Famous Diamonds: The Portuguese Diamond
The 127.01 carat octagonal emerald-cut Portuguese Diamond is a near-flawless clarity stone that was rumored to be a Brazilian diamond that was found in the eighteenth century, and made part of the Portuguese Crown Jewels.
There is also speculation that the stone was found at the Premier Diamond Mine (aks "Cullinan Diamond Mine," or "Premier Transvaal Diamond Mine") in Kimberly, South Africa. This origin was listed in later sales documents (see next paragraph), so the exact origin of the stone remains clouded in some mystery.
The Portuguese Diamond's first documented purchase was by an actress and Ziegfeld Follies girl named Peggy Hopkins Joyce (1893 1957) in 1928. Mrs. Joyce purchased the stone from Black, Starr and Frost, for $23,000 cash and a trade for a $350,000 pearl necklace, and had it mounted in a chocker necklace.
The diamond was then sold to Harry Winston in 1951, and traveled the country as part of his "Court of Jewels" exhibition. The Portuguese Diamond was sold, then reacquired by Harry Winston, then in 1963, sold again to the Smithsonian in exchange for 2,400 carats in smaller diamonds.
According to Jeffrey E. Post of the National Gem Collection, this diamond was advertised as the "largest blue diamond in the world," but the stone fluoresces blue under ultraviolet light, and even in artificial light or daylight, and if not for its fluorescence, the stone would appear slightly yellowish. The Portuguese Diamond remains at the Smithsonian Institution's American Museum of Natural History in Washington DC.
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Kimberly, South Africa Diamond Mines
Jewelry History
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