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Diamonds Part IX

The Spoonmaker

This pear-shaped diamond weighing 85.8 carats is one of the principal treasures of the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul. Legend has it that it was found in a trash heap by a Turkish fisherman, who sold it to a spoonmaker for three spoons. The Spoonmaker may be the Turkey II, which weighed 84 carats and was last reported in 1882 in the Turkish regalia.

In the inventory at Topkapi it is recorded that the Spoonmaker may be the Pigott. According to most authorities the Pigott was purchased by Ali Pasha, ruler of Albania, in 1818. Ali Pasha was an ambitious tyrant who became o powerful that in 1882 the sultan of Turkey sent an army to bring him back to Turkey. Ali Pahsa was mortally wounded in a fight. After being given the privilege of dying in his own throne room, he ordered destroyed his two most precious possessions, his diamond and his wife. Another version of the story can be found interwoven into the Alexander Dumas book, The Count of Monte Cristo. The story continues that the Pigott was then crushed to powder. The possible identity of the Spoonmaker with the Pigott has been discounted by most authorities because the weight of the Pigott is generally quoted at 49 carats. However, other records quote its weight from 47-85.8 carats, so that, in the view of the statement in the Topkapi inventory, the possibility exists that they are one and the same.

Credits for this article go to:

http://www.trappgem.com/famous_diamonds.html

 

Next month’s diamond:

The Sancy

 


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Mineral Clubs - Meeting Dates

Saco Valley Gem and Mineral Club : 3rd Thursday of each month at the Albany, NH Town Hall – 7:00 PM

Keene: 1st Saturday of each month at Keene State College, Bldg. 18, Keene, NH – 7:00 PM

Nashua: Last Wednesday of each month at the Nashua public Library, Court St., Nashua, NH in the downstairs Theater Room – 7:00 PM

North Shore (MA): 3rd Friday of each month, St. Paul Episcopal Church, Washington St., Peabody, MA – 7:30 PM

Boston Mineral Club: 1st Tuesday of each month, Harvard University Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford St., Cambridge, MA – 7:30 PM

Southeastern NH Mineral Club: 2nd Wednesday of each month, St John’s Methodist Church, 28 Cataract Ave., Dover, NH – 7:00 PM