Call Beverly Hills Diamonds at: 1 (800) 453-8831 for all your diamond needs.

A number of large or extraordinarily colored diamonds have gained fame, both as exquisite examples of the beautiful nature of diamonds, and because of the famous people who wore, bought, and sold them. A partial list of famous diamonds in history follows.

•The Allnatt Diamond, a large Fancy Vivid Yellow diamond
•The Centenary Diamond, previously, the world's largest colorless (grade D), flawless diamond

•The Chloe Diamond, The world's current largest colorless diamond. Sold at auction in November 2007 for $16.2 million to Georges Marciano of Guess? Jeans fame who named the stone after his daughter. The diamond was taken from a 365 carat rough stone to it's current incarnation by artisans at Clean Diamonds, Inc. owned by Ron Cohen, who also owns Beverly Hills Diamonds.

•The Cullinan Diamond, the largest rough gem-quality diamond ever found at 3106.75 carats (621.35 g). It was cut into 105 diamonds including the Cullinan I or the Great Star of Africa, 530.2 carats (106.04 g), and the Cullinan II or the Lesser Star of Africa, 317.4 carats (63.48 g).

The largest polished gem from the stone is named Cullinan I or the Great Star of Africa, and at 530.2 carats (106.04 g) was the largest polished diamond in the world until the 1985 discovery of the Golden Jubilee diamond, 545.67 carats (109.13 g), also from the Premier Mine. Cullinan I is now mounted in the head of the Sceptre with the Cross. The second largest gem from the Cullinan stone, Cullinan II or the Lesser Star of Africa, at 317.4 carats (63.48 g), is the third largest polished diamond in the world and is also part of the British crown jewels, as it forms a part of the Imperial State Crown. Both gems are on display at the Tower of London, as parts of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.
In 1905, transport from South Africa to England posed a bit of a problem with regard to security. Detectives from London were placed upon a steamer ship that was rumoured to carry the stone, but this was a diversionary tactic. The stone on that ship was a fake, meant to attract those who would be interested in stealing it. The actual diamond was sent to England in a plain box via parcel post.

•The Darya-ye Noor Diamond, the best known diamond of the Iranian Crown Jewels
•The Deepdene, widely considered to be the largest irradiated diamond in the world
•The De Young Red Diamond, the third-largest known Fancy Vivid Red
•The Dresden Green Diamond - its colour is the result of natural irradiation
•The Excelsior Diamond, the largest known diamond in the world prior to the Cullinan
•The Florentine Diamond, a lost diamond, light yellow with a weight of 137.27 carats (27.45 g).
•The Golden Jubilee, the largest faceted diamond ever cut at 545.67 carats (109.13 g)
•The Heart of Eternity Diamond, perhaps the largest Fancy Vivid Blue
•The Hope Diamond, blue and supposedly cursed. Almost certainly cut from the French Blue Diamond

Hope Diamond's history can be easily traced to a blue diamond named the Tavernier Blue, which was originally mined from the Kollur mine in Golconda, India, and was a crudely cut triangle shape of 112 3/16 carats (22.44 g). French merchant-traveler Jean-Baptiste Tavernier purchased it sometime in 1660 or 1661. According to legend, the Tavernier Blue was stolen from an eye of a sculpted idol of the Hindu goddess Sita, the wife of Rama, the Seventh Avatara of Vishnu.
In 1668, Tavernier sold the diamond to King Louis XIV of France. Sieur Pitau, the court jeweller, cut it and produced a 67 1/8 carat (13.4 g) stone. The stone became known as the Blue Diamond of the Crown or the French Blue. It was set in gold and suspended on a neck ribbon for the King to wear on ceremonial occasions. In 1749, King Louis XV had it set on his pendant for the Order of the Golden Fleece. After his death, it fell into disuse.
When Louis XVI of France became king, he gave the diamond to Marie Antoinette to add to her collection of jewelry. During the French Revolution, while Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were held in prison, the pendant with the diamond was stolen on September 11, 1792, when six men broke into the house used to store the crown jewels. One of the robbers, cadet Guillot, took it to Le Havre along with the Gôte de Bretagne spinel and then to London where he tried to sell the jewels. In 1796, apparently seriously in debt, he handed the gem to Lancry de la Loyelle, who had Guillot put into prison for his trouble. There is no record of what had happened to the diamond after that.
The Hope diamond was recorded in the possession of a London diamond merchant Daniel Eliason in September 1812, which marks the earliest point that the exact history of the Hope Diamond can be definitively fixed. This diamond was generally believed to have been cut from the French Blue, a fact which was finally verified in 2005. It is often pointed out that the Hope Diamond came into recorded history almost exactly 20 years after the theft of the French Blue, just as the statute of limitations for the crime had expired.
It is believed that it may have been acquired by King George IV of the United Kingdom, although there is no record of the ownership in the Royal Archives at Windsor.

