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The Ahmadabad
Ahmadabad, the capitol of the Indian state of Gujarat,
is located 550 km north of Bombay, on the Sabarmati
River. The city has long been a center for trading and
cutting diamonds, both of which are still pursued there
today (although to a lesser degree). One famous visitor
to Ahmadabad in the 1600s was the French traveller and
gem merchant, Jean Baptiste Tavernier. Over a period of
40 years, he made six trips to the East. In chapter XXII
of part II of his book Travels in India, Tavernier
described some of the notable diamonds and rubies which
he had seen during the course of his travels, often
accompanied with illustrations, from which the following
is from: "No. 4 represents a diamond which I bought at
Ahmadabad for one of my friends. It weighed 178 ratis,
or 157½ of our carats...[no. 5] represents the shape of
the above mentioned diamond after it had been cut on
both sides. Its weight was then 94½ carats. The flat
side, where there are two flaws at the base, was thin as
a sheet of thick paper. When I had the stone cut I had
this thin portion removed, together with a part of the
point above, where a small speck of the flaw still
remains."
This is the only instance of Tavernier supplying drawings of
both rough and polished forms of a diamond. The
briolette-shaped diamond was presumably cut in Ahmadabad:
after that its history is uncertain. Who was the friend
Tavernier purchased the diamond for? The most likely person
was his sovereign, Louis XIV of France, to whom he had sold
several diamonds, among them two briolettes. But there was
never any reference to a diamond such as the Ahmadabad
entering the Crown Jewels of France. Others, including Edwin
Streeter, the author of two books on famous diamonds, have
indicated that the diamond may have found its way to Persia
via one of the numerous ports of Gujarat which served as a
gateway to the Persian Gulf and Arabia, but no trace of it
has been found among the Iranian Crown Jewels. A 'friend' is
an unlikely epithet to the mighty Aurengzeb, the last of the
Mogul emperors (1659-1707) and a noted collector of
diamonds, of which one is reputed to have been the
Ahmadabad. It is more likely that the 'friend' was one of
the emperor's courtiers, who would have bought the gem for
the emperor.
The Ahmadabad is next reported to have belonged to the
Begum, Hazrat Mahal, the wife King Wajid Ali Shah of Oudh,
who had been exiled to Calcutta by the British after his
refusal to sign a treaty of abdication at the time of the
Indian Mutiny of 1857. She was a beautiful woman and an
outspoken rebel leader at the time of the Mutiny. When
British forces regained control after the rebellion, she
fleed to Nepal where, it is said, she traded the diamond in
return for her safe passage.
It is unlikely that the Ahmadabad Diamond has completely
disappeared. It should be noted that its weight is lighter
than that of the recorded weight of 90.5 carats of the
Ahmadabad; however, such a drop in weight might be explained
by its transformation from a briolette to a pear shape. But
of greater significance is the fact that this gem possesses
a minor flaw at its base, at the culet facet. Is it not
probable that this is one of the two small specks of flaw
which Tavernier stated had remained after the cutting had
taken place? Therefore, it is possible that this diamond,
besides possessing a notable beauty found in the finest
diamonds from the historic Golconda mines of India, is also
a long-lost gem. (A gemologist friend of mine believes there
is no way that one could cut a 90-carat briolette into a
70-carat brilliant pear. He thinks this story is just one
that has been made up by the auction house to make the stone
more interesting. "Judging by the style of the cut," he
writes, "I’d say it was cut around the early 20th century.
It’s therefore quite likely be an African stone (the Premier
mine is known to have produced 'Golconda-type' stones.)"
The Ahmadabad has been graded by the GIA as D-color, VS1
clarity and was accompanied by a working diagram indicating
that the clarity is improvable. The gem is an antique
pear-shaped brilliant and its weight is 78.86 carats. I have
not seen its GIA certificate but I would wager its culet was
graded as Extremely Large, as can be seen in the photo
above. I am guessing the gem was was more of a double-sided
rose cut originally, with a pear-shaped outline, essentially
a somewhat flattened briolette. Also, the pavilion mains are
horizontally split, a cutting step visible in the above
photo. The gem came up for sale at Christie's in Geneva in
November of 1995 when it was bought by Robert Mouawad for
$4,324,554. Sources: Famous Diamonds by Ian Balfour, Travels
in India by Jean Baptiste Tavernier (translated into English
by Valentine Ball), and various internet/magazine articles...
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World's Famous Diamonds - Ahmedabad 
