The Jubilee diamond

The Jubilee diamond was discovered in the Jagersfontein Mine 1895. The original rough stone then found weighed 650.80 carats and had an irregular octahedron shape. A consortium of London diamond merchants bought the stone and sent it a year later in Amsterdam to be cleaved and polished by M.B. Barends and Messieurs Metz.

The Jubilee diamond

After the diamond was cleaved in two, a smaller piece of 40 carats was transformed into a pear shape cut diamond and was bought by Dom Carlos I of Portugal as a present for his wife and the large piece was polished into the Jubilee diamond. During cutting the diamond proved itself to have exceptional purity and it was planned to be presented to Queen Victoria. The next year Queen Victoria celebrated her Diamond Jubilee therefore the precious gem was presented to her and it was named the Jubilee to commemorate the occasion.

The Jubilee diamond and Queen Victoria

The Jubilee is a white cushion-shaped diamond and weights after the cutting 245.35 carats. In 1900 the consortium displayed the Jubilee at the Paris Exhibition where it was one of the centers of attention. The Jubilee cut is rare because it has characteristics of both the brilliant and rose cuts and the table is replaced by eight facets, meeting in the center, the total number of facets being increased to 88.

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