct and dimensions of 26 x 21 mm (gauged from the size of the Briolette which was attached to it and which is now reproduced in Louis XV’s crown), the Citty Rose Cut diamond was fairly flat.
One of the earliest V-Cut diamonds is to be found in Munich, on a statuette of St George. The stone, a reasonably large one, is fixed to the horse’s head, behind the plume. The statuette is thought to date from somewhere between 1586 and 1597.
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