Originating from India in the 16th C the Agra diamond was given Babur, a great soldier and scholar, as an expression of gratitude for sparing the lives of an enemy family. After passing through many hands the Agra was sold at Christies, London, in 1990 for over £4 million. It was bought by the SIBA Corporation of Hong Kong. At its last cutting the Agra's colour was said to be fancy pink.
Ahmadabad is the capital of the Indian state of Gujarat, a place with a long history of diamond trading and cutting. The gem is a pair shaped brilliant and its weight is 78.8 carats. It has been graded by the GIA as D-colour and VS1 clarity. The gem cam up for sale at Christies in Geneva in 1995 and sold for over $4 million.
This 102.29 carat cushion cut gem with a colour certified by the GIA as fancy vivid yellow, VS2 clarity, is named after its former owner Alfred Allnatt. In the 1950s he commissions Cartier to design a brooch setting for it made of platinum. Auctioned by Christies in Geneva 1996, it fetched over $3 million paid by the CIBA Corporation.
Weighing in at 33.74 carats this rare black diamond from Africa sold off at www.christies.com in 2001 for $352k. The stone is pear shaped in cut.
This 76.45 carat gem gets its name from a prince of the Hungarian Hapsburg dynasty. It came up for sale in 1993 at Christies in Geneva and sold for over $6 million. The diamond has been graded as being internally flawless. It made it into the spotlight in 2002 when worn by Celine Dion in her televised comeback special, as a necklace designed by Molina fine jewellers.
Arcots is a town near Madras, India. The House of Hanover amassed many jewels, the most notable of which, was given to Queen Charlotte by the Nawab of Arcot. A 38.6 carat oval shaped stone; it was eventually set as the pendant to a necklace by Van Cleef and Arpels and later sold at Christies in Geneva in 1993.
This diamond is amber in colour, cushion shaped and weighs 102.48 carats and was formerly part of the Russian Crown Jewels. Sold to Mr Ashberg, a Stockholm banker in 1934 it was then bought by a private buyer and put up for auction in 1981 but failed to reach its reserve.
Nicholas Harlay de Sancy, a diplomat and financier is remembered as the owner of this colourless, pear shaped diamond. The Beau Sancy is now in the possession of the head of the house of Hohenzollern, Prince Louis - Ferdinand of Prussia.
A rare blue pear shaped diamond weighing around 14 carats, it has been turned into a necklace, unveiled by Harrods department store and valued at around £10 million.
Cut by Atanik Ekyanan of Neuilly this deep blue, heart shaped diamond weighs 30.82 carats. In 1964 Marjorie Merriweather bought the gem and subsequently donated it to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC where it remains to this day.
A legendary diamond of 90.38 carats and may be the oldest diamond on record. After disappearing for four centuries the stone was bought by Harry Winston in 1950.
In 1988 the chairman of De Beers announced at their centenary celebrations that they had recovered a diamond of 599 carats which was perfect in colour. Cut by Gabi Tolkowsky it neared 273.85 carats on completion in 1991 but its whereabouts now are unknown. It was insured by De Beers for $100 million.
This gems weight is 9.01 carats. A light pink pear-shaped stone, it resides in the Musee de Conde in Chantilly, France.
Weighing 234.65 carats, the De Beers' is the seventh largest faceted diamond in the world. In 1928 Cartier set it in a necklace known as the Patiala. The necklace disappeared and pieces of it turned up in a second-hand London jewellery shop.
A red diamond weighing in at 5.03 carats, it is a round brilliant. It is the third largest red diamond in the world and resides in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington.
Green diamonds are truly rare and are caused by the diamond crystals coming into contact with a radioactive source. The Dresden gets its name from the capital of Saxony where it has remained on display for over 200years.
Found in the Jagersfontein mine in South Africa, thus blue-white coloured diamond weighed 995.2 carats pre-cut. Flat on one side and rising to a peak on the other this is how it gets its name. ( Excelsior meaning 'higher'). After much study the gem was cut into 21 separate diamonds and sold individually - three to Tiffany and Co.
This is the largest faceted diamond in the world weighing 545.67 carats. Designed by Gabi Tolkowski, it was presented to the King of Thailand in 1997 for his golden jubilee. The colour has been graded as fancy yellow / brown.
The stone is 'Asscher cut' which is a modern emerald cut that is more square than rectangular and weighs 21.46 carats. It is colourless and flawless in clarity.
This stone is 6.91 carats which as a natural blue diamond commands some of the higher prices in the world of gemstones.
Received from India in 1998 by Swiss jeweller Fawaz Grewosi, this diamond took three years to cut into a heart shape and finally weighed 184.78 carats.
This stone was part of the De Beers Millenium Jewels Exhibition called the Millenium Star in London. Blue diamonds being exceptionally rare, it is purely academic to price the Millenium Star though even figures of £100 million are said to be a fraction of its worth. The Heart of Eternity is fancy vivid blue and is now in the hands of a private collector "on loan".
