You already know that diamonds are forever. De Beers won’t let us forget it. After continuously plugging its brilliant (no pun intended) advertising campaign since 1948, De Beers (along with other diamond jewelers) have helped us associate romance, passion, and ever-lasting love with these stones. Their influence is most felt in our culture around weddings, anniversaries, and Valentine’s Day (just around the corner, guys!).
As warm-hearted and tender as a rough-cut may seem, there are some diamonds that you don’t want to hold onto forever, like the Koh-I-Noor, unless you’re a woman. Said to have originally weighed 793 carats (a third of a pound!) some 5,000 years ago, folklore says the radiant diamond is cursed, causing misfortune to any man who owns it.
Legend has it that Ahmad Shah, an Afghan ruler in the 18th century, passed the diamond, also known as the “Mountain of Light”, and his position of power to his son, Timur, who had 23 sons. The sons fought, imprisoned, and manipulated one another in attempts to gain power of the land and the Koh-I-Noor diamond (believed to have once been stolen from Hindu god Krishna while he slept). The youngest brother, Dhulip, eventually lost the diamond to the British when they commandeered the treasury of India after the British defeat of the Sikh army in 1849.
Around this time, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, had the diamond re-cut, whittling it down to 105.6 carats. The diamond currently resides in the Tower of London, set into a platinum crown worn by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother for her coronation in 1937. The curse apparently doesn’t apply to women as the Queen Mother lived to see her 102nd birthday in 2002.
[Photograph of a replica of the famous diamond is courtesy of Bernd Stephan]
Published on February 4, 2010
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We recognize that all of us, no matter where we are from or what we do, have memories that are precious and often part of our everyday lives. At The Fine Art of Family, our mission is to highlight the unique stories behind how people capture, celebrate, and share these memories, specifically through their most prized heirlooms, photographs and collections.