The diamond in ancient India - Diamantschleiferei Michael Bonke

The diamond in modern ageAt the start of the modern age, i.e. at the time Christopher Columbus discovered America the artof diamond polishing in Europe was not even 150 years old. The knowledge had spread fromIndia to Europe in the first half of the 14th century. But till 1729, rough diamonds were only foundin India.The faceted diamonds, which could now also be used as jewels, immediately captured the heartsof European aristocrats and the high society. The European dynasties’ needs for ostentationand pomp were extremely high; it was a part of the system. Instead of demonstrating power andstrength with a fleet of ships or a large army, money was preferably used for prestige symbolsthat did not give rise to any running costs, such as for jewels. Moreover, there was a needfor interesting objects, in which the nobles could invest their enormous wealth. Here, the firstjewellery diamond that was created came at just the right time.At the same time, it was an advantage for the emerging European diamond market that Englandhad colonised the whole of India. Thus, just as the Spaniards had stripped the South AmericanIndians of all their gold and pearls, the English looted Indian temples and royal dynasties and tookvast amounts of diamonds to England. From there, the diamonds were sold to France, Spain,Italy and other European countries.While the Indian rough diamond made it to Europe only in extremely rare cases in the middle age,it advanced to become the most sought-after good on earth at the beginning of the modern age.The affair of Marie Antoinette and the diamond necklace shows the importance and financialmagnitude of this penchant for diamonds in European modern age. Some historians even claimthat the affair of the diamond necklace acted as a catalyst for the French Revolution:Marie Antoinette was only a teenager when she married King Ludwig XVI in 1774 and became theQueen of France. But she was already well-known for her exceptional beauty, her extravaganceand love affairs. Her reputation as an extravagant and not really a moral First Lady had alreadyresulted in feelings of deep hatred amongst the French people for her.Two years before her marriage, her future father-in law, King Ludwig XV had commissioned thefamous Parisian jeweller Charles Boehmer to create a diamond necklace. This necklace wasfor the lady-love of Ludwig XV, Madame du Barry and it would certainly have been the mostexpensive gift in history that a king had ever given his mistress. When the necklace was ready,it had diamonds with a total weight of 2800 carats! It consisted of a single row of 17 pieces of 8carat diamonds, below which there was a three-row chaplet of diamonds with diamonds danglingfrom it as pendants. As a final touch, the necklace had a double-row of diamonds, where thelargest stone weighed 11 carats. The necklace cost two million livres, which when converted,would amount to a little over 100 million dollars.