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THE HOUSE IN CHARTERHOUSE STREET
no diamond ever has been found that was flawless or it would have been polished and faceted, not cut.
About
1897, the year of the Diamond Jubilee (sixty years' reign of Queen
Victoria, although some ask why it shouldn't be seventy-five, and there
is a difference of opinion), the diamond was cut. It was shown at the
Paris Exhibition of 1900. Other than that it has no history, not even
the strange story of discovery such as marked the Jonker. It simply was
discovered in the ordinary course of working-day events. It was in the
possession of the London firm, Wernher, Beit & Co. in 1930, but
left England in 1939 to be sold to an unnamed East Indian Prince
(Indian Princes seeming to pop up all the time to claim these things,
as though they resented the fact that diamonds had been found outside
of legendary Golconda).
Finally,
we have the Baumgold diamond, so named because the New York cutters of
that name couldn't think of any other at the time they had to record
its purchase upon their ledger books. By that time it had been cut up
into many small stones. We discuss it briefly here because it is a
symbol, or example, of the obscurity that lies in wait for great stones
whose owners are indifferent to their largeness, their exploitation
value. If it hadn't been for Tavernier, half the famous stones of India
would have remained in obscurity. If it hadn't been for a number of
merchants and cutters and dealers in America, a great many more
diamonds would not have been proclaimed in the press as "famous."
The
Baumgold diamond weighed in the rough 609 carats. It was found in the
Premier mine of South Africa under no dramatic circumstances—it simply
was mined in the course of a day's work. It was cut up into twenty-five
stones, two of which were 50 carats each. The others ranged from half a
carat to 15 carats in size.
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