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| The
Idols Eye Diamond |
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When
you see the term 'a blue-white Golconda diamond', this
the
type of stone being referred to. The Regent Diamond
is another example of a large Golconda stone. |
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The various
published accounts of the early history of the Idol's
Eye are worth of being included in A Thousand and One
Nights, unfortunately, for the most part they must be
considered to be entirely unauthentic. The diamond may
have been found at Golconda around 1600, but seven years
later it was certainly not seized from the Persian Prince
Rahab by the East India Company as payment for debt. No
such person is recorded in the history of Persia, and
the East India Company was not created until several years
later.
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| The first authenticated
fact in the diamond's history was its appearance at a
Christie's sale in London on July 14th, 1865, when it
was described as "a splendid large diamond known
as the Idol's Eye set round with 18 smaller brilliants
and a framework of small brilliants." It was knocked
down to a mysterious buyer simply designated as "B.B.".
Later it is stated that the 34th Ottoman Sultan, Abdul
Hamid II (1842-1918) owned the Idol's Eye. However the
Idol's Eye would never, as has often been asserted, have
been set in the eye of a temple in Benghazi because there
are neither temples nor idols in that city, Benghazi having
been Muslim since the 8th century AD. |
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| When consideration
is given to the shape of the Idol's Eye - something between
an Old Mine cut and a triangular brilliant - it is not
difficult to envisage its setting elsewhere as an eye.
Indeed the stone compares favorably with others deemed
to have been set in this manner which suggests that certain
idols found in sacred buildings in the East have had very
oddly-shaped eye-like orifices. The Idol's Eye weighs
70.21 metric carats and is clearly a Golconda diamond,
possessing a slight bluish tinge so characteristic of
many diamonds from that source. |
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| Abdul
Hamid II presided over the most autocratic regime that
the Ottoman Empire had experienced since the 1700s. He
was eventually defeated by the internal opposition which
coalesced as the Young Turks. After his deposition in
1909 he lived in exile, first in Salonika, then in Instanbul
where he died in 1918. It is said that the Sultan, sensing
in which direction the political wind of his country was
blowing, made provisions for his coming enforced retirement,
which included the dispatch of his jewels to a place of
safety. Unfortunately the servant entrusted with them
turned traitor and sold them in Paris. Whether or not
this is the true version of events, it is known that the
Idol's Eye was one of several large diamonds belonging
to the deal Salomon Habib that came up for auction in
Paris on June 24th, 1909. Afterwards a Spanish nobleman
bought the diamond which he kept in a bank in London for
some years. |
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| After
the end of World War II the Idol's Eye re-emerged when
it was acquired by a Dutch dealer, from whom Harry Winston
bought it in 1946. In the following year Mr. Winston sold
the stone to Mrs. May Bonfils Stanton, daughter of Frederick
G. Bonfils, the publisher and co-founder of the Denver
Post. If many of the earlier characters associated with
the diamond's history have proved to be fictitious, Mrs.
Stanton goes some way to make up for them. Once a great
beauty, she became a legendary figure in American life.
From her early childhood she displayed an interest in
jewels and began to assemble a famous collection. In addition
to the Idol's Eye it was to include the Liberator Diamond
and a diamond necklace studded with twelve emeralds weighing
107 carats, once owned by the Maharaja of Indore. She
lived in beautiful isolation in a palatial mansion copied
from the Petit Trianon in Versailles, and was said to
have worn the Idol's Eye at her solitary breakfast every
morning. The gem was set as the pendant to a diamond necklace
containing 41 round brilliants totaling about 22.50 carats,
plus another 45 baguettes weighing about 12 carats. Mrs.
Stanton was also a supporter of numerous philanthropic
causes in her native state of Colorado. After her death,
in her eighties, in March of 1962, her jewels were auctioned
in November by Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc. of New York;
in accordance with the directions contained in her will
the proceeds were distributed among various charities.
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| The Chicago
jeweler Harry Levinson bought the Idol's Eye for $375,000,
for his wife, Marilyn. In 1967 he loaned it to De Beers
for an exhibition at the Diamond Pavilion in Johannesburg.
Six years later in 1973, Mr. Levinson put the diamond
up for sale in New York but subsequently withdrew it when
the bidding failed to reach his $1,100,000 reserve. In
1979 Laurence Graff of London purchased the Idol's Eye.
Harry Levinson loaned the diamond, before it was sold
to Laurence Graff, for display at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York, at a 1982 reception celebrating the
50th anniversary of Harry Winston Inc. In the following
January, Mr. Graff sold the Idol's eye, together with
the Emperor Maximilian and a 70.54-carat Fancy Yellow
diamond named the Sultan Abdul Hamid II and thought to
have once been part of that ruler's jewelry collection.
The sale of these three diamonds to the same buyer is
considered to have been one of the highest priced transactions
ever known. |
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The facet
layout of the Idol's Eye. Eventually this
design will be retro-engineered into Gemcad so
replicas of the stone can be faceted from CZ.
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The
diamond is actually something of a triangular Old Mine
cut, but rather than having 8 main facets it has 9,
along with 9 pavilion main facets corresponding. There
are also a number of non-symmetrical facets scattered
around the crown and pavilion of the stone, as can be
seen in the facet layout drawing. Sources: Famous Diamonds
by Ian Balfour, Traditional Jewelry of India by Oppi
Untracht, and Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry - 1381
to 1910 by Herbert Tillander. |
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