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The Ashberg
The Ashberg diamond is a 102.48-carat, amber-colored cushion
-shaped diamond. The exact color and clarity grades of the
diamond are not known. Amber color is a vague term. It's a
variable color which could mean anything between yellow,
orange and brown, i. e. a combination of any two of these
colors. Thus the term is not suitable to describe a diamond.
However going by the photographs of the diamond, the Ashberg
appears to be a dark brownish yellow diamond. The Ashberg
diamond gets its name from Mr. Ashberg, a leading Stockholm
banker, who acquired the diamond from a Russian trade
delegation that visited Sweden in 1934. 
The Ashberg diamond was formerly a part of the Russian Crown
Jewels, a magnificent collection of jewels and jewelry,
started during the time of Emperor Peter the Great of Russia
in 1719. The collection was subsequently enriched by
successive Czars and Czarinas who ruled Russia until the
Bolshevik revolution of 1917. The Stone seems to be of South
African origin, as it bears all the characteristics of
diamonds originating in South Africa. It is no doubt a stone
of the Cape series of diamonds. Thus the Ashberg diamond
must have been a late addition to the Russian Crown Jewels,
as diamonds were first discovered in South Africa only in
the mid 1860s.
In the year 1926 after the October Bolshevik
revolution, the Russian Crown Jewels were catalogued
and illustrated, as the new Soviet Socialist
Government proposed to dispose of all the jewels in
their entirety. Some of the jewels were pilfered and
found their way to the London auction rooms. But,
later the plan as a whole was abandoned and the
treasures were transferred to the Kremlin Diamond
Fund, established in 1922. In the year 1934, a
Russian trade delegation to Sweden, sold the diamond
to Mr. Ashberg, a leading Stockholm banker. The
Stockholm firm of Bolin, former Crown Jewelers to
the court of St. Petersburg, mounted the diamond as
a pendant to a diamond necklace. In 1949, the
Ashberg diamond was displayed mounted on a pendant
to a necklace containing diamonds and other
gemstones, at the Amsterdam Exhbition. Ten years
later in 1959, an auction house in Stockholm,
Sweden, the Bukowski auction house, put up the
Ashberg diamond for sale, but had to withdraw it
later, as it failed to reach it's reserve. However,
the owner of the diamond succeeded in negotiating a
profitable deal, with a private buyer, but the name
of the buyer was not disclosed. Finally in May
1981,the Ashberg diamond came up for sale, at a
Christie's auction in Geneva, where once again it
failed to reach it's reserve, and was withdrawn.
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Famous Diamonds - The Ashberg
