Diamonds begin appearing in European regalia and jewelry in the 13th and 14th centuries. The early diamond trading capital was Venice, where diamond cutting probably originated sometime after 1330. By the late 14th century, the diamond trade route went to Bruges and Paris, and later to Antwerp. By 1499, the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama discovered the sea route to the Orient around the Cape of Good Hope, providing Europeans an end-run around the Arabic impediment to the trade of diamonds coming from India. Goa, on India's Malabar Coast, was set up as the Portuguese trading center, and a diamond route developed from Goa to Lisbon to Antwerp.

European contact with Indian diamond miners is depicted in this frontispiece engraving from Jean-Baptiste Tavernier's "Les Six Voyages..." (Amsterdam, 1678). click to zoom in

Prior to the 16th century, Venice was the key trading center between Western Europe and eastern regions like India and China. Consequently diamond trading went through Venice, where cutting techniques were probably developed after 1330.

Mogul rule of India (1526--1857) was marked by the flowering of art and architecture. This period, when diamond production increased, is notable for the creation of lavish objects like the Peacock Throne of Shah Jahan (1592--1666), which may have held the Koh-i-Noor diamond as a dangling bauble always in view of the shah's eyes. Many of the great riches of Persia were obtained by Nadir Shah when he sacked Delhi in 1739, taking the jewels and Peacock Throne back to Teheran, where most of the looted objects reside today among the Iranian Crown Jewels. Sadly, the Peacock Throne of Shah Jahan was apparently destroyed soon after Nadir Shah's death.

Venice woodcut: Courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Tavernier engraving: Photo: Jackie Beckett, courtesy Department of Libraray Services, American Museum of Natural History.