Yellow Diamonds get their colour from
nitrogen being present at the time they are formed. The hues of a diamond can
range from pale sunshine yellow to bright canary yellow and amber hues. Seventy
Seven Diamonds brings you a list of the most exquisite and famous
yellow-coloured diamonds that have featured tiffany jewellry throughout
history. Find about their history, their
diamond credentials, and what it is that makes them so famous.
The Sancy Diamond
The most famous yellow diamond is the
Sancy; an impressive 55 carat, light yellow diamond what fluoresces yellow and
pink. However, it is the story of the diamond that makes it famous. It is
thought that the Sancy originally true religion rainbow came
from India
and legend has it that in 1477 the diamond was lost by Charles, Duke of
Burgundy during a battle. Its first verified owner became Nicholas Harlai of
Sancy, a French Ambassador, who bought the diamond in the late 1500's in Constantinople – hence the derivation of this stone’s
name.
Since then the Sancy Diamond has been
loaned to the French Kings Henry III and Henry IV, purchased by the English
Crown and then sold back by to the French Crown James II. The exquisite gem has been involved in funding
wars, lost for an unpaid loan, bought by a Cardinal, and stolen in a great
heist of the French Crown jewels. The Sancy later became part of the Napoleon
court, sold to a Bombay louis vuitton bags merchant, featured at
the Paris Exhibition in 1867, and then taken to America to be worn by Lady Astor in
a wedding tiara in 1906. The Sancy now
sits in the Louvre museum in Paris; it was
returned to France
in 1978 when the Astor family sold it.
The Tiffany Diamond
This golden yellow diamond weighs 287
carats and was discovered in 1887 in South Africa. It was since
purchased by Tiffany & Co. Jewellers for $18,000 (£11,978), who then cut it
into a brilliant 90 facet, 128 cushion cut as it was felt this would extenuate
it's already exceptional beauty.
Tiffany has displayed the diamond to the
world and over the years it has been featured at many expositions, including
the 100 year celebration of the Kimberly Mine and the World's Fair of
1939. For the purpose of the famous
Tiffany Tiffany
diamond Ball in 1957, the Tiffany yellow was set
into a diamond necklace. This was also the renowned piece worn by Audrey
Hepburn in the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s. The yellow diamond was then
fashioned into an art piece in 1960, named Bird on a Rock, and can still be
viewed now at Tiffany’s on 5th
Avenue, New York.
The Diamond Shah
An extremely clear yellow diamond, weighing
88.7 carats and measuring 3 cm long, was thought to be found a long time ago –
around 1450 – in Central India. Here, it was rendered to the Shah court in
Ahmadnagar. In 1591, Shah Nizam commanded that “Burhan-Nizam-Shah Second. Year
1000” be carved into one of the diamond’s facets, only to see it seized by the
ruler of Northern India, the Great Moghul Akbar.
Akbar's grandson, Shah Jehan, later came to
the throne of Great Moghuls and ordered that another inscription be carved:
"The son of Jehangir-Shah Jehan-Shah. Year 1051." It was 1641 by the
modern calender. Son of Jehan-shah,
Aureng-Zeb, placed the diamond above his throne, surrounding it with emeralds
and rubies. Until 1738, the diamond Shah
was kept in Delhi, but in 1738, Nadir Shah
attacked India and took the
stone to Persia.
In 1824, a third inscription was made to the third facet: "The ruler of
the Kadgar-Fath ali-shah Sultan. Year 1242".
Following the murder in 1829 of Russian
diplomat Alexandr Griboyedov in Persia,
Tehran, the
court of Shah Fath Ali Shah presented the diamond to the Russian Tsar as a
present to avoid being accused of being responsible. The Shah diamond was brought to the Kremlin
Diamond Fund, where it is still exhibited as one of Seven Historical Gems.
