History Of Diamonds
Diamonds have a long history as beautiful objects of desire. In the first century AD, the Roman naturalist Pliny stated: Diamond is the most valuable, not only of precious stones, but of all things in this world.
A diamond has to go through a lot before it reaches the jeweler’s display case. It forms deep in the earth under extreme heat and pressure. It’s ejected violently upward until it arrives at or near the earth’s surface. It’s forced from its hiding place by nature or by man. Then it’s cleaved and cut and polished until its natural beauty shines through.
The world’s love of diamonds had its start in India, where diamonds were gathered from the country’s rivers and streams. Some historians estimate that India was trading in diamonds as early as the fourth century BC. The country’s resources yielded limited quantities for an equally limited market: India’s very wealthy classes. Gradually, though, this changed. Indian diamonds found their way, along with other exotic merchandise, to Western Europe in the caravans that traveled to Venice’s medieval markets. By the 1400s, diamonds were becoming fashionable accessories for Europe’s elite.
the Cullinan in 1905 (a 3106.75 carat diamond named after Sir Thomas Cullinan
In the early 1700s, as India’s diamond supplies began to decline, Brazil emerged as an important source. Diamonds were discovered in the pans of gold miners as they sifted through the gravels of local rivers. Once it reached its full potential, Brazil dominated the diamond market for more than 150 years.
While sources changed, the diamond market experienced its own evolution. The old ruling classes—diamonds’ biggest consumers—were in decline by the late 1700s. Political upheavals like the French Revolution led to changes in the distribution of wealth.
The 1800s brought increasing affluence to western Europe and the United States. Explorers unearthed the first great South African diamond deposits in the late 1800s just as diamond demand broadened.
By the early 1900s, De Beers controlled about 90 percent of the world’s production of rough diamonds. - Courtesy De Beers
The story of the modern diamond market really begins on the African continent, with the 1866 discovery of diamonds in Kimberley, South Africa. Entrepreneur Cecil Rhodes established De Beers Consolidated Mines Limited 22 years later, in 1888. By 1900, De Beers, through its mines in South Africa, controlled an estimated 90 percent of the world’s production of rough diamonds.
Rough Diamond
The South African sources affected many segments of the diamond industry. This was especially true as diamond mining moved from the surface to farther underground. Because of the huge costs and comparatively low yields involved, the new sources forced the development of more efficient mining techniques. They created the need for better marketing. They also led to advances in cutting and polishing—advances that increased efficiency, reduced costs, and enhanced the appearance of finished stones.
The market probably changed as much after 1990 as it did in the years after the 1866 discovery of diamonds in South Africa . The 1990s brought exciting new sources and encouraged the dramatic growth of some cutting centers. All this was happening as the world economy fluctuated wildly.
Star of Sierra Leone, found in Sierra Leone
in 1972, weighed 969 carats
Only since the beginning of last century diamonds have become also the symbol for love.
In 1939 launched a marketing campaign with N.W Ayer & Son in an attempt to revive the to revive the American diamonds market. Aimed at young men linking the idea of diamonds in wedding rings to true romance. Women, too, would be targeted with the idea that no courtship would be complete without a sparkling diamond.Famous houses of worship were featured in follow up advertisements, establishing a link between diamonds and the sacred tradition of a religious wedding. In the marketing campaign the used the , now iconic , slogan : diamonds are forever.
1,109-carat Lesedi la Rona rough diamond