•The Incomparable Diamond, a golden diamond of 407.48 carats (81.496 g) cut from an 890 carat (178 g) rough diamond of the same name.

In 1970, Louis Glick acquired the 890 carat (178 g) Incomparable Diamond, at that time the world's fourth largest rough diamond.
Alternate sources claim that this stone was only discovered in the early 1980s in the town of Mbuji Mayi in the Democratic Republic of Congo, by a young girl playing outside her uncle's house, where rubble from a nearby diamond mine had been dumped.
The stone was cut by a team led by Marvin Samuels, who co-owned the stone along with Donald Zale of Zales Jewellers and Louis Glick. In November 1984 the finished stones were put on display: a single golden diamond of 407.48 carats (81.496 g) in a 'triolette' shape, and fourteen additional gems. Notably, the satellite stones cut from the Incomparable varied greatly in colour, from near-colourless to rich yellow-brown.
The largest of these stones still bears the name 'Incomparable Diamond', and was graded by the GIA as internally flawless in 1988.
Unusually, the Incomparable Diamond made an appearance on eBay in November 2002, though it remained unsold with a reserve of £15 million pounds sterling.

•The Jubilee Diamond, originally known as the Reitz Diamond; the sixth largest in the world.
•The Koh-i-Noor, very old (mentioned in Baburnama of 1526) and surrounded by legend and believed to be the most precious.
•The Lesotho Promise, is the 15th largest diamond, the 10th largest white diamond, and the largest diamond to be found in 13 years
•The Millennium Star, the second largest colorless (grade D), flawless diamond.

The De Beers Millennium Star is, at 203.04 carat (40.608 g), the world's second largest known top color (D), internally and externally flawless, pear-shaped diamond.
The diamond was discovered in the Mbuji-Mayi district of Zaire (Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 1990 in alluvial deposits; uncut it was 777 carat (155.4 g). It was purchased by De Beers. It took over three years for workers of the Steinmetz Diamond Group to produce the classic pear form; the actual cutting was done using lasers.
It was first displayed in October 1999 as the centerpiece of the De Beers Millennium diamond collection. The collection also includes eleven blue diamonds totaling 118 carats (23.6 g) and The Heart of Eternity. They were displayed at London’s Millennium Dome over 2000. There was an attempt on November 7, 2000 to steal the collection. Crime journalist Kris Hollington wrote a book about the attempted theft called Diamond Geezers (ISBN 1843171228) which also features a detailed history of the Millennium Star.
The largest cut white (D) diamond by weight is the 1991 heart-shaped 273.85 carat (54.77 g) Centenary Diamond.

•The Moussaieff Red Diamond, the largest known Fancy Vivid Red
•The Ocean Dream Diamond, the only known natural Fancy Deep Blue-Green
•The Oppenheimer Diamond, one of the largest uncut diamonds in the world
•The Orlov, an Indian rose cut rumored to have served as the eye of a Hindu statue
•The Premier Rose Diamond, 137.02 carat (27.4 g) stone cut from a 353.9 carat (70.8 g) rough gem of the same name
•The Pumpkin Diamond, perhaps the largest Fancy Vivid Orange
•The Regent Diamond, formerly belonging to Louis XV, Louis XVI and Napoleon Bonaparte.

