The Koh-i-Nur

(via Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry:1381-1910) Herbert Tillander writes:

It is hard to understand today why the historic Mughal Cut Koh-i-Nur diamond was completely refashioned so soon after it was presented to Queen Victoria. The delivery to the queen took place on 3 July 1850 and the actual refashioning began on 17 July 1852; it took thirty-eight days. If V. Ball, in an appendix to his translation of Tavernier’s Travels in India, was correct in saying that when it arrived in London the gem ‘had been badly mutilated, after cutting, and that it cannot have been left in such an incomplete condition by the jeweler who cut it and polished it,’ this may explain why diamond cutters were consulted about possible ways of restoring the diamond. Ball also quotes James Tennant who, in a lecture entitled Gems and Precious Stones published in London in 1852, describes it as ‘exhibiting, when brought to England, two large cleavage planes, one of which had not even been polished, and had been distinctly produced by fracture.’ Tennant also mentions that it had a flaw near the summit. Quite clearly, the gem did not please the queen. Her advisers must have assured her that it could be refashioned into a splendid Brilliant ‘to develop to a wonderful degree its surpassing clearness, brilliancy and beauty’, to quote the Illustrated London News of 18 September 1852.

Augustus Hamling, writing in 1884, deeply regretted the recutting of the gem, which ‘injured its prestige, and reduced its value incomparably’. He adds: ‘in reality its appearance....was inferior to that of its glass models. It is spread...it is quite one third too large....it is now a badly shaped stone...not much better than common limpid quartz.’ Blakey, in The Diamond (1977) writes: ‘When they had finished, the Koh-i-Nur had been reduced (by 80ct) to a a 108.93 carat oval—and still lacked fire and brilliance. To what extent this was due to the inability of the Dutch cutter....is impossible to say, but no one was pleased with the result.’ Despite such criticisms, in 1853 it was mounted in a magnificent tiara for the queen and five years later she ordered a new regal circlet for the gem. In 1911 it was placed in the crown of Queen Mary. There it remained until 1937, when it was made the central ornament in a new coronation crown for Queen Elizabeth, consort of George VI.

In 1988 the stone was removed from its setting to ascertain its exact weight: 105.602 ct is the correct figure. Its measurements are 36 x 31.9mm. The total depth figure is only 13.04mm—i.e 40.87 per cent of the narrower width. It was further found that there are thirty two crown facets round the table plus eight correction facets, parts of which are on the girdle. There are twenty four pavilion facets plus eight stellar facets and the culet and a further nine correction facets.

The Koh-i-Nur is another plain Stellar Cut Brilliant, the culet facets having been applied in a misguided attempt to improve its light effects. Unfortunately, other aspects of its recutting from the original Mughal Cut were also bungled. It became too flat, and retained merely vitreous luster, a few extra carats of weight having been saved at the expense of its beauty. But even if more competent cutters than those provided by Coster’s had been able to transform this historic gem into an attractive modern cut, the world would still have lost one of the few surviving gems with an original Indian design.