Diamonds Of Fate

Louis Kornitzer's book, Gem Trader, is partly autobiographical and partly woven round the lore of pearls. It's educational + explains the distribution chain of gems, as they pass from hand to hand, from miner to cutter, from merchant to millionaire, from courtesan to receiver of stolen goods, shaping human lives as they go + the unique characters in the industry.

(via Gem Trader) Louis Kornitzer writes:

There is another ‘Regent’ called the ‘Regent of Portugal’ to distinguish it from the Pitt. This again was a Brazilian diamond. It was found in 1775 in Brazil by a poor negro slave to whom it brought more luck than usually accrues to him humble discoverers of great gems. For he was given his freedom and a pension of £50 a year. This round stone, whose original weight is not on record, turned the scale when faceted at 215 carats. I have seen its value given by an ‘authority’ as 396800 guineas, supposedly an expert assessment. He must have been a great authority on diamonds indeed who could with such precision put a value on a gem for which there could at no time exist an open market. Great diamonds have no price. They are, like any gem of the first class, worth what they can bring.

From a stone which bears the name of ‘Sea or River of Light’ we can expect no less than that it should be of the finest water, matchless in luster and of a size comparable with the largest of its kind. Certainly the ‘Darya-i-nur,’ possessing all these qualities, is truly well name. One hundred and eighty six carats of flashing fire, reflected by facets cut rose shape, make this diamond one of the mineral wonders of the world. But it is only one of two, for it is one of a pair of marvelous gems of Hindustan origin which are set in two matchless bracelets owned by the Shah of Persia (or should I say Iran?).

The other stone, the celebrated ‘Taj-e-mah,’ is even finer than its mate, for it is undoubtedly the greatest gem in the Persian collection. It also is rose cut and weighs 146 carats, so that the two stones together in the one pair of bracelets weigh 332 carats. Their value, as near as can be given by anyone (bearing in mind my remark about values above) for two such exceptional values, cannot be short of one million pounds sterling.

The Taj-e-mah was brought away from Hindustan by the Perso-Tartar conqueror Nadir Shah in 1739 amongst other looted treasure, his total bag having been estimated as worth between thirty and sixty million pounds. Nadir Shah’s successor, Shah Rokh, was a spineless ruler who had the misfortune to fall into the hands of the resolute Aga Mohammed. Determined not to give up his treasure, which he had had the forethought to hide, Shah Rokh defied the tortures of his implacable enemy and clung tenaciously for a long time to his secret. Hunger, thirst, cold, heat and other intelligent and refined methods of persuasion did Aga Mohammed try upon his luckless victim. Finally he deprived him of his eyesight, and Shah Rokh was persuaded to give up what was left of his inheritance, the great diamond Taj-e-mah amongst the rest. But to Aga Mohammed the stone brought no luck, for he was assassinated.

A stone which is famous for having belonged to Shah Jehan, the builder of the Taj Mahal, to whom it came from Akbar Shah, is called the ‘Akbar Shah’. It is noteworthy for having engraved upon both sides an inscription by which two Moguls hoped to have their names commemorated for ever. The fact that the art of engraving thus appears to have been known at the time might seem to invalidate my argument, in an earlier chapter, against the ‘diamond’ in the High Priest’s breastplate. But the method by which these names were written on the stone was not perhaps true engraving in the technical sense, but done with worms—the juice of certain worms have a unique action upon the incorruptible diamond, or so it was claimed.

Akbar Shah himself had the first writing put upon the diamond:
‘Shah Akbar, The Shah of the World, 1028 A.H’

When it came into the possession of Shah Jahan, he had set upon it these words:
‘To the Lord of Two Worlds, 1039 A.H, Shah Jehan’

But their hopes of immortality were mocked by later events in a world that knows the dead are powerless. The great stone was recut. In Shah Jehan’s time it had weighed 116 carats, but when the two Arabic inscriptions on either side of it had been destroyed, its weight was reduced to seventy two carats. In this state it was purchased by the Gaekwar of Baroda for £35000.

Another great diamond also in the treasury of Baroda is one less well known, but flawless. It is called ‘English Dresden’ after the merchant who sold it and who claimed for it, as another did for the Porter-Rhodes, that it was the most perfect stone for its size in the world. He also claimed that for color it excelled even the Kohinoor. In the rough the English Dresden weighed 119½ carats, but cutting and polishing brought it down to seventy six and a half carats. The Gaekwar of Baroda paid £40000 for it, so it is said.

Diamonds Of Fate (continued)