The Great Table Diamond was discovered in India at some point in the early 17th century, by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who seems to have been pretty active in locating and valuing several diamonds in his career. Tavernier was a well-known and well-respected diamond merchant, and he always managed to avoid the obsessions and compulsions that seemed to drive many other seekers of famous gems.
It is Tavernier’s account of the finding and measuring of the Great Table Diamond, and it would certainly appear to be the most credible, that has had the most impact on this article.
Part of this disturbing account was the invasion of the Deccan by the Shah Jehan, and he was solely obsessed with the finding, and taking of this marvelous stone. He did this using two most harsh methods - fire and sword. He looted at random, with much bloodshed and rape being every day savageries. He also needed to raise money to pay off, peaceably, the Parsees and the English, who had been ever-present in his constant quest.
In Tavernier’s list of largest and finest diamonds and rubies seen by him in Europe and Asia, this stone occupies third place (11.305). On it, he remarks: “It is a stone which weighs 176 1/8th mangelins, which equal 242 5/16ths of our carat. When in Golconda in the year 1642, I was shown this stone, and it is the largest diamond that I have ever seen.” The “mangelin” was the weight used in the kingdoms of Golconda and Visapur, and is equivalent to 1 3/8ths carats.
Shah Jehan did, indeed, successfully manage to get the Great Table Diamond into his bloody hands, and had a “casting” made of it, which he sent to two of his friends in Surat, in order for them to admire the beauty of the stone, and to achieve its then estimated value of 500,000 rupees, in an attempt to cash in on his savage victory. A price agreeable to both parties could not, however, be found,
An illustration of this remarkable gem appeared in the first edition of Tavernier’s work. It shows that the Great Table Diamond was, indeed, “table-cut”. so that it could easily be recognised should it ever come to light again in India, or, indeed, anywhere else around the world, Tavernier not anticipating at all that the gem would be cut down to several smaller stones. These would have been much less impressive, with a much lower intrinsic value.
Nevertheless, it was considered far more expedient by Benvenuto Cellini, who had apparently purchased the entire, uncut stone from Tavernier, whose name now departs this narrative. Cellini, whilst employed by the Court of Francis Ist, seems to have spent considerable time and money in an effort to reduce the size of the large Great Table Diamond, in a fruitless attempt to procure its anonymity
One of the various and vexatious charges brought against Cellini appeared to be of this nature, although, of course, the number of smaller, although still incredibly beautiful stones, which resulted from the cuttings could never be put back together again as a whole diamond.
Having been unsuccessful in his vain attempts to have all legal charges dropped, Cellini took to extreme violence against his enemies. He rode, with his long sword drawn, in an attempt to bring the whole legal suit to a satisfactory conclusion for himself. He hacked at the horse-mounted young lad’s arms and legs, the person who had instigated these charges, taking great care, however, not to kill him outright.
Shah Jehan’s eventual miserable end (hardly less reprehensible than that of William Shakespeare’s King Lear) seemed to be fully justified by the hideous nature of his crimes, and that his infamous treachery and inhumanity were, indeed, truly vanquished with much agony and suffering on his part.
One hundred and fifteen towns and castles were looted, in an attempt to find the Great Table Diamond, by Shah Jehan and his warriors, but each totally in vain - no trace was ever found again, probably thankfully so, of the Great Table Diamond, or any of its much smaller, less financially or emotionally valued cut-up diamonds
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