Diamonds: the collection of Benjamin Zucker

Abstract

Accompanying an exhibition at Les Enluminures, New York, this lavish catalogue presents an extraordinary collection of diamonds from the king of gems, Benjamin Zucker, one of New York's leading dealers in diamonds and precious stones. Put together over more than forty-five years, this truly rare and immensely valuable collection includes thirty-five precious jewels mostly made for European patrons: rings, brooches, hairpins, earrings. It tells the story of the Indian diamond over a period of nearly 600 years, ending before the discovery of mines in Brazil, a source that displaced India and inaugurated a new age of diamonds. Starting with the octahedral diamond, the collection includes outstanding examples of world-class importance showing how jewellers gradually captured more and more of the allure of these indomitable gems, evolving from point to table to rose to brilliant cuts. The success of the brilliant cut (close to our cuts today) eclipsed the earlier shapes, many of which were recut to "modernize" them, with the result that the earlier cuts of old mine diamonds included here are exceedingly rare.