Golconda Diamonds: Wittelsbach - Graff Diamond

Wittelsbach - Graff diamond

According to Gemological Institute of America or GIA report no. 17794002 dated September 24, 2008: Wittelsbach diamond is 35.56 carat, cushion-cut, fancy deep grayish-blue color, a clarity grade of VS2, and classified as a rare type IIb diamond. It contained 82 facets and the main facets on the crown are vertically split and the pavilion has 16 needle like facets arranged in pairs and radiating from the culet - smaller facets.

Wittelsbach diamond is a nitrogen-free, which constitute only 0.1 percent of all naturally occurring diamonds in the world. Primarily its the Boron element that causes its blue color and deemed semiconductors meaning its electrically resistant nor an insulator.

King Louis, 1638 - 1715; and Jean Baptiste Tavernier, 1605 - 1689

It is believed that the Wittelsbach diamond has been acquired by Jean Baptiste Tavernier, mid-17th century, in Kollor mine India and later sold to King Louis XIV of France, together with the Tavernier blue where the Hope diamond was cut.

Philip IV of Spain, 1605 - 1665; and Leopold I, 1658 - 1705

The first recorded appearance of the Wittelsbach diamond was in 1666, when King Philip IV of Spain gave it as part of the dowry for his daughter's, Margarita Theresa of Spain, wedding to Leopold I of Austria. Leopold I, 1658 - 1705, was a Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia.

Wives of Lepold I:

Margarita Theresa, 1666 - 1673; Claudia Felicitas, 1653 - 1676; and Eleonore Magdalene, 1655 - 1720

The marriage of Leopold I and Margarita Theresa, 1666 - 1673, however lasted only for seven years, ended with the untimely death due to bronchitis, of his wife in 1673 at age of twenty-one, all of thier four children died from still births. After the death of his wife he get married to Claudia Felicitas, 1653 - 1676, from the Tirolian branch of the Austrian Hapsburgs however after three year long marriage with Leopold I she died after the birth of her second child, all their children died from infancy. 

In 1676, Emperor Leopold solemnized his third marriage to Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg, 1655 - 1720. This marriage turned out to be a happy union and produced 10 children, among them the future Emperors Joseph I and Charles VI.

In a document dated March 23, 1673, the Wittelsbach diamond is listed as a diamond ornament in the form of a large brooch. Leopold I gifted all jewelry belonging to Margarita Teresa, to his third wife and Queen

Maria Amelia, 1746 - 1804

consort Eleanor Magdalena. Leopold I died in 1705 and was succeeded by his eldest son Joseph I, who also died suddenly due to smallpox epidemic in 1711, and was succeeded by his brother Charles VI. Empress Eleanor Magdalena lived up to the year 1720, and before dying had bequeathed the great blue Wittelsbach diamond to her granddaughter, Archduchess Maria Amelia, daughter of Emperor Joseph I.

Archduchess Maria Amelia married the Bavarian Crown Prince Charles Albert in 1722, who succeeded to the Bavarian throne in 1726 and remained king and elector of Bavaria until his death in 1745. 

Charles Albert was also elected Holy Roman Emperor, as Charles VII in 1742, with the help of  France and Prussia, during the war of Austrian succession, in opposition to Maria Theresa's husband, Francis Stephen, the grand duke of Tuscany. 

The Wittelsbach Graff diamond was recorded in history since 17th century, came into the possession of the Wittelsbach family in 1722 where its name derived from. The name Wittelsbach was taken from the Castle of Wittelsbach, which became the official residence of the Dukes of Bavaria.

The Wittelsbach diamond was the most expensive item of jewelry among other items in Maria Amelia's dowry, and had a estimated value of 240,000 guilders at the time of her marriage. It is reported that not long after Crown Prince Charles Albert married Archduchess Maria Emelia, his father Maximillian II, the elector of Bavaria, got into dire financial straits and was forced to borrow money from a banker named Oppenheimer, by pledging the Wittelsbach diamond and other valuables. The Wittelsbach  diamond was later redeemed by Charles Albert after the death of his father.

Maximillan II, 1527 - 1576; and Maximillan III 1558 - 1618

A Munich jeweler, who was commissioned for the job by Charles Albert's successor Maximillian

Golden fleece

- ornament

III, and consisted of 700 diamonds. This was a 'golden fleece ornament' which apart from the gold ram consisted of two sections. The centerpiece of the upper part was the Wittelsbach diamond, surrounded by smaller cushion-cut white brilliants, and an outer intricate floral pattern consisting of white diamonds of various shapes and sizes. The centerpiece of the lower part was a cushion-shaped pinkish-brown brilliant with three rows of large white diamonds radiating horizontally from it on either side with several  rows of smaller white diamonds in between them.

Coat of arms of Bavaria; and Otto I, 962 - 973 

Wittelsbach family has ruled for 700 years in Germany under Bavarian dynasty which provided dukes, kings and German emperors from 1180 to 1918. Its founder was Otto I (ca. 1020-ca. 1072), and the last Wittelsbach king was Ludwig III of Bavaria, 1913-1918, retired to a private life in his estate in Hungary, where he died in 1921. His funeral ceremony in Munich, was the last occasion the Wittelsbach diamond accompanied a monarch to his final place of rest.

Ludwig III, 1845 - 1921

Members of the royal family, Wittelsbach, received an indemnity from the state but this was hardly enough for their survival. Soon they were reduced to a state of penury. 

In

Bavarian crown jewels | Wikipedia

order to relieve their suffering the State of Bavaria agreed in 1931 that certain jewels of the House of Wittelsbach could be sold, and accordingly Christie's of London were assigned the task of auctioning the Bavarian Crown jewels. The auction was held in December 1931 and comprised of 13 lots. Bidding for the first lot that included the Wittelsbach diamond started at £ 3,000 and was knocked down to a purchaser by the name of Thorpe for £ 5,400. From then onwards the Wittelsbach diamond vanished without any trace.

Researchers had shown that whoever was in the possession of the rare and historic diamond had sold it in Belgium in 1951 and again in 1955. Later in 1958 the Wittelsbach diamond appears to have been displayed at the Brussels World Exhibition together with other jewelry, but none of the millions of visitors who may have seen the diamond were aware that it was the missing Wittelsbach diamond. Finally the Wittelsbach diamond was re-discovered in 1962, almost three decades after its disappearance.

In 1962, upon request of Romi Goldmuntz, a heir of one of Europe's most successful diamond dealers, to a Belgian diamond dealer Joseph Komkommer able to identify the diamond as the Wittelsbach thru his discovery that its an old mine-cut stone, rare, dark blue diamond. Thus it appears that the Goldmutz family owned the diamond from 1932 to 1962. Joseph Komkommer and a consortium of dealers bought the diamond, then valued at 180,000 British Pounds, and it was resold to a private buyer in 1964.

In 1964, the Wittelsbach diamond had been

Helmut Horten, 1909 - 1987

passed on to a Hamburg jeweler who sold it to an anonymous buyer, later the buyer named Helmut Horten, a department store magnate from Germany, this report is according to Juergen Evers an expert on the diamond.

Helmut Horten, who gave it to his young bride, Heidi, as a wedding present in 1966. Horten died in 1987, but his widow Heidi Horten now ranks as the wealthiest woman in Austria with a personal fortune of more than 3 billion euros.

The Times report further goes on to say that the Horten Foundation had not commented whether Mrs. Heidi Horten still owns the Wittelsbach diamond, but there had been reports of people having seen her wearing a large blue diamond at high society parties. Thus if Mrs. Horten does indeed own the diamond, it appears that the Wittelsbach diamond had remained with the Horten family for 44 years from 1964 to 2008. According to Christie's the diamond had been put up for auction by the same family that owned the diamond for the past four decades.

On December 10, 2008 the Wittelsbach diamond reappears at a Christie's auction, with a bid name "Der Blaue Wittelsbacher", in London and fetches a record breaking price of  U.S. dollar 24.3 million or £16.4 million pounds. Before this auction held in London the Wittelsbach diamond was already exhbited in the Middle East, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, five days before its auction in London.

There are notable bidders that have been  involved during its last  auction in 2008 held in London among them are Prime Minister of Bavaria Horst Seehofer, the director of the German Historical Museum in Berlin, Hans Ottomayer, Laurence Graff, the owner of Graff Diamonds in London, whom had made record breaking purchases at previous auctions, and had purchased several colored diamonds before on behalf of the Sultan of Brunei, and Aleks Paul of Essex Global Trading, a professional trader of Russian origin based in New York.

Notable bidders of Wittelsbach - Graff diamond:

Horst Seehofer, Hans Ottomayer, Laurence Graff, and Aleks Paul | image source: Wikipedia

Francois Graff, managing director of Graff Diamonds made his qoutable qoute, "If someone buys it for nine million pounds , it will be because of the history. It's not a stone we'll be looking to buy. It was cut a long time ago without the benefits of modern technology. Buyers of extremely rare diamonds expect excellence in all aspects." - Bloomberg.com

Laurence Graff of Graff Diamonds, is the successful bidder and the recent owner of the Wittelsbach diamond. Laurence Graff said that he plans to re-cut and polish the Wittelsbach diamond and use all his expertise to create an amazing piece befitting this historic gem, and before selling it again.

It has speculated for many decades by Gem Historians that the Hope and Wittelsbach-Graff diamonds are from the same rough stone called the Tavernier Blue, a 112.5-carat, wherein this Hope diamond were cut from, though according to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and supported by Gemological Institute of America or G.I.A., which studied it thoroughly that the results from testing indicated that these two diamonds did not originate from the same stone but it came from the same place the Golconda mine in India.

image source : G.I.A.

Figure A.[Left] - 31.06 ct Wittelsbach-Graff diamond joined the 45.52 ct Hope diamond [Right] Photo by Chip Clark.

Figure B. Both the Wittelsbach-Graff [left] and Hope [right] display bright, long-lasting, orange-red phosphorescence after exposure to short-wave UV radiation. Note that the Wittelsbach - Graff diamond is slightly brighter and more orange. This phosphorescence is actually better captured with the camera than with the unaided eye, and agrees with the spectra shown in figure. Photo by Chip Clark.

Figure C. In these Diamond View images from the culet [facets] of the Wittelsbach-Graff [left] and table of the Hope [right], the texture of the mosaic patterns is much finer for the Hope [<100 m="" vs.="">200 µm]. Fields of view 6.1mm [left], 6.4 mm [right]; exposure time 2.8 seconds. Photo by G.I.A.

Notes from G.I.A:

- The Wittelsbach-Graff and the Hope, two of the world’s most famous blue diamonds, share similarities in history, color, and phosphorescence.

- Slight differences in phosphorescence and distinct differences in luminescence emission and internal strain patterns demonstrate that the diamonds did not originate from the same crystal.

- The two diamonds’ overall resemblance and common origin (India) suggest that they formed in similar geologic settings.

The Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond after its fifty (50) years hidden from the public eye was last displayed at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. displayed at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. dated Jan. 28, 2010, through Aug. 1, 2010. - Smithsonian: 12/14/2009

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