JONKER DIAMOND

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 95, 23 April 1935, Page 4

JONKER DIAMOND

NEGOTIATIONS FOE SALE

LARGE SUM OFFERED

, ■ ... . . ....<. Negotiations are now in progress for the sale of the Jonker diamond, the fourth largest diamond in s "the world, states the "Daily Telegraph.:'

The stone, weighing :,726.^arats,, sarid as big as a hen's egg, is named after Jacobus Jonker, the diggerj'bn whose claim at Elandsfontein; ; it;;Wastfpund; by a native assistant in' January last yjear. Since, the diamond-;arrived in don some months^.ago ,it has-beeri in the keeping of the Diamond' Corporation while a Hattbri Garden-firm negotiated for its resale./ IJow, itis understood, an American otter of £100,000 has been made for the stone. If this offer is accepted,, th« diamond will leave London in a few weeks' time for America there to be .cut into several smaller diamonds and eventually mounted on platinum and gold to form an arrangement of ear drops and a necklace. : , The diamond was originally sold by Jonker,"a few days after it,was found, to Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, chairman of the Diamond Corporation., Reports, of what he;pa*id for the stone vary from £61,000 to £75,000. , As the "Jonker" was sold together with another • large diamond it is difficult to estimate the exact price paid for it. Assuming the larger figure to be correct, the profit on the original deal will be 33 1-3 per cent. COSTS £3000 TO LOCK UP. Since the diamond arrived in England its "extra blue-white" purity has been hidden in the recesses of the Diamond Corporation's vaults. Meanwhile it has been costing in locked-up capital and insurance something like £3000 a year. , " ' yv .;: '■■ ■'}.■■.:', hSir Ernest Oppenheimer has described the "Jonker" as the most^magnificent diamond he has ever seen. It is of superfc/ quality and colour, and is a third as large as the Ciillinan Diamond, which was cut into nine big stones and a number of small brilliants. ■ Jonker is over sixty.years' old. When the diamond was found, on his, claim he had been digging for eighteen years, just managing to keep his head above water. . i He had decided to forsake the claim; but his wife urged him on. Next'day his native assistant was washing ;the, bucket gravel, when he stopped sud-' denly and cried: "I've found it." ■■ The digger immediately went down on his knees and thanked God—for "I was down on my luck," he said. After selling the diamond, Jonker evolved a unique plan, for using his wealth. He reckoned that the whole of his 'family could live comfortably on £300 a year, and that with the remainder he could buy land on which to give poor whites a start in life. At the end of thirty years, he planned, something like 100 men would be living independently on farms bought by his wealth. Asked how it felt to be wealthy, Jacobus Jonker stroked his goatee beard and said: "It does not bother you at all provided you have a level head and are not filled with pride. I was a poor, but decent, honest' man before. I shall live as I have always lived."