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Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Archives for January 2017

14 of the Biggest Royal Diamonds

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The Dresden Green Diamond (NORBERT MILLAUER/AFP/Getty Images)
As January draws to a close, it’s only right that we have one last major celebration of the iciest of all gemstones, the diamond. Today, we’re looking at fourteen of the largest diamonds from royal collections around the world. Some are still owned by royals today, while others have ended up in other hands, but they all have one thing in common: major, major sparkle.

Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

14. The Stuart Diamond: With a history that begins at the English court of King William III and Queen Mary, this light blue-green, 39.75 carat diamond is one of the most important pieces in the Dutch royal collection. For a century, it’s been set in a tiara (worn above by Queen Juliana), but it hasn’t been seen in public in decades.

Alex Wong/Newsmakers

13. The Dresden Green Diamond: Part of the Saxon crown jewels, this remarkable green diamond weighs in at 40.70 carats. It’s on display today, set in a hat clasp ornament, in the New Green Vault at Dresden Castle.

Wikimedia Commons

12. The Sancy Diamond: This 55.23 carat pale yellow diamond has a lengthy royal history; at various times, it was part of the crown jewel collections of Portugal, France, and England. Nancy Astor wore it in her grand diamond tiara a century ago, but today, it is on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Wikimedia Commons

11. The Noor-al-Ain Diamond: This pink diamond, which weighs approximately 60 carats, was originally mined in India. The “light of the eye” was captured by an 18th-century Persian king and has been in Iran ever since. Harry Winston set it in a tiara for Farah Pahlavi in 1958; that tiara is on display today at the Central Bank in Tehran.

PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images

10. The Hope Diamond: It’s generally believed that this famously “cursed” diamond is actually the French Blue, which belonged to the French royal family until it was stolen during the Reign of Terror. Originally measuring 67.125 carats, the stone was later cut down to its present size, 45.52 carats. Today, it’s on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images

9. The Archduke Joseph Diamond: This 76.02 carat diamond takes its name from its first recorded owner, Archduke Joseph August of Austria. Sold just before World War II, the diamond has been auctioned several times, and is now in a private collection.

Wikimedia Commons

8. The Shah Diamond: The Russian Diamond Fund, which is housed in the Kremlin, includes this unusual diamond. Weighing 88.7 carats, the stone is engraved with the names of three of its owners in Persian. It arrived in the Russian imperial jewel collection as a goodwill offering (or bribe, depending how you look at it) in 1829.

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

7. The Koh-i-Noor Diamond: Today, this diamond (whose name means “mountain of light”) lives in the Tower of London, where it is set in the Queen Mother’s Crown. Queen Victoria received the gem as a gift in 1849, although the terms of that offering are still controversial today. Prince Albert had the stone recut to its present weight, 105.602 carats, in 1852.

Wikimedia Commons

6. The Regent Diamond: An English merchant, Thomas Pitt, sold this diamond, which was mined in India, to Philippe, Duke of Orleans (then the French Regent) in 1717. The 140.64 carat diamond was worn by various French kings — and Napoleon Bonaparte, too — and eventually set in a tiara for Empress Eugenie. Today, it is on display in the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Wikimedia Commons

5. The Darya-i-Noor Diamond: Another gem from the crown jewel collection of Iran, this pink diamond (whose name means “sea of light”) weighs about 182 carats. It’s on display today at the Central Bank in Tehran.

Wikimedia Commons

4. The Orloff Diamond: The Russian Diamond Fund also includes this incredible 189.62 carat diamond. It was presented to Catherine the Great by one of her lovers, Count Grigory Orloff. She had a scepter constructed specifically for the diamond in 1784.

Wikimedia Commons, LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images

3. The Cullinan II Diamond: One of nine major diamonds cut from the gargantuan Cullinan Diamond, the Cullinan II weighs 317.4 carats. Also called the Second Star of Africa, the diamond is part of the British crown jewels. You can see it at the Tower of London in the Imperial State Crown, where it’s set just below the Black Prince’s Ruby.

