£400,000 OR BUST?

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 171, 22 July 1941, Page 5

£400,000 OR BUST?

WORLD'S THIRD GEM J CUTTING OF A DIAMOND d (Special) WASHINGTON, June 12. i After more than a year of study, experts are ready to cut the third largest diamond in the world—the Presidente Vargas, discovered in Brazil four years ago. The great gem, now the property of a New York jewel merchant, will be cut into 23 smaller stones, ranging in size from five to fifty carats and worth about £400,000, according to a reportj ju t issued by the U.S. Bureau of Mines. .. This will account for only half of it. The rest, somewhat inferior in quality, will be reduced to fine chips ai?q dust—worth about 3100 dollars 3, pound A fortune will depend on tqe success of the first cleavage to ye made with a bronze cutting disk led with olive oil and with diamond dust. The stone weighs 726.6 carats.

Months of Stud j'. ( The largest diamond yet found 1 earth, the Bureau of Mines < • reports, was the Cullinan, discovered in South Africa and sent overseas by ' registered mail. It weighed 3024.75 ] S?J ats - it was split in two by 1 toward Asscher, a Netherlands gem ' expert, after months of study. The ; Work had to be done in one stroke. Asscher had two nurses and a uoctor in attendance on the fatal flay. The one stroke was successful. "Otfiediately upon making it, he tainted and spent three months in a hospital recovering from a nervous Breakdown. The Cullinan provided the Star of Africa, fifi.r, carats, and! the rvp- n ' i" 1 ') carats, and f®'! r.r • • - The first are' UW . . r-c in rvi 1 r.cc 1 Air VII. oh'.Ndvci: ... • ■ : j:.,w form of Lii-_ ;• jewels. I The- second ia gest known diamond was the Excelsior, found in 1893 in South Africa. It also was cut in two by a member of Asscher's nrm in Holland and later was cut into ten stones, ranging in size from 13 to GS carats. I

Until the discovery of the Vargas,! the third largest diamond in thei world was the Jonker, discovered by a Pretorian native in 1934. It was purchased for about 750,000 dollars by the same New York jewel merchant who now owns the Brazilian stone and was sent to New York by registered mail.

Fortmie in the Balance The merchant, according to the Bureau of Mines' report, employed a New York diamond cutter named Lazare Kaplan for the job, but some of the world's foremost experts were called in to determine how this should be done. Edward Asscher, supported by virtually all other European experts, contended that it should be split along one plane. Kaplan believed the blow . should be struck in quite a different! i direction. 1- a fortune hung in the balance. If L the stone were hit across the grain, I i it would fly into small bits of little „ value, probably fit only for diamond f dust to be used in industry. The i owner backed Kaplan. Guided by 3 the opinion of all other experts, 3 Lloyd's refused to insure the stone lat any premium. It split perfectly. 3 From it was cut a gem of 143 carats t —the third largest cut diamond ex--1 tant—and 11 smaller jewels.

The Brazil diamond was discovered in October, 1938, in Coromandel, Brazi], by a "ganmpeiro nr dicser. It was named after Brazil's President, Getulio Vargas. Bv pre-arrangement with the farmer on which land he was prospecting. • the digger was to get a half share in anything found. He sold 1S ' share however, for 8000 dollars, 1 whereas the farmer got 60,00() dolt lars for his. —"Auckland Star and [ N.A.N.A.