This 45.52 carat steel blue stone was found in India. It is the largest deep blue diamond in the world. In 1910 it was set in a platinum necklace by Cartier before coming into the hands of Harry Winston who later donated it to the Smithsonian Institute in 1958.
A blue / white Golconda diamond, this stone is set round with 18 smaller brilliants. The diamond is something of a triangular Old Mine cut. Owned by Chicago jeweller Harry Levinson, it was sold Laurence Graff in 1979. The following year it was sold along with two other diamonds, the Emperor Maximilian and the Sultan Abdul Hamid II, to a buyer for one of the highest priced transactions ever.
This was found in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1980s in a pile of rubble collected from old mine dumps, from the Miba Diamond Mine. Sold by De Beers to a partnership of prominent figures in the New York diamond industry, including Louis Glick, it is the third largest diamond ever cut. In November 2002 the Incomparable appeared on eBay with a reserve of around £15 million but remained unsold.
A cushioned shaped diamond of 245.35 carats is the sixth largest diamond in the world. It was named after the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria. It is currently owned by Robert Mouawad, a great collector and has been graded as e-colour, one grade from colourless and has VVS2 clarity.
Discovered in Arkansas in 1977 it was bought and named by Stan Khan of Khan Jewellers in Pine Bluff and has been worn by Hillary Clinton at her husbands inaugurals as president. A strong yellow colour, it has a triangular pillow shape that has remained uncut.
This stone weighing 33.19 carats is mounted in a ring and is owned by Elizabeth Taylor who bought it at Sotheby's in 1968 for $305k. She wears it everyday and was even animated into her guest appearance on the cartoon 'The Simpsons'.
This stone is a 50.15 carat d-colour with vvs2 clarity and is set in a ring by Bulgari. Mined in South Africa it was purchased by Laurence Graff for $3.6 million in 2001 at Christies in New York.
The centrepiece of the De Beers Millennium Collection it weighs 203.04 carats and is an internally and externally flawless pear-shape. It is the second largest faceted d-flawless diamond in the world. As a rough diamond it was mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has appeared in the James Bond film 'The World Is Not Enough'.
This is a 24.44 carat emerald cut owned by Robert Mouawad and is valued at over $20 million.
Owned by Robert Mouawad, it was bought for over $5 million at Christies and is a 60.19 carat, d-colour flawless. It was named to represent both the traditional world of the family jeweller and the new one of Mondera.com, set up by the jewellers' sons. The stone was set as the centre of a bra made of emeralds and rubies.
Cut by the William Goldberg Diamond Corporation, this diamond weighs 5.11 carats. The stone is a triangular brilliant and was bought around 2001 by Moussaieff Jewellers in the USA.
A pear shaped diamond weighing 79.41 carats and mounted as a pendant, it is thought to have been found in the vicinity of Golconda. Spending several generations among the rulers of Nepal it came to Harry Winston who sold it to a European in the late 1950s.
The centrepiece of a tiara designed by Harry Winston it is one of the largest pink diamonds in the world. It is an oval cut of around 60 carats.
Weighing 5.51 carats and fancy deep blue-green in colour this diamond found in central Africa is one of the rarest d-stones known to man. It is owned by the Cora Diamond Corporation.
Owned by the Graff Diamond Company this seven sided diamond weighs 137.82 carats and is d-colour flawless.
This 20.65 carat stone bought by C.D Peacock, Chicago's premier jewellery store, is internally flawless and radiant cut. (Rectangular but with cut corners). Its colour is fancy intense yellow. Coloured diamonds are becoming more popular and with an increase in exposure their value continues to increase.
This diamond was cut from the claim of Mr Porter-Rhodes in the Kimberley Mine in 1880. Laurence Graff bought the gem from an influential American family in 1987.
This stone weighs 137.02 carats and is one of the largest d-colour flawless diamonds in the world. It is the largest of three cut from what is known as The Premier Rose Family. Pear-shaped and with 189 facets it took 385 hours to cut. The Premier Rose was sold in 1979 to an anonymous buyer for about $10 million.
Fancy vivid orange in colour and weighing 5.54 carats this cushion-shaped diamond was worn by Halle Berry when she accepted her Best Actress Oscar in 2002. It was so named when it was bought by Harry Winston Inc the day before Halloween.
One of the largest rough diamonds ever to be found in India this stone became part of the French Crown Jewels until exhibited at the Louvre. Hidden from the Germans invasion of Paris in 1940, it was returned after the war and put on display in the Apollon gallery.
Weighing 7.34 carats and cut into a perfect heart shape this is the largest fancy vivid purple diamond known to exist.
Acquired from South Africa, this cushion-shaped stone weighs 132 carats. Cut by the Graff Company the vivid yellow diamond is one of, if not the largest of its type.
At 103.83 carats this is one of the largest cut diamonds in the world. It is colourless and internally flawless. It is owned by the Steinmetz Group.
The Star of America is the largest 'Asscher' cut d-colour flawless diamond in the world. It was discovered near the Orange River. It weighs 100.57 carats and was used
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