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The Ahmadabad Diamond
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One famous visitor to Ahmadabad in the 1600s
was the French traveler and gem merchant, Jean Baptiste Tavernier. Over a
period of 40 years, he made six trips to the East. In chapter XXII of part II
of his book Travels in India, Tavernier described some of the notable
diamonds and rubies which he had seen during the course of his travels, often
accompanied with illustrations, from which the following is from:
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"No. 4 represents a diamond which I bought at
Ahmadabad for one of my friends. It weighed 178 ratis, or 157½ of our
carats...[no. 5] represents the shape of the above mentioned diamond after it
had been cut on both sides. Its weight was then 94½ carats. The flat side,
where there are two flaws at the base, was thin as a sheet of thick paper. When
I had the stone cut I had this thin portion removed, together with a part of
the point above, where a small speck of the flaw still remains."
This is the only instance of Tavernier supplying drawings
of both rough and polished forms of a diamond. The briolette-shaped diamond was
presumably cut in Ahmadabad: after that its history is uncertain. Who was the
friend Tavernier purchased the diamond for? The most likely person was his
sovereign, Louis XIV of France, to whom he had sold several diamonds, among
them two briolettes. But there was never any reference to a diamond such as the
Ahmadabad entering the Crown Jewels of France. Others, including Edwin
Streeter, the author of two books on famous diamonds, have indicated that the
diamond may have found its way to Persia via one of the numerous ports of
Gujarat which served as a gateway to the Persian Gulf and Arabia, but no trace
of it has been found among the Iranian Crown Jewels. A 'friend' is an unlikely
epithet to the mighty Aurengzeb, the last of the Mogul emperors (1659-1707) and
a noted collector of diamonds, of which one is reputed to have been the
Ahmadabad. It is more likely that the 'friend' was one of the emperor's
courtiers, who would have bought the gem for the emperor.
The Ahmadabad is next reported to have belonged to the
Begum, Hazrat Mahal, the wife King Wajid Ali Shah of Oudh, who had been exiled
to Calcutta by the British after his refusal to sign a treaty of abdication at
the time of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. She was a beautiful woman and an
outspoken rebel leader at the time of the Mutiny. When British forces regained
control after the rebellion, she fled to Nepal where, it is said, she traded
the diamond in return for her safe passage.
It is unlikely that the Ahmadabad Diamond has completely
disappeared. It should be noted that its weight is lighter than that of the
recorded weight of 90.5 carats of the Ahmadabad; however, such a drop in weight
might be explained by its transformation from a briolette to a pear shape. But
of greater significance is the fact that this gem possesses a minor flaw at its
base, at the culet facet. Is it not probable that this is one of the two small
specks of flaw which Tavernier stated had remained after the cutting had taken
place? Therefore, it is possible that this diamond, besides possessing a
notable beauty found in the finest diamonds from the historic Golconda mines of
India, is also a long-lost gem.
The Ahmadabad has been graded by the GIA as D-color, VS1
clarity and was accompanied by a working diagram indicating that the clarity is
improvable. The gem is an antique pear-shaped brilliant and its weight is 78.86
carats. I have not seen its GIA certificate but I would wager its culet was
graded as Extremely Large, as can be seen in the photo above. I am guessing the
gem was was more of a double-sided rose cut originally, with a pear-shaped
outline, essentially a somewhat flattened briolette. Also, the pavilion mains
are horizontally split, a cutting step visible in the above photo. The gem came
up for sale at Christie's in Geneva in November of 1995 when it was bought by
Robert Mouawad for $4,324,554. Sources: Famous Diamonds by Ian Balfour, Travels
in India by Jean Baptiste Tavernier (translated into English by Valentine
Ball), and various internet/magazine articles.
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The Conde Diamond