The Tiffany Yellow Diamond is one of the largest yellow diamonds ever discovered. Its carat weight was originally 287.42 carats (in the rough when discovered in 1878 in the Kimberley mine in South Africa. It was cut into a cushion shape of 128.54 carats with 82 facets—24 more than a traditional round brilliant—to maximize its brilliance. The facet pattern features eight needle-like facets pointing outward from the culet (bottom) facet.
Eighty years were to pass after its discovery before the 128.51 carat, cushion-cut Tiffany Diamond was worn in a piece of jewellery. This is somewhat unusual in itself, but the stone is notable primarily because it is the largest golden-yellow diamond in existence.
Tiffany’s the famous Fifth Avenue jewellery firm after which the stone is named, bought it the following year and had it cut in Paris under the supervision of Dr George Frederick Kunz, the company’s distinguished gemmologist. It has ninety facets: forty on the crown and forty-eight on the pavilion, plus a table and a culet.
More than twenty-five million people are estimated to have seen the great gem in four large expositions: the Chicago Columbian Exposition in 1893, the Pan American Exposition in 1901, the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition in 1933-34, and the New York World’s Fair in 1939-40. The diamond has been on almost continuous display through the years at Tiffany’s. One Christmas season it was the feature of the holiday windows, carried by a golden angel and suspended on invisible wires.
The diamond was mounted in a necklace and worn for the first time as a personal ornament at the Tiffany Ball in Newport in 1957. The honour of this first wearing went to the Ball’s chairwoman, Mrs Sheldon Whitehouse.