Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Famous Tiffany Diamond Gets a New Setting and Goes on a World Tour; Next Stop: Dubai

To mark the 175th anniversary of its iconic jewelry brand, Tiffany reset its famous 128.54-carat Tiffany Diamond in a spectacular diamond-and-platinum necklace and sent it on a world tour. The legendary canary yellow stone will be taking center stage at high-profile events in Dubai, Tokyo and Beijing, before returning home to the Tiffany flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

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The Tiffany Diamond, one of the largest yellow diamonds ever discovered, is now showcased in a diamond-and-platinum necklace that is truly a work of art. The Tiffany Diamond is mounted in a openwork of "sunrays," and the necklace features 481 sparkling stones totaling 120 carats.

Famously, the Tiffany Diamond was worn by actress Audrey Hepburn in publicity stills to promote the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's. Hepburn is one of only two women to have ever worn the Tiffany Diamond.

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The Tiffany Diamond weighed 287.42 carats in the rough when it was discovered in South Africa's Kimberley mine in 1877. The rough stone was purchased the following year by Tiffany founder Charles Lewis Tiffany.

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Tiffany’s chief gemologist, Dr. George Frederick Kunz, supervised the cutting of the diamond into a cushion-shape brilliant weighing 128.54 carats with an unprecedented 82 facets – 24 more facets than the traditional 58-facet brilliant cut, according to Tiffany's official website. The stone is just over an inch wide and seven-eighths of an inch from top to bottom. Cut to enhance its radiant color rather than size, the diamond sparkles as if lit by an inner flame.

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The Tiffany Diamond has been set on four previous occasions. Two of those designs are credited to Tiffany designer Jean Schlumberger, who set the stone in a "Ribbon Rosette" necklace to promote Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and remounted it in a piece called "Bird on a Rock" in 1995 for a retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

Travelers to Dubai will be able to see the Tiffany Diamond in its newest setting at the company’s Dubai Mall flagship boutique from December 13 through January 9, 2013.



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