Famous Luxury Diamonds

Around the world there are many luxury diamonds that have been talked about or written about in various stories and official documents. Famous luxury diamonds are part of our world's history, and have been found in various parts of the world, by all types of people. From royalty to the gods, famous luxury diamonds are often as well known as the people who owned them.

For centuries diamonds, famous luxury diamonds or otherwise, were used in the armor of warriors and the crowns of our kings and queens as a symbol of fearlessness.

The Mountain of Light

One of the few oval shaped famous luxury diamonds, the “mountain of light” was first mentioned in the year 1304. It weighed an astounding 186 carats, and it is said that the luxury diamond was set in the peacock throne of Shah Jehan as an eye of one of the peacock's.

During Queen Victoria's reign, the famous luxury diamonds shape was altered a bit and it was recut to weigh 108.93 carats. The luxury diamond is currently one of the British Crown Jewels.

The Orloff

When the Orloff luxury diamond was found, it was said that it weighed around 300 carats. This gemstone of the famous luxury diamonds is held at the Diamond Treasury of the former Soviet Union located in Moscow.

A story about the Orloff claims that the luxury diamond was actually placed in the eye of a god, in the temple of Sri Rangen, which is how it became known as one of the world's famous luxury diamonds.

The Regent

Before this incredibly large diamond of the famous luxury diamonds was cut it weighed 410 carats! Originally called “The Pitt”, after the English Prime Minister, William Pitt, it was cut into a rounded shape and consisted of more than 140 carats.

In 1717, the luxury diamond was sold to the Duke of Orleans, Regent of France. It was then that the luxury diamond was renamed “The Regent”. When Louis XV had his coronation, the stone was set into his crown. When the French Revolution ended, “The Regent” was owned by Napoleon Bonaparte, and was placed into the hilt of Bonaparte's sword. Currently, the luxury diamond is on display for all to enjoy in the Louvre.

The Dresden Green

The Dresden Green stands out among the natural colored luxury diamonds. It is the largest green luxury diamond in the world weighing 40.70 carats. This luxury diamond is historic, large and has a natural green color with a slight blue overtone. These facts make it virtually priceless.

The Conde Pink

The Conde Pinkis a pear shaped and weighs 9.01-carats. This pink luxury diamond was once owned by Louis XIII.

The Tiffany Yellow

The Tiffany Yellow luxury diamond a beautiful canary-yellow octahedron weighing 287.42 in the rough (metric) carats discovered in either 1877 or 1878 in South Africa. The gem after cutting boasts the extraordinary weight of 128.54 carats. And until recently, was the largest golden-yellow in the world.

The Blue Hope

Among the most well known diamonds is The Blue Hope luxury diamond. This 45.52 carat steel blue diamond is currently on display at the Smithsonian. The legends of the ill-fortune and curse bestowed on the possessor of the Hope Luxury Diamond are many. This luxury diamond was donated to the Smithsonian in 1958. The Blue Hope was originally a rather flat, blocky 110-carat rough. It was owned by Louis XIV, and at the time was called “the blue diamond of the crown”. Sometime during the French Revolution, the Blue Hope diamond was stolen. It was later found in London in the year 1830, where it was later purchased by Henry Philip Hope. The blue hope luxury diamond received it's name from this individual, as well as it's reputation for causing bad luck to those who owned it. While Henry Philip Hope owned the precious blue diamond, each of his family members died in extreme poverty.
Continuing with the bad luck, a later owner of the Blue Hope, Mr. Edward McLean also lost many family members to poverty while he possessed the diamond.

The Agra

The Agra is graded as a naturally colored Fancy Light Pink and weighs 32.34 carats. It was sold for about 6.9 million in 1990. Since this sale, it has been modified to a cushion shape weighing about 28.15 carats.

The Transvaal Blue

The Transvaal Blue is pear cut. This blue diamond weighs 25 carats. It was found in the Premier Diamond Mine in Transvaal, South Africa.