Wikimedia Commons

2. The Cullinan I Diamond: The largest of the diamonds sourced from the Cullinan, this stone measures 530.2 carats. It’s the largest clear cut diamond in the world. Also called the Great Star of Africa, the diamond is set in the Sovereign’s Sceptre with Cross, which resides at the Tower of London with the rest of the British crown jewels.

Wikimedia Commons

1. The Golden Jubilee Diamond: The largest cut diamond in the world, this yellow-brown stone clocks in at 545.67 carats. It was offered to the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand as a Golden Jubilee gift, and it’s still a part of the Thai crown jewel collection today.

Sundays with Victoria: The Fringe Brooch

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Queen Victoria wears the jewel in a state portrait by Winterhalter, ca. 1859 (Wikimedia Commons)

One of the grandest, most glittering ornaments in Queen Victoria’s collection was today’s diamond fringe brooch — but, believe it or not, it used to be even grander!

Detail of an 1870 copy of the Winterhalter state portrait, showing the fringe ornament more closely (Royal Collection)

Here’s a close-up of the ornament from an 1870 copy of a Winterhalter portrait. Have a look at the neckline of her gown. See the fringe that runs along the entire border, getting longer in the middle, with the large diamond set in the center? That’s the original chaine de corsage that Victoria ordered from Garrard in 1856. According to Hugh Roberts, the vast majority of the diamonds in the ornament came from a jewel that had been given to her by Sultan Abdul Mejid I of Turkey six months earlier. She noted in her diary that one of the jewels that the sultan had given her would “have to be reset,” because it was simply too large to wear. It seems that this extraordinary chaine de corsage was the result of Garrard’s subsequent work. The piece was made of diamonds set in silver and gold.

The Fringe Brooch in its current iteration (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

When Prince Albert died, this ornament was one of the pieces that Queen Victoria quietly put away — it was simply too glittering and elaborate for her mourning attire. Roberts argues that, in 1870, she actually had the piece partially dismantled, removing the fringes from either side of the central diamond, transforming the jewel into a much smaller fringe brooch. You can see the revised version of the jewel above; it still exists in this form today. Roberts describes the piece as follows: “with a large emerald-cut brilliant framed by small brilliants (detachable as a separate brooch), surrounded by 12 large brilliants in cut-down open-backed collets, suspending nine graduated pave-set brilliant pampilles, or chains, each link of two stones.”

Queen Alexandra wears the small diamond crown and the fringe brooch in a portrait taken during the official court mourning period for Queen Victoria, 1901

The diamonds from the dismantled fringe sections were probably used to make the small new diamond crown that she wore throughout her widowhood. Above, Queen Alexandra wears both the fringe brooch (pinned at the neck) and the small diamond crown. When Victoria died, she did not designate the brooch as an heirloom of the crown. Instead, she bequeathed it directly to her son, King Edward VII. His wife, Queen Alexandra, began wearing the brooch almost immediately, and she kept it until her death in 1925.

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother wears the brooch in an official coronation portrait, 1937 (AFP/Getty Images)

Queen Mary inherited the brooch from Alexandra, and in 1936, it was one of the jewels that she handed over to her daughter-in-law, Queen Elizabeth. Above, Elizabeth wears the brooch pinned to her Garter sash in a portrait taken around the time of her coronation in 1937. She also wore it for her daughter’s coronation in 1953, and she kept it until her own death in 2002.

The Queen wears the brooch at a state banquet honoring the President of Turkey at Buckingham Palace in November 2011 (Dominic Lipinski – WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Since inheriting the fringe brooch from her mother fifteen years ago, Queen Elizabeth II has worn the large diamond jewel occasionally. Given its history, the brooch was a very appropriate choice for a state banquet in honor of the President of Turkey in 2011.

The Queen wears the brooch to mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)

Despite its size and wattage, the Queen has also occasionally chosen the piece for daytime occasions. She wears the brooch above in France to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in 2014.