Dresden Green, the largest and finest natural green diamond ever found, weighing 40.70 carats derives its name from Dresden, the capital city of Saxony in Germany where it has been on display for most of the last two centuries. Today, the diamond is shown in the "New Green Vault" at Dresden Castle. This fascinating diamond has long been considered a "sister" to the Hope Diamond,
An early 18th century stone, it probably came from the Kollur mines near Golconda in southern India.The diamond was discovered in 1722 before the technology for artificial irradiation existed. The Dresden Green Diamond was proved to be not only of extraordinary quality, but also a rare type IIa diamond-chemically pure, internally flawless and slightly recut. This amazing a diamond with natural green body color was probably cut prior to 1741.
An early 18th century stone, it probably came from the Kollur mines near Golconda in southern India.The diamond was discovered in 1722 before the technology for artificial irradiation existed. The Dresden Green Diamond was proved to be not only of extraordinary quality, but also a rare type IIa diamond-chemically pure, internally flawless and slightly recut. This amazing a diamond with natural green body color was probably cut prior to 1741.
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| Dresden Green, largest green diamond..original-diamonds.com |
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| The diamond in its hat clasp ornament.en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
According to Geologists Green or irradiated diamonds more commonly occur in alluvial deposits,but their primary sources are usually in the upper part of the diamond-bearing volanic pipe, but green diamonds of any size are rare. The Dresden Green, which probably weighed over 100 (old) carats in its rough form, is unique among world famous diamonds. originally It was probably an elongated unbroken stone and cleavages rarely occur. Another distintive feature of the diamond is that the green color is almost uniformly distributed throughout the stone, instead of being confined to the outer layers as a skin or restricted to certain areas as patches. ''There is only one other diamond, the Dresden Green, which comes close to the Hope Diamond in rarity and uniqueness," said Ronald Winston,well-known American Jeweler.
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| Dresden, Germany.magsbeadscreation |
Marcus Moses was an important diamond merchant in London during the first part of the 18th century - he had once been involved with the Regent Diamond.He started a modernization program for the city.In the early 18th century, it was purchased by the famous London diamond merchant Marcus Moses, who, bought it to be sold to King George I (1714-27) for 10,000 pounds according to the earliest reference in The Post Boy, a London news-sheet of the 1700's. The issue dated October 25th - 27th, 1722. But, finally it was offered to Duke Frederick Augustus II(1733 -1763) for 400,000.00 thaler. He bought the Dresden Green from a Dutch merchant named Delles, at the Leipzig Fair in 1741 and on his order the court jeweler, Dinglinger, set the diamond in the Decoration of the Golden Fleece. It was broken up in 1746. The king then commissioned the goldsmith Pallard in Vienna, to design another Golden Fleece incorporating both the Dresden Green and the Dresden White, a cushion-shaped diamond weighing 49.71 carats. Frederick Augustus I (1694-1753) set aside a group of rooms in Dresden Castle to house his collection of jewels and other treasures, and named them the ''Green Vault.''
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| Dresden green diamond. hashtaglegend.com |
From 1756 to 1763 during the continued hostilities of the Seven Years War (France, Russia, Austria, Sweden, and Saxony were aligned on one side against Prussia, Great Britain, and Hanover on the other), the contents of the Green Vault were removed for safety to the fortress of Königstein, located in southeast Dresden by the Elba River. In 1942 they were removed again to Königstein, thus escaping the massive bombardment from the air by the Allied Forces on the night of February 13th,1945 which devastated Dresden. After World War II, the Russians took the diamond and many other treasures including the crown jewels to Moscow; they were returned in 1958. In 1768,the diamond was incorporated into an extremely valuable hat ornament, surrounded by two large and 411 medium-sized and small diamonds.
The Dresden Green from October, 2000 to January, 2001 was in Washington where it was on display in the Harry Winston Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution. In 2001, it was returned to the Albertinium Museum in Dresden, its permanent home where it remains to this day.
Ref:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dresden_Green_Diamond
