WITTELSBACH-GRAFF DIAMOND
RENOWNED FOR ROYAL HISTORY, FLAWLESS CLARITY AND DEEP BLUE COLOR
GOES ON VIEW AT AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
Wittel sbach-Graff Diamond
The American Museum of Natural History will unveil the Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond for public view on Thursday, October 28, in the Museum's Harry Frank Guggenheim Hall of Minerals. The Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond is an extraordinary 31.06-carat natural fancy deep blue diamond that will be on display at the Museum through January 1 2011, courtesy of Laurence Graff.
One of a Kind
A magnificent diamond with an exquisite blue color, this gem was a royal gift, a treasured family jewel, the ornament of a legendary knightly order and then…gone. Now known as the Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond, it was shown only once in public between 1931 and 2008. For decades, experts wondered if a single rough diamond produced both the Wittelsbach-Graff and the famous Hope Diamond. A recent comparison of the two gems revealed the unique nature of the Wittelsbach-Graff, on display in New York City for the first time.
Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond
Mined in India
31.06 carats
Flawless, Natural Color, Fancy Deep Blue (Type IIb)
Blue diamonds are extremely rare, and this one is extraordinary for its fancy deep blue color, superb clarity, remarkable history and, of course, size. Mined in India over 300 years ago, the diamond passed through several European royal families before a mysterious disappearance. Now repolished, it has been revived as a flawless gem.
Rivals or Relatives?
Two of the world's largest blue diamonds, the Wittelsbach-Graff and the Hope, were extracted from the mines of India in the 1600s. Are these rivals relatives of a sort, cut from the same giant rough diamond? Scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory and the Smithsonian Institution—home to the Hope Diamond—conducted a detailed comparison of the two gems. Though they looked strikingly similar under normal and ultraviolet light, a microscopic analysis of their crystal structures revealed that the two diamonds came from different stones.
A Rare Find
India, 1600s
For centuries, India boasted the world's only diamond mines, and the stones unearthed there during the 1600s remain some of the most renowned to this day. Diamonds formed billions of years ago and many miles below ground, under conditions of extreme heat and pressure. They are carried upward in molten rock and shot to the surface in volcanic eruptions. Of the stones that reach the surface, only one in 100,000 has a strong, attractive color—and of those, very few are blue. The Wittelsbach-Graff gets its rare "fancy deep blue" hue from boron atoms that replace a few of the carbon atoms in the gem's crystal matrix.
Royal Union
Spain, 1660s
In 1664, King Philip IV of Spain gave this diamond to his favorite daughter, Infanta Margarita Teresa, to commemorate her engagement to Leopold I of Austria. When the Infanta died at the young age of 21, her jewels passed to Leopold.
Crown Jewel
Bavaria, 1720s
By 1722, the gem had moved to Bavaria, now part of Germany, where for two centuries it was the prized jewel of the ruling House of Wittelsbach. But in the aftermath of World War I, the former royal family sold their jewels—and the "Wittelsbach Blue" essentially disappeared from view. The diamond resurfaced in 2008, when jeweler Laurence Graff purchased and repolished it. The changes earned the Wittelsbach-Graff an internally flawless, fancy deep blue diamond certification, and brought it to 31.06 carats from 35.56.
This exhibition is made possible by Graff Diamonds and Laurence Graff.