In 1698, a slave found the 410 carat (82 g) uncut diamond in a Golkonda mine in India and concealed it inside of a large wound in his leg. An English sea captain stole the diamond from the slave after killing him and sold it to an Indian merchant. Thomas Pitt acquired it from a merchant in Madras in 1701.
Pitt bought the diamond for £20,400, and had it cut in to a 141-carat cushion brilliant. After many attempts to sell it to various European royalty, including Louis XIV of France, it was sold it to the French Prince, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans in 1717 for £135,000. The royals used the stone in many ways including being set in the crown of Louis XV for his coronation in 1722, in a new crown for the coronation of Louis XVI in 1775, and as an adornment in the hat of Marie Antoinette. In 1791 its appraised value was £480,000.
In 1792 during the revolutionary furor in Paris, "Le Régent," as the diamond came to be known, was stolen along with other crown jewels of France, but was later recovered, after being hidden in some roof timbers. The diamond was used as security on several occasions by the Directoire and later the Consulat, before being permanently redeemed by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1801.
Napoleon used it to embellish his sword, designed by the goldsmiths Odiot, Boutet and Nitot. In 1812 it appeared on the Emperor's two-edged sword, the work of Nitot. Napoleon's second wife, Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, carried the Régent back to Austria upon his death. Later her father returned it to the French Crown Jewels. The diamond was mounted successively on the crowns of Louis XVIII, Charles X and Napoleon III.
Today, mounted in a Greek diadem designed for Empress Eugenie, it remains in the French Royal Treasury at the Louvre. It has been on display there since 1887.

•The Sancy, a pale yellow diamond currently in the Louvre

Henry III of France suffered from premature baldness and tried to conceal this fact by wearing a cap. As diamonds were becoming increasingly fashionable at the time, Henry arranged to borrow de Sancy's diamond to decorate his cap. Henry IV also borrowed the stone, for the more practical purpose of using it as security for financing an army. Legend has it that a messenger carrying the jewel never reached his destination, but de Sancy (by then Superintendent of Finance) was convinced that the man was loyal and had a search conducted until the site of his robbery and murder was found. When the body was disinterred and autopsied, the jewel was found in the faithful man's stomach.
De Sancy later sold the diamond to James I (successor of Queen Elizabeth) about 1605 when it is thought the Sancy acquired its name. It was described in the Tower of London's 1605 Inventory of Jewels as "...one fayre dyamonde, cut in fawcetts, bought of Sauncy."

•The Shah Diamond, very old yellow diamond (found approximately in 1450 in India) currently housed in the Diamond Fund in Kremlin

The Diamond Shah is 90 carat (18 g), 3 cm long, yellow diamond, extremely clear. This diamond was found in Central India, probably in 1450.
It was rendered to the shah court in Ahmadnagar. In 1591 Shah Nizam ordered carving on one of the facets of the diamond: "Burhan-Nizam-Shah Second. Year 1000".
In the same 1591 the ruler of the Northern India, the Great Moghul Akbar occupied Ahmadnagar and seized the diamond. After Akbar's grandson, Shah Jehan (trans. "the ruler of the world") came to the throne of Great Moghuls, he commanded to carve another inscription: "The son of Jehangir-Shah Jehan-Shah. Year 1051". By the modern calendar it was 1641. The son of Jehan-shah Aureng-Zeb hung the diamond above his throne and encircled it with rubies and emeralds. Till 1738 the diamond Shah was kept in Delhi.
In 1738 Nadir Shah attacked India, seized the diamond and took it to Persia. In 1824 the third inscription appeared on the third facet: "The ruler of the Kadgar-Fath ali-shah Sultan. Year 1242".
In 1829 Russian diplomat and writer Alexandr Griboyedov was murdered in the capital of Persia, Tehran. The Russian government demanded severe punishments of those responsible. In fear, the Shah's court had sent the Shah's son Hosrov-Mirza to Saint Petersburg, where he gave the Shah diamond to the Russian Tsar as a present. Thus the Shah diamond came to the Kremlin Diamond Fund, where it is exhibited as one of Seven Historical Gems.
It remains there at the Kremlin.