The Great Chrysanthemum

The Great Chrysanthemum was discovered in the summer of 1963, in a South African diamond field. This 198.28-carat fancy brown diamond appeared to be a light honey color in its rough state. However, after cutting, it proved to be a rich golden brown, with overtones of sienna and burnt orange.

The Taylor-Burton Luxury Diamond

The Taylor-Burton Luxury Diamond is a pear-shaped 69.42 carat diamond. Cartier of New York purchased this luxury diamond at an auction in 1969 and christened it "Cartier." The next day Richard Burton bought the luxury diamond for Elizabeth Taylor. He renamed it the "Taylor-Burton”. In 1978, Elizabeth Taylor put the luxury diamond up for sale. Prospective buyers had to pay $2,500 each to view the luxury diamond to cover the costs of showing it. Finally, in June of 1979, the luxury diamond was sold for nearly $3 million dollars.

Judging Luxury Diamonds Quality

What to Look For

If you want to begin judging luxury diamonds quality, you must first learn and understand the 4 C’s, which are four characteristics of luxury diamonds that give the gem stone it’s overall value. The 4 C’s for judging luxury diamonds quality include the diamonds color, clarity, carats and cut.

Judging Color

Most luxury diamonds are considered to be ideal if they are transparent, or colorless. Luxury Diamonds that are rated as colorless are the most expensive of diamonds. The colors of luxury diamonds are rated with an alphabet grading system that starts with “D” and ends with “Z”. Completely colorless luxury diamonds fall in the “D” and “E” grade, while colored, fancy diamonds are at the other end of the alphabet, at “Y” and “Z”.

There are two main ways that jewelers’ use when judging luxury diamonds quality based on color. They may pull out a set of reference stones, and find the closest match between the diamond and the reference stone to determine its letter grade. Alternatively, the jeweler may use a colorimeter, which can electronically measure the color of the stone and determine its grade within 1/3 of a grade.

Judging Clarity

The clarity of a luxury diamond refers to whether or not the diamond is clear all the way through, or whether it has tiny flaws and cloudy areas within the gemstone. It’s actually very rare to have a luxury diamond with absolute perfect clarity and no flaws, but most diamond flaws are not visible to the naked eye and can only be seen with a magnifying device.

The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) uses a magnification of about 10x when judging diamond quality based on the clarity. There are treatments available to make a diamond appear nicer than it actually is, and the treatments should lower the overall price of the diamond so it is important to do your research before purchasing a diamond to be sure you are not spending more money than you should.

Judging Carat Weight

Carat is the term we used to describe the weight of a luxury diamond gemstone. One carat is equivalent to 200 milligrams of weight. A single luxury diamond with a high amount of carat weight is more expensive than the equivalent amount of carats in multiple stones. This is because finding the larger luxury diamonds is much more rare of an occurrence. So if you want a 2-carat diamond ring, for example, you may decide to go with a half-carat diamond surrounded by smaller diamonds that add up to one and a half carats to give you the total of 2 carats! Judging diamond quality by the amount of carats is difficult, since different shaped gemstones, and stones with different levels of clarity will be priced differently even if they have the same amount of carats.

Judging Cut

One of the most important factors in judging diamond quality is judging the cut of a diamond. It’s important because a quality cut diamond will be more brilliant and reflects light more beautifully, and yet the cut of a diamond has the least impact on the overall price of the diamond.

When judging luxury diamonds quality on the cut of a diamond, look at the stone in a well lit area. If the light seems to go into the stone and bounce back, showing a sparkling reflective surface, the luxury diamond has a good cut. The angles and shapes of a diamond are important to judging diamond quality and the overall appearance of your diamond.

How to Buy Diamond Engagement Rings

There is much to consider when purchasing a diamond – especially diamond engagement rings !. The tradition of presenting a woman with a diamond engagement ring when proposing began in 1477 when Archduke Maximilian presented a diamond ring to Mary of Burgundy – and in most cases, the woman you plan to propose to will expect a ring to accompany that proposal!

First, determine how much ring you can afford. Most people use the ‘two months salary’ rule. This means that the ring should cost the equivalent of two months of your current salary. Because you have other bills to pay, saving up this amount of money may take quite a bit of time. You should consider financing. Simply go to the jeweler of your choice and tell them that you plan to buy an engagement ring, and that financing will be necessary. Go ahead and get the credit check out of the way, find out what your payments will be, and how much of a down payment is required.

Now, have your mother, sister, or your girlfriends best friend take your girlfriend shopping, and make sure that they gaze at the engagement rings to get an idea of what she might like. Make sure that the jewelry store you buy the ring from will allow you to return the ring, if that is required, or allow your girlfriend to exchange it for another if she isn’t happy with it!

Diamond Engagement Rings and Diamond Wedding Rings

Diamond engagement rings, and now as often as not, matching diamond wedding rings are the symbolic representation of eternal love exchanged between couples to represent their union. While we know today that marriages simply do not always have quite the eternal or even long-lasting tenure they used to have, I think it is still fair to say that very few people go into a marriage that they believe will last less than the rest of their life. The diamond engagement ring is a symbol of the love two people share and an announcement of their mutual agreement to wed. Therefore, the diamond engagement ring should be conspicuous, as it is there to call attention to the announcement of the betrothal. So the solitaire diamond or the large center diamond with a cluster of smaller diamonds is extremely appropriate for the diamond engagement ring. Once the matching diamond wedding ring is added to the ladies finger and often the matching men's diamond wedding ring is placed on his finger the additional announcement of a completed union is represented.

There are numerous considerations to be made when selecting a diamond engagement ring. The quality of the diamond (or diamonds) in the engagement ring go a long way to determine the price, as well as the sparkle the diamond engagement ring will elicit. The selection of the type of diamond to be found in a diamond engagement ring can vary all the way from the young man who impulsively stops into a jewelry store and buys almost the first engagement ring that he sees, to the much more discriminating jewelry aficionado who selects the stones individually himself and then either designs or consults to the jeweler on the design for the mounting for the ring. In either case, the intention may be virtually the same, however, in the latter case, it is likely that the prior knowledge of jewelry and concern for the end product will likely produce better results.

For those less knowledgeable about jewelry who wish to purchase the perfect diamond engagement ring, or wedding, and engagement rings set, increasingly there are various jewelry masters accessible on the Internet that offer a broad selection and often very logical tutoring as to the exact decision one might wish to make. In truth, the task of choosing the right diamond engagement ring can be very daunting without some expert help. Diamonds are evaluated by their degree of clarity, and of course, the size is measured in karats, they also vary in color. Diamonds are most often set in gold or platinum. Of course the size and shape of the mounting and the intricacy of the setting are additional factors to be considered. Diamonds can be set in yellow or white gold, platinum, even silver. The shape or cut of the diamond may be round, emerald cut, Marquis, Baguette or heart-shaped. Even beyond the advice of the jewelry master, often the most logical person to consult before making the decision as to what type of ring to buy is the person who was going to wear it. The bride to be, who has all of her life imagined the beautiful round diamond with smaller round diamonds surrounding it, may not be pleased with her future husband's idea of a solitaire marquee. If he likes gold, and she wears white gold, the engagement may never progress beyond the presentation of the ring. So sometimes the perfect diamond engagement ring is literally in the mind of the beholder, as long as the one you slip on her finger looks pretty much the same as the one in her mind, you are good to go. Clairvoyance or careful, thoughtful questioning can always make a major difference in a relationship. Further, diamonds are forever, only if they are accepted. by Gene Schwerman

About the Author

Gene Schwerman is the founder and head marketing consultant for Truly Unique Website Design. Truly Unique works on websites of all varieties, such as www.thejewelrymaster.com, where you can find white gold engagement rings and white gold wedding bands.