Today, let's take it easy and talk about the Queen of England's pink diamond brooch.
▲ The Queen's Pink Diamond Brooch
The Queen has many valuable brooches, but this pink diamond brooch is particularly outstanding. Given its rarity and long history, contemporary jewelry expert Max Stone valued the brooch at $25 million.
In 1947, a 54.5 ct pink diamond blank was found at the Williamson Mine in Tanzania (owned by Petra, which we mentioned several times before). The mine's discoverer, Canadian geologist John Thoburn Williamson (pictured below), gave the rough diamond as a wedding gift to Elizabeth, who was still a princess at the time. It is said that at that time, in order to avoid suspicion, John presented the treasure through a "representative".
Canadian geologist John Thoburn Williamson
Elizabeth then placed it on display at St. James's Palace. James's Palace, one of the oldest palaces in London).
In 1948, Elizabeth handed over the rough diamond to a cutting company in Clerkenwell and asked them to cut out the finished product. Located in London's Islington district, Cracenville was formerly a large factory that is said to have been transformed into a famous fashion district.
Elizabeth took this matter very seriously, so she went to visit the company's cutting factory with her grandmother (Queen Mary, pictured below, second from right) in advance. According to Max's recollection, reports at the time said queen Mary "asked a lot of technical questions with a serious face" at the scene, because she was also a veteran jewelry lover.
This is the media report of March 10, 1948:
The cutting work took about three months (some vaguely say "weeks" before a finished pink diamond weighing 23.60 carats was created.
After a period of exhibition, Elizabeth decided in 1952 to commission Cartier a finished piece of jewelry worthy of the pink diamond. According to a report in October 1949, Elizabeth was hesitant to set it in the crown, but experts at the time thought that doing so would obscure the charm of the pink diamond when they saw the diamond. In the end, it was decided to adopt the brooch scheme in the shape of a "longevity flower". The designer was Frederick A. Mew of Cartier UK.
To make this "longevity flower", Cartier selected 203 white diamonds as a side stone, and completed this masterpiece of platinum diamonds in 1953.
Because of its unique charm, pink diamond immediately became one of Elizabeth's favorite jewels, and later appeared on important occasions such as attending a princess wedding, visiting Paris, meeting the Obamas, and so on.
To this day, this "Williamson brooch" is still one of the Queen's most beloved jewels, and it has also been praised and sought after by many people. For many advocates, the value of pink diamond itself is important, but the history behind it is even more fascinating.
Maybe that's where diamonds really come in.
Acknowledgement
Israel's ™️ Sarine Diamond Technology Group
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