(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:
The Idol’s Eye diamond was found in the Elure group of Indian mines controlled by the kings of Golconda. Judging from its present shape, the crystal must have been either a fairly thick macle, a triangular whole crystal or a large triangular cleavage. Robert Shipley (1948) believed that the diamond had the shape of a ‘rudely faceted, lusterless, triangular mass.’ However, Shipley was a modern gemologist and not a diamond historian, and it is my belief that at a very early stage the rough stone was fashioned into a Mughal Cut not unlike the Nassak Diamond which was illustrated by John Mawe in 1823. Only thus could the gem have been such a highly esteemed symbol of wealth and power that the Sheik of Kashmir could offer it to the Sultan of Turkey as a bribe, to fend off a threatened invasion.
Krashes claims that the early history of the stone is recorded. I am somewhat suspicious of the claim, as I am for that of many other large diamonds. In fact, according to Ian Balfour, The Idol’s Eye was not known until 1865, when it was disposed of at a sale at Christie’s and had already acquired its name. It was ‘set around with eighteen smaller brilliants’. Consequently, I believe that the diamond had already been given its present cut. Most unfortunately it was not illustrated, no weight was quoted and the names of neither the seller nor the buyer were disclosed. The Idol’s Eye eventually reappeared in the possession of the collector, ‘Sergeant’ (as he liked to be called) S.I.Habib, ‘residing in Paris, rue Lafitte’. It was then documented for an auction held at L’Hôtel des Ventes on 24 June 1909, as a ‘curved, roundish triangular Brilliant’ and was listed in the catalogue with seven other rare and important diamonds. The diamonds listed in the sale catalogue of Habib’s collection are all illustrated in simple claw-settings with their exact weights mentioned. Apparently the mounts had been done away with.
According to both Louis Aucoc, the official expert for the auction, and H.D.Fromanger, one of the most knowledeable jewelers in France and author of Bijoux et Pierres Précieuses (1970), Señor Habib had acquired all but two of the gems in the sale from Constantinople. It is possible that Sultan Adb-ul-Hamid II may have sold them to him as a precautionary measure some time just before the Turkish Revolution of 1908. The stone certainly came from the Ottoman Treasury, so either Abd-ul-Hamid or his father Sultan Abdul-Medschid may have been the buyer of The Idol’s Eye in 1865. But whether the Sultan had acquired the diamond as a rough crystal, a Mughal Cut gem or in the shape of the present Brilliant Cut is not known.
The Idol’s Eye changed hands several times until it was acquired in 1979 by the London jeweler Lawrence Graff, who sold it to an anonymous buyer in 1983. According to an analysis made at the GIA Trade Laboratory, New York, in June 1979, its details are:
Type II B
Carat weight: 70.21 ct
Diameter: 26.1mm = 100 percent
Height: 13.43mm = 47.8 percent
Table size: 18.61mm = 66.2 percent
Culet size: c.3mm = 10.7 percent
The low height dimension indicates that the original rough must have been rather flat, which confirms my view of the shape of the rough and the original Mughal Cut. The clarity is registered as being exceptionally high: ‘potentially flawless’, or at least ‘potentially internally flawless’, which means that some minor ‘naturals’ and ‘extra facets’ as well as a small ‘feather’ and some ‘bruises’ could easily be removed with insignificant loss of weight. The color has been defined as ‘light blue, natural color’, though in the 1909 auction catalogue it was said to be capable of changing from pale blue to aquamarine depending on the light.
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