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Download hereThis blue cubic zirconia (synthetic zirconium oxyde) replica makes it possible to find what was the "Tavernier Blue", certainly the most beautiful blue diamond ever produced by nature.
This diamond was bought by Jean-Baptist Tavernier (traveller, pioneer and merchant of stones, 1605-1689) in India about 1650 and was sold to Louis XIV in 1668. The legend says that this diamond would have been stolen from a statue of the goddess Sita and purchased later by Tavernier at the market of the robbers.
This diamond, a little more than 112 3/16 old carats (110,5 modern carats), was exceptional for its purity and its blue color, near to that of sapphire but with the lustre of diamond. It was said that it was found near 1610 in the Kollur mines, near of Golkonda (now Hyderabad) in India.
In its memories of traveller ("Les Six Voyages of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier", 1676), Tavernier shows an illustration of this diamond before being cut to give the "Blue diamond of the Crown" (also known as the "French Blue" diamond), also presented on this web site.
This sample is not currently exposed and in the course of cataloguing for is the year 2008. This replica was cut and given to the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle by Mr. Scott Sucher, an American lapidarist and expert in great historical diamonds.
On the 3D view, one can observe all the faces of this exceptional diamond.
Photography and 3D view: A. Dahmane / Photo Saint-Hilaire, © MNHN.
SPECIE : Diamond
HISTORY : Name inspired from the Greek word "αδαμασ"[adamas] meaning "not flexible", "untameable", in reference to the fact that diamond cannot be scratched
Species described in 77 by Caius Plinius Secundus (23-79 AC), Roman naturalist
Type-locality: undefined
ANCIENT NAME : Diament
CHEMICAL FORMULA : C
CRYSTAL SYSTEM : Cubic
COLOR : Colorless pale yellow, brown, pink, green, black
DIAPHANIETY : Transparent to translucent
LUSTER : Adamantine to greasy
STREAK : Colorless
MORPHOLOGY : Octahedric, cubic crystals, twinning common
HARDNESS : 10
DENSITY : 3,52
CHEMICAL CLASS : I - Elements
GROUP : Diamond
STRUNZ CLASS BEFORE 2001 : 1/B.02-40
STRUNZ CLASS AFTER 2001 : 1.CB.10
