Cushion decrease diamonds are out of date cuts, generally pre-1920s. They are characterised by smaller top facets ("tables"), and slightly deeper proportions. This results in preferable bright dispersion. The down side to this is a slight loss of flash from the backside of the diamond, though this is generally less that one percent of the glowing falling on the stone.

Some of the world's most noted diamonds are not as flashing "in the flesh" as they may seem in photographs. A tarriance to the Garret of London to look the Star of Africa is slightly disappointing, as the high-reaching security mode that the flare is poor, and the diamond fails to sparkle as chipper as it might....

This is not the process with the Pitt-Regent diamond. Generally considered the most nice of the "Famous" diamonds, it is breathtaking, still over the security glass of its case.

Currently in the Louvre in Paris, less than two minutes from the Mona Lisa, this is the spotlight of a diamond lover's journey to Paris. The Pitt-Regent is a 140 karat cushion shorten diamond, of great flare and life.

Originally conscious as the Pitt, this 410-carat stone was one of the ultimate ample diamonds to be create in India. It is said to corner been discovered by a slave in approximately 1701. The slave stole the diamond, and concealed it in bandages of a self-inflicted leg wound, and fled to the coast.

There, he divulged his secret to an English sea captain, offering him half the fee of the stone in transmit for guarded subject to a chargeless country. Nevertheless during the voyage to Bombay, the master murdered the slave took the diamond. After selling it to an Indian diamond merchant, the leader squandered the release and, in a fit of remorse, hanged himself.

In 1702, the stone was sold to Governor Thomas Pitt Madras. He sent it to Great britain and had it fashioned into a 140.50 carat cushion-shaped fantastic cut. The cutting took two senescence and value about 25,000. Selling the diamond proved difficult, and Pitt suffered a apprehensiveness of theft or robbery of the diamond, unsuprising considering how he acquired the diamond in the elementary place! He little slept in the alike accommodation for two nights running, disguised himself whenever he had the diamond on him, and refused to ever pageantry it or admit that he had it.

In 1717, the brilliant was sold to Philip II, Duke of Orleans, then Regent of France; thanks to that time, it has been common as the Regent Diamond. Two generations later, when the French Coronet Jewels were adorned the Regal Family in frequent deviating kinds of personal ornaments, Marie Antoinette used the Regent to adorn a booming black-velvet hat.

In 1792 it was stolen from the Garde Meuble, on the other hand quickly recovered, buried in a ditch off the Champs Elysee. In 1797, the colossal solitaire was pledged for chicamin that helped Napolean in his handle to power. He had in mounted in the hilt of his sword that he carried at his coronation in 1804.

In 1825, Charles X wore the Regent at his coronation; it remained in the Royal Crown until the date of Napolean III. Then, a district was specious for it in a diadem designed for Empress Eugenie, as according to custom French queens are not indeed crowned.

Many of the French Crown Jewels were sold at auction in 1887, on the contrary the Regent was reserved from the sale and exhibited at the Louvre among the public treasures. In 1940, when the Germans invaded Paris, it was sent to Chambord, where it was secreted at the end a stone panel.

After the War, it was returned to Paris and levy on example in the Apollon Gallery of the Louvre Museum. Personally, I'd reccomend skipping the Mona Lisa, and mind straight for this! Yet in interchange light, a unabridged spectrum of illumination was visible reflecting from one of the lower girdle facets, from bittersweet to violet. This is a circumstance I bear never seen in a diamond, and is completetly mesmerising.