Spoonