Home Famous Diamonds in the World The Conde Pink Diamond

The Conde Pink Diamond

Origin of name

The Conde Pink Diamond also referred as the Conde Diamond or Le Grand Conde obtains its name from Louis II de Bourbon, the Prince of Conde and the leader of the French Army, who was offered the diamond as a coupon of admiration by King Louis XIII of France in 1643, for the several winning military victories that were attained on his behalf.

Characteristics of the stone

The Conde Pink diamond is a brightness pink, pear-shaped diamond weighing 9.01 carats.

The diamond is almost certainly a Type IIa diamond, which are nitrogen free and free of all chemical contaminations. Though, the pink color is sourced by the structural deformation of the crystals, suitable to the twisting and winding of the tetrahedral gemstone units as the diamonds rose up from the earth's mantle to the surface. The fuzzy regions in the crystal modify the combination spectrum of the diamond, originating the pink color. Therefore the Conde Pink diamond is a plastically distorted Type IIa diamond.

In the list of well-known pink diamonds, the Conde Pink resides in the final position, being just 9.01 carats in weight, but in terms of historical implication the diamond exceeds most other pink diamonds, as it has a history dating back to the mid-17th century.

List of Famous Pink Diamond in the World

History of the diamond

The Conde Pink diamond being a mid-17th century diamond, most likely initiated in the famous Kollur mines, near Golconda, in Andhra Pradesh in Southern India, the only foundation of pink diamonds in the world for the duration of this period. The Darya-i-Nur, the Nur-ul-Ain, Shah Jahaan and Agra diamond are the some other famous pink diamonds that are supposed to have originated in the same mines.

The diamond most likely come into the French court, through Jean Baptiste Tavernier, the famous traveler and diamond merchant, who had dealings with King Louis XIV and probably with his predecessor King Louis XIII.

The Conde Pink diamond, also recognized as the Conde diamond or the Grand Conde diamond (Le Grande Conde), was supposed to have been offered to Louis II de Bourbon, the Prince of Conde and the Commander of the French Army, as a symbol of appreciation for quite a few succeeding military victories related with the 30-year war. But, the chronology of actions during this stage do not appear to hold up this disputation, but as an alternative favors King Louis XIV, the heir of King Louis XIII as the French Monarch who made this sign of appreciation.

Louis II de Bourbon, the Great Conde formerly known as Duc d' Enghien was born in 8th September 1621 in Paris, to parents who move down from the House of Bourbon. He was the eldest son of Henry II de Bourbon. The 3rd Prince of Conde. Having finished his education at the age of 15 years, learning under the Jesuit priests for six years, later on revising mathematics and horsemanship at the Royal Academy at Paris, he was offered to King Louis XIII, by his father, in January 1636. He soon after joined the armed forces and had his original experience of combat in July 1640. As beginning of the Royal Army, Louis II de Bourbon won his first grand victory above the Spaniards at Rocroi on May 19, 1643. This was the best French victory for a century and without any distrust due mostly to his capacities as a great commander. King Louis XIII, did not survive to observe the great victory of Louis II de Bourbon, as he expired of tuberculosis just 5 days before the great victory on May 14, 1643.

King Louis XIII was achieved by his son Louis XIV, who was just 5 years old at the time. The Queen mother acted as Regent until the King gets nearer of age. Louis XIV was just 9 years old, when the aristocracy and the parliament climbs next to the Crown in 1648, suitable to the low esteem of the Prime Minister Cardinal Jules Mazarin. Throughout the stage of unsteadiness, that was connected with the extended civil war that go behind, known as the Fronde, Conde was jailed by Jules Mazarin and free after 13 months by his friends who commenced the second war of the Fronde, which guide to Mazarin's voluntary exile. Conde finally blemishes to the enemies, the Spaniards, who selected him as Generalissimo. He performed several campaigns against the French army for 4 years, but was lastly overcome at the Battle of Dunes on June 14, 1658. Conde revisited to Paris, following the Peace of the Pyrennes was signed in 1659, and was established by King Louis XIV, on January 27, 1660. Since then he developed into a loyal and modest subject of the King.

Finally in 1668, Conde was yet again appointed the Commander of the Army, that assaulted the Spanish-held Franche-Comte, and Conde obtains Artois, Besancon, Dole, and Gray in 15 days. His bright military achievements sustained until 1675. Nearly all of the military victories realized by King Louis XIV, between 1660 and 1675, could be credited to the Great Conde's winner as a brilliant military senior officer. Hence in all chance it was King Louis XIV, who offered the Conde Pink diamond to the Grand Conde.

Louis II de Bourbon, the Great Conde, had the diamond grown on the pommel of his walking stick. The diamond stay behind the belongings of the Conde family until 1892, while Duc d' Aumale bequeathed it to the French Government. At present it is on exhibit show in the Musee de Conde in Chantilly, in France, somewhere it will maintain to wait according to the Duke's will. The diamond was stolen from the museum on October 11th, 1926, but afterwards recovered and returned. Though, as a security safety measure, the diamond that is on display now, is not the real diamond, but only a perfect model of the original.

Occurrence of pink diamonds

Pink diamonds are extremely rare in occurrence like red, purple, and blue diamonds. The occurrence of these fancy colored diamonds is less than 0.1% of all natural diamonds.

Along the course of history the source of pink diamonds in the world had also changed. The Darya-i-Nur ,Nur-ul-Ain, and other historic pink diamonds from India, might have originated in these mines.

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