•The Spirit of de Grisogono Diamond, the world's largest cut Black
•The Spoonmaker's Diamond, 86 carat (17 g) diamond housed in Topkap? Palace in Istanbul.
•The Star of the East, 95 carat (19 g) stone once owned by Mrs Evalyn McLean of Washington DC, who also owned the Hope Diamond
•The Steinmetz Pink Diamond, the largest known Fancy Vivid Pink
•The Taylor-Burton Diamond

After the rough piece of 240.80 carats (48.160 g) had arrived in New York from the Premier Mine, Harry Winston and his cleaver, Pastor Colon Jr, studied it for six months. Markings were made, erased and redrawn to show where the stone should be cleaved. Then came the day appointed for the cleaving. In this instance the usual tension that surrounds such an operation was increased by the heat and the glare of the television lights that had been allowed into the workroom. After he had cleaved the stone, the 50-year-old cleaver said nothing--he reached across the workbench for the piece of diamond that had been separated and looked at it through horn-rimmed glasses for a fraction of a second before exclaiming "Beautiful!"
The stone's first owner after Harry Winston wasn't actually Elizabeth Taylor. In 1967 Winston sold the pear shape to Mrs. Harriet Annenberg Ames, the sister of Walter Annenberg, the American ambassador in London during the Richard Nixon administration. Two years later, she sent the diamond to Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York to be auctioned explaining her decision with this statement: "I found myself positively cringing and keeping my gloves on for fear it would have been seen, I have always been an extremely gregarious person and I did not enjoy that feeling. It sat in a bank vault for years. It seemed foolish to keep it if one could not use it. As things are in New York one could not possibly wear it publicly." One might argue the stone was too large to be worn in a ring, let alone in public.
The diamond was put up for auction on October 23rd, 1969, on the understanding that it could be named by the buyer. Before the sale speculation was prevailing as to who was going to bid for the gem, with the usual international names being kicked around by the columnists. Elizabeth Taylor was one name among them and she did indeed have a preview of the diamond when it was flown to Switzerland for her to have a look at, then back to New York City under precautions described as "unusual".
In 1978, following her divorce from Richard Burton, Taylor announced she was putting the diamond up for sale and was planning to use part of the proceeds to build a hospital in Botswana. In June of the following year Henry Lambert, the New York jeweller, stated that he had bought the Taylor-Burton for nearly $5,000,000. By December he had sold the Taylor-Burton to its present owner, Robert Mouawad. Soon after his purchase, Mr. Mouawad had the stone slightly recut and it now weighs 68.09 carats (13.62 g). Before the recutting, the curved half of the stone's girdle had a very round outline, it is now a little more straight at that end. It also had a small culet, which was made even smaller after the recut.

•The Tiffany Diamond

The Tiffany diamond is one of the largest fancy yellow diamonds ever discovered; it weighed 287.42 carats (57.484 g) in the rough when discovered in 1878 in the Kimberley mine in South Africa, and was cut into a cushion shape of 128.54 carats (25.708 g) with 90 facets - 32 more than a traditional round brilliant - to maximize its brilliance.
Discovered in South Africa in 1877, the stone was purchased by New York jeweler Charles Tiffany. His gemologist, George Frederick Kunz studied the gem for a year before beginning to cut it; reducing it from 287 carats (57.4 g) to its current size.
The Tiffany Diamond is on loan from Tiffany & Co. to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. and is on display until 23 September, 2007.

•The Uncle Sam Diamond, the largest discovered in the United States
•BPM 37093, a pulsating white dwarf star 50 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Centaurus. It is estimated that the decayed star's core contains a 10 decillion (1×1034) carat diamond, approximately 4,000 km (2,500 miles) in diameter.

Call Beverly Hills Diamonds at: 1 (800) 453-8831 for all your diamond needs.