Golconda Magic

For centuries, diamonds from Golconda region have been prized for their extraordinary beauty.

By Phyllis Schiller

The Rani Mahal, Golconda Fort, India. Photo: Bernard Gagnon, Wikimedia.

The preeminent gemstone of ancient India was the diamond, notes Richard W. Wise in his newly revised second edition of Secrets of The Gem Trade: The Connoisseur’s Guide to Precious Gemstones. In Indian texts, diamonds are mentioned as early as the fourth century B.C., he points out. Known for both beauty and “magical” qualities, diamonds were prized as both a talisman and a symbol of wealth. And soon not only Indian maharajas but European royalty valued the gemstones that were mined and traded in India.
India was the oldest gemstone market. Prior to the discovery of diamonds in Brazil in 1725, the majority of the diamonds traded came from India. And the crème de la crème of these diamonds, treasured the world over, were gems from the mines in the small sultanate of Golconda, located in the area of the modern Indian State of Andhra Pradesh, about seven miles from Hyderabad.

The Golconda Legend
Golconda, a fort whose remains can be seen today, was the city where diamonds were traded, Wise says. “Golconda is mentioned most often as the place to go and trade for diamonds by the famed seventeenth-century French gem merchant, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who brought the 116-carat blue precursor of the Hope Diamond back to Europe. He would go to the mines and do business there.”
There were about six major old diamond mining centers in India, says Wise. “Rammalakota and Kollur were the mines closest to Golconda. Rammalakota, a village 20 miles south of Karnul, was nearest, reachable by a five-day journey by horseback. East of Rammalakota, the diamond center of Kollur was a bit further out, involving a seven-day trip. But within a week or two, one could get to either of these locations.”
A lot of the material in the area was alluvial, explains Wise, “which at some point tumbled down from a mountain. Water coming down off of a stream at a height creates an alluvial fan, like the delta of a river, and the diamonds could be anywhere within that delta. Miners would go and dig for the diamonds, pretty much the way they do today. If they found diamonds above a certain size, often the ruler would claim the stones.”

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A Rare Type
By the early eighteenth century, Golconda was essentially mined out. But at its height, the diamonds that were mined and traded there became known as being of the finest quality. In fact, for many Europeans who viewed the diamonds, the name Golconda became synonymous for any mine that was rich in superior stones. Golconda’s stellar reputation was based in large part on the fact that the mines there were a source of a rare type of diamond known as type IIa. Only 1 percent of the world’s diamonds are this type IIa, which have no nitrogen, and the other 99 percent are type Ia, explains Wise.
“It is not known today what the exact percentage of the diamonds mined in Golconda were this type IIa, or even whether they came from a specific mine of the area,” Wise points out. “But we do know that Golconda was the source of many of the most celebrated diamonds that are housed today in museums and as part of the collections of royalty or in the possession of the elite of private collectors.” These storied stones include the famed Koh-i-Noor, Regent and Beau Sancy diamonds, among others.
There are two things that make these type IIa diamonds more valuable than the general run of colorless diamonds, Wise goes on to say. One reason for the prestige status of these stones is what is sometimes called their “whiter than white” or “super D” quality, because of the lack of nitrogen, which can add a yellow tinge. “The D color Golconda is whiter than a D color type Ia.”
In addition, Wise says, “the type IIa Golconda diamonds tend to be highly transparent, having a wonderful limpid crystal quality. This was an important grading consideration in the old days. It was included in the term ‘water,’ as in a ‘gem of the finest water,’ a description used by gem dealers in the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. In fact, Tavernier used that phrase to describe the exceptionally transparent diamonds, gems and pearls he encountered on his travels in India.”
“India also produced some of the most well-known colored diamonds,” continues Wise. “Kollur was the source of colored diamonds, according to Tavernier. It was probably the source of the Hope Diamond.”

A High Premium
Golconda’s reputation for exceptional diamonds continues to live on. Combining rarity with the provenance of the fabled location, Golconda diamonds have commanded high prices when the stones have come up for auction in recent years. In fact, says Wise, diamonds with a proven Golconda provenance have been seen to achieve a premium of 50 percent or more over the price of a diamond without the Golconda pedigree.

Article from the Rapaport Magazine - December 2016. To subscribe click here.

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