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.