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The Koh-I-Nur: Coster

Mr. Voorsanger, of Mr. Coster's establishment, was the workman entrusted with the responsible task of re-cutting the famous gem, and his labours were conducted in the atelier of the Crown Jewels, in London. To assist his object a small four-horse machine was erected, and the cutting commenced by the Prince Consort placing the diamond on the mill on the 6th of July, 1852. The operation was completed at the end of thirty-eight days of twelve hours each. The "Star of the South," a much larger stone, was afterwards cut by the same hand in three months. But the "Pitt," or "Regent," treated by the slower hand-process of the eighteenth century, had occupied no less than two years. One of the flaws in the "Koh-i-Nur" gave great trouble. In order to remove it the number of revolutions of the cutting-wheel had to be increased to 3,000 per minute, and even then the object was only attained very slowly. During the process of reduction, the diamond lost exactly eighty carats in weight, having been reduced from 186 1/16 to its present weight of 106 1/16 carats. After all, the result was far from giving universal satisfaction, although obtained at a cost of no less than pound 8,000. The Prince Consort, who took the greatest interest in the operation, and whose sound advice had probably prevented a total failure, openly expressed his dissatisfaction with the work. On the treatment which the "Koh-i-Nur" received in the cutter's hands, King is very severe, remarking that owing to the flattened and oval figure of the stone, the brilliant pattern selected by the Queen's advisers "entailed the greatest possible amount of waste." He adds that Mr. Coster would have preferred the drop form, but that "in a historical relic like this, the sole course that would have recommended itself to a person of taste, was the judicious one pursued some years before by Messrs. Rundell and Bridge, in their re-cutting of the 'Nassak,' both in its native and artificial figure. In this, by following the trails of the Hindoo cutter, amending his defects, and accommodating the pattern to the exigencies of the subject matter, they transformed the rudely-facetted, lustreless mass, into a diamond of perfect brilliancy, at the sacrifice of no more than ten per cent. of its original weight."

It may also be remarked that, although said to be cut as a brilliant, this great Oriental talisman is really only such in name, being much too thin to have satisfied the Jeffries, Ralph Potters, and the other great dealers of the last and beginning of the present century. In fact the cutting of the "Koh-i-Nur" on this occasion, revealed the painful fact that the art was then extinct in England, while even the Amsterdam and Paris operators had lost much of their former cunning. They followed a system of mere routine, betraying little inventive power, and showing themselves incapable of grappling with the problem of how best to reduce a stone, with the least sacrifice of its weight, and the greatest display of its natural lustre.

The "Koh-i-Nur" is preserved in Windsor Castle. A model of the gem is kept in the jewel room of the Tower of London, to satisfy the laudable curiosity of Her Majesty's faithful lieges. Although not of the very finest water, and of a greyish tinge, the stone was valued before being re-cut at about pound 140,000. But Barbot considers it far from being worth such a sum. He allows, however, that it is still an extraordinary stone, "but more on account of its great surface than for its play, which is almost neutralised by its great spread." It must, however, be remembered that this is the criticism of a Frenchman naturally alarmed for the hitherto unrivalled reputation of the "Regent." Since Barbot's time it will be seen in our account of the "English Dresden," that the lustre even of the "Regent," has been somewhat dimmed by the absolutely faultless character of the Bagagem crystal. Although yielding to these and perhaps to one or two others in brilliancy, as it does to several in size, the "Koh-i-Nur" must ever remain without a rival for the intense interest attaching to the sanguinary and romantic incidents associated with its marvellous career. A strange fatality presided over its early vicissitudes, but its alleged "uncannie" powers have now ceased to be a subject of apprehension. Its latest history eloquently demonstrates the fact that extended empire is a blessing, just in proportion as it finds hearts and hands willing to fulfil the high duties which increased privileges involve.