Marilyn Monroe, via Pinterest.

 

They say that "diamonds are forever", but did you know that this is also the birthstone of April? The most famous gem of the club of 4 emblem of the holiday baby boom! Well, that's not entirely true, for some years now the peak of births in France has been in July... But look around you, we're sure that several people around you are Aries 😉

Diamonds are to gems what Michael Jackson is to pop. King among kings, and has been for a long time. 

 

Diamond daisy ring

 

 

The indomitable

 

The name diamond is derived from the ancient Greek adamas meaning "the indomitable". It is composed of almost pure carbon, like graphite. This makes us curious: how is it that the same chemical element can produce two such different allotropes? It seems that it is the arrangement of the atoms in relation to each other that changes, which is itself linked to the winning temperature/pressure pair. So there's no need to subject the lead of your grey pencil to baroque experiments.

Diamonds develop over long geological times. It crystallises between 150 and 750 km under the earth's mantle. At this depth, the pressure is more than 50,000 times greater than atmospheric pressure. This pressure compresses the atoms between them, which gives diamond its great hardness and brilliance.

 

The rapper Lil Wayne and his diamond grillz.

 

Did you know that? Diamonds are still the hardest known material, so historically diamonds were cut... with other diamonds! The laser, applied to jewellery since the 1930s, then took over, always under human supervision and except for very large stones. One might think that all the diamonds extracted from the mine are destined for the jewellery industry, but a large part of them is destined for the industry (in relation to their hardness, but on average 1 carat of diamonds extracted from the mine can be used in jewellery).

This scarcity partly explains the price of diamonds. The other factor is the high demand. A pitfall of consumer society? For example, in the middle of the 19th century, before the discovery of mines in Africa, the historical deposits were exhausted. And the price of diamonds triples.

 

There are also coloured diamonds, in almost every colour of the rainbow. More rare than colourless diamonds, they are called fancy diamonds.

Black diamonds are also very fashionable in recent years. For example, 'Big' chose a black diamond engagement ring for Carrie Bradshaw in the Sex & the City series. One theory is that these diamonds do not come from the depths of the earth but from outer space. The first ones were discovered in Brazil in the middle of the 19th century.

 

Retro Diamond Earrings

 

Until the 18th century, all diamonds on the market came from India. The most famous gems came from the Golconde mines. Then a stone was discovered in South America, which led to a rush to Brazil. It was not until the middle of the 19th century that the first deposits were discovered in Africa. Today, the main producing countries are still on this continent (South Africa first), but we can also mention Russia, India, Brazil, Australia and finally Canada.  

One cannot talk about diamonds without mentioning De Beers, founded in 1888. The company, known for its slogan "diamonds are forever", held the undisputed monopoly on the production and sale of diamonds for much of the 20th century. Although its existence has been known since the engagement of Mary of Burgundy to Maximilian of Austria in 1477, De Beers also helped popularise diamonds as an ornament to the engagement ring He also helped popularise diamonds as an adornment for women, notably by advising on the price of diamonds, which is equivalent to two months' salary (Chéri, si tu me lis...).

Solitaire Diamond Pear

 

Finally, it is De Beers, in partnership with the American Gemological Institute, that we owe the 4Cs which, since 1939, have made it possible to evaluate the quality of a diamond. This classification does not apply to fancy or black diamonds. We explain you.

 

 

Color, cut, carat & clarity

 

There are four criteria for assessing the quality of a white diamond: colour, cut, weight and clarity. They are called "4C" because of their names: Color, cut, carat & clarity. Discover the details below:

• Color: The more colorless the diamond, the more valuable it is. The colour, from colourless to yellow, is evaluated by a letter of the alphabet between D - excellent + and S-Z coloured.
• Cut: This is characterised by three aspects: proportion, polish and symmetry. Each criterion is evaluated according to four parameters: Excellent, Very Good, Good and Fair.
• Carat: this is the unit in which the weight of a gemstone is expressed. 1 carat = 0.2 grams. It is abbreviated to "ct", not to be confused with the carat which evaluates the weight of gold in an alloy, which is written "kt".
• Clarity: Many diamonds have natural inclusions, the apple of the mineralogist's eye... but not the jeweller's! The purity is evaluated from "pure to the magnifying glass", LC, to "piqué", P3 

There is an authoritative document, created by HRD Antwerp, which summarises the 4Cs with pictures. It is available in all languages via this link.

Diamond sleepers

 

What about synthetic diamonds?

 

Synthetic diamonds, which were introduced to the jewellery market in the 1990s, have been expanding rapidly in recent years in conjunction with societal concerns about ethics and eco-responsibility. In 2018, De Beers, which in the last century had a virtual monopoly on the natural diamond market, launched a line of laboratory jewellery called "Lightbox Jewelry". In addition, some jewellery houses, such as Courbet or Vever, have made synthetic diamonds the spearhead of their communication. Finally, these gems can be found in more mainstream brands. Even if by choosing the transmission of antique jewellery Galerie Pénélope is positioning itself on the subject of eco-responsibility, our intention is not to enter the debate: it is always interesting to find more virtuous alternatives to an existing market.

 

 

Extraordinary diamonds

 

If you dig a little deeper, you will find a lot of fantastic diamonds: The Moussaieff, for example, is a very rare red diamond, but we can also mention the Grand Mazarin, with its pink reflections, the blue-grey Wittelsbach-Graff diamond, the Cullinans belonging to the Crown of England, the Regent (cock-a-doodle-doo) bought in 1717 by Philippe II, Duke of Orleans, then regent of Louis XV; which we invite you to go and admire in the Galerie d'Apollon in the Louvre Museum - the diamond, not the Duke!

So we had to take sides. So we bring you two iconic pop culture icons.

 

Kate Winslet and Billy Zane, Titanic [Film], 1997.

 

The first diamond we want to tell you about is Hope. Do you know it? If you're a jewellery lover, you'll have appreciated the "heart of the ocean", directly inspired by the diamond we're talking about, in James Cameron's Titanic . [Rose throws it into the sea at the end of the film. The original is on display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. Shall we tell you its history? Discovered in India in the 17th century, it is a 45.52 carat blue diamond. Its name comes from the family that acquired it in 1824. And before that? Under Louis XIV, it belonged to the French Crown (cock-a-doodle-doo). It was stolen during the Revolution and disappeared. It was only understood much later, in 2007, that the stolen diamond and the Hope are one and the same gem, recut after the theft (losing 22 carats in the process). The diamond reappeared in 1824, two days after the date of prescription of the theft. The stone was then sold to an English banker, Henry Philip Hope, who gave it his name - apparently diamonds are a bit like children. The stone then passed from hand to hand (including those of the jeweller Cartier) until a certain Harry Winston donated it to the Washington museum.

 

The Hope Diamond, Washington, Smithsonian Institute.

 

Hope has a bad reputation: it is said to bring bad luck to its owners. For example, Marie-Antoinette and Louis XVI... it is doubtful that a gem could be blamed for the decapitation of the French monarchs, but so be it. Just in case, Evalyn Walsh McLean who bought the stone from Cartier had the jewel blessed. Today it attracts 6 million visitors a year, making it the^second most visited art object after the Mona Lisa.

Finally, what could be more glorious than the power couple Jay-Z, Beyoncé? In any case, the American house of Tiffany, founded in 1837 and bought last year by the LVMH group (which needs no introduction), chose them for their latest advertising campaigns; at the initiative of Alexandre Arnault, Executive Director, Products and Communication.

Tiffany's 'About Love' is a big hit. Not only because of their dream cast, but also because the ad features not two, but four superstars: Beyoncé and Jay-Z, but also an unpublished painting by Basquiat and the Tiffany diamond.

 

Beyoncé and Jay-Z, 'About Love', advertising campaign for Tiffany, 2021 © Tiffany&Co

 

We could have told you about the painting, which raises a lot of questions and challenges my personal credulity - it's still an incredible coincidence that this painting, unknown to everyone because it's held in a private collection (Bernard Arnault's?), is exactly the same colour as the iconic Tiffany blue, adopted by the brand in 2001. And then, the painter is Basquiat, a figure of the American underground culture of the 80s, which goes well. And finally. The star that interests us is the yellow diamond of course! Tiffany has been renowned for its diamonds since the middle of the 19th century, when its founder returned to America with his hands full of these gems bought from European aristocrats. This reputation endures: doesn't the title of the film Breakfast at Tiffany's translate into French as "Diamonds on the couch"?

 

"Tiffany diamond", © Tiffany&Co

 

The company acquired the yellow diamond in 1878. It comes from the Kimberley mines in South Africa. Cut in a cushion shape, it weighs 128.54 carats and has 82 facets. This jewel is displayed in the flagship of the house in New York, on Fifth Avenue, but sometimes offers itself on the red carpet as for example on the neck of Lady Gaga during the 2019 Oscars ceremony.

After having taken shares in the De Beers house and finally selling them to acquire Tiffany, LVMH is capitalizing on the diamond. Even if you are not yet as rich as Bernard Arnault, you can still start your collection with Galerie Pénélope! And we can't repeat it enough: investing in old pieces seems to us to be the most ethical and eco-responsible way to buy jewellery 😉

 

Find here our choice of engagement rings, and a selection of our diamond-only jewellery in the drop-down menu on the right, or below for the mobile version.

Don't be jealous if you are not born in April, find out here your birthstone.

 Ring 3, Ring 4, Ring 9, solitaire necklace, bo marguerite, solitaire, toi moi