Nassak Diamond - History

History

The Nassak Diamond originated in the 15th century in India. Although the date of the original cutting is unknown, the original cutting was performed in India and had sacrificed everything to size while giving the diamond a form and appearance similar to that of the Koh-i-Noor diamond. From at least 1500 to 1817, the Nassak Diamond adorned the statue of Shiva in the Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple, near Nashik (Nassak), India on the upper Godavari River. As priests worshiped Shiva through the statue, the diamond eventually acquired its name from its long-term proximity to Nashik.

In 1817, the British East India Company and the Maratha Empire in India began the Third Anglo-Maratha War. During the Maratha war, the Nassak Diamond disappeared from the Shiva statue. The war ended in 1818 and the British East India Company was left decisively in control of most of India.

The Nassak Diamond quickly resurfaced in the possession of Baji Rao II the last independent Indian Peshwa Prince, who handed over the diamond to an English colonel named J. Briggs. In turn, Briggs delivered the diamond to Francis Rawdon-Hastings, the 1st Marquess of Hastings who had conducted the military operations against the Peshwa. Rawdon-Hastings delivered the diamond to the East India Company as part of the spoils of the Maratha war. The East India Company then sent the Nassak Diamond to England, to be sold on the London diamond market in 1818.

At the London diamond market, the Nassak Diamond was presented as an approximately 89 carats (18 g) diamond of great purity "but of bad form," having a somewhat pear-shape. The diamond further was characterised as a "rudely faceted, lustreless mass." Illustrations in Herbert Tillander's book "Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry – 1381 to 1910" show it as being a semi-triangular moghal cut with a plateau top, similar looking to the 115-carat Taj-E-Mah Diamond which resides in the Iranian Crown Jewels. Despite its appearance, the diamond was sold for about 3,000 pounds (equivalent today to £179,000) to Rundell and Bridge, a British jewellery firm based in London.

Rundell and Bridge held onto the diamond for the next 13 years. During that time, the jewelry firm instructed its diamond cutter "to keep as closely as possible to the traces of the Hindu cutter, 'amending his defects, and accommodating the pattern to the exigencies of the subject matter.'" The recut by Rundell and Bridge from 89.75 carats (17,950 mg) to 78.625 carats (15,725 mg) resulted of a loss of no more than 10 percent of the original weight of the diamond.

In 1831, Rundell and Bridge sold the diamond to the Emanuel Brothers for about 7,200 pounds (today about £537,000). Six years later in 1837, the Emanuel Brothers sold the Nassak Diamond at a public sale to Robert Grosvenor, the 1st Marquess of Westminster. At one point, the Marquess mounted the diamond in the handle of his dress sword. In 1886, the diamond was valued at between 30,000 and 40,000 pounds (today between £2,423,000 and £3,231,000), due in part to its vast gain in brilliancy from the recut by Rundell and Bridge.