Ashberg Famous Diamond

It is said that this amber-colored, cushion-shaped diamond weighing 102.48 carats, was formerly part of the Russian Crown Jewels. It must have been a late addition to that collection because the stone bears all the characteristics of one from South Africa. In 1934 the Russian Trade Delegation sold the diamond to Mr. Ashberg, a leading Stockholm banker. The Stockholm firm of Bolin, former Crown Jewellers to the Court of St. Petersburg, mounted it as a pendant. In 1949 the Ashberg was displayed, mounted in a necklace containing diamonds and other gemstones, at the Amsterdam Exhibition, the aim of which was to attract new workers to the diamond industry.

Ten years later the Bukowski auction house in Stockholm put the Ashberg up for sale but it failed to reach its reserve and was withdraw. Then its owner succeeded in selling the gem to a private buyer whose name was not revealed. Finally, in May, 1981, Christies auctioned the diamond in Geneva where once again it failed to reach its reserve and was withdrawn.

Amsterdam Famous Diamond

This rare black diamond of African origin is reported to be completely black. It weighs 33.74 carats, has 145 facets and was cut from a 55.85-carat rough. The stone was first shown in February, 1973, at D. Drukker & Zn., Amsterdam. It was auctioned off at www.christies.com in November, 2001, for $352,000, setting a world record for the highest price fetched by black diamond at auction. The stone is cut in a pear shape, with horizontally split main facets on the crown.

EightStar Famous Diamond

To most of EightStar's competitors who cut for bulk not beauty, sacrificing 10 percent of a D-color IF-clarity 15-carat diamond's weight is a catastrophic loss. But Mr. von Sternberg sees the loss as a gain. "What is it about a diamond that you notice first and foremost from clear across a room?" he asks. "Its blaze of white light or its glitter of spectral fire. Hence we have no choice but to cut for sizzle not size."

It should also be noted that several of EightStar's competitors do not cut fancy color color diamonds, sticking to colorless and near-colorless stones, which they consider to be more marketable, despite the growing trend towards fancy color stones. This is not the case with EightStar. In early 2005 the company sold a fine natural blue EightStar diamond of approximately half a carat. Its exact color grade is not known but is rumored to be better than Fancy Blue. The gem appeared in the February 2005 edition of Robb Report magazine and is arguably the finest cut round natural blue diamond in the world presently.

Famous Diamond

The famous American Star Diamond began life as an unnamed 14.89-carat D-color, Flawless-clarity modern round brilliant. The Famous Diamond was bought in late 1999 by the EightStar company of California, with the intent of a recutting the Famous Diamond. The plan was to prove, on a large scale, that the EightStar approach brings otherwise unattainable sculptural and optical perfection to the round brilliant, even ones the rest of the world already thinks are as good as it gets.

As with every EightStar diamond, the American Star was cut using an exclusive light-tracking instrument called a 'FireScope' which allows cutters to align facets so precisely they can completely control the flow of light into and out of a diamond. "Without a Firescope, diamond cutting is guesswork," says Richard von Sternberg, EightStar's founder and president. "With it, our cutters look inside a diamond and fix fatal problems other cutters never even see."

After taking ten months for planning, including the design and manufacture of custom cutting equipment, the famous diamond was slowly recut from 14.89 to 13.42 carats over a six-week period in September-October 2001. "One reason for the slow grind is that EightStar cutters consult with the Firescope at every stage of work," von Sternberg notes. "Ordinarily, that means 200 Firescope checks. In the case of the American Star, however, I lost count at 500."