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Excelsior Diamond

At the time of its discovery in 1893, the Excelsior diamond was the largest known rough diamond in the world, weighing 995.20 carats. It was not until 1905 that it was replaced in its top position by the Cullinan diamond, which had an even larger carat count.

The Excelsior diamond comes from the Jagersfontein mine in South Africa and, as is typical for this place of origin, this gemstone has an excellent white color with a blue shimmer. However, its clarity is marred by several dark inclusions , which are also a characteristic feature of diamonds from this mine.

A miner came across this amazing discovery while working, which he initially kept secret from his supervisor and then delivered directly to his superior, who rewarded him with £500 and a horse.

Excelsior Diamant Sketch of the famous Excelsior Diamond (1)

The cut of the Excelsior diamond

There is speculation that the name Excelsior was inspired by its special shape: the diamond is characterized by being very flat on one side, but having a towering shape on the other.

The cutting of the Excelsior Diamond is often cited as the reason why this impressive gem remained less famous than, for example, the Cullinan Diamond. Its owners chose to have the Excelsior Diamond cut into many small pieces, the largest of which weighs just 69.68 carats.

Criticism of this approach was not lacking; the then head of DeBeers, Alpheus F. Williams, called the cutting process "the greatest tragedy of modern times in the history of famous diamonds ".

Abraham Asscher was commissioned to cut the Excelsior diamond into 21 pieces; the eleven largest were named Excelsior I-XI and have a pear cut and a marquise cut respectively.

The current owner of the Excelsior I is Robert Mouawad, who bought it in 1996 for $2,642,000.

(1) Image source: Wikipedia, Author: Edwin W. Streeter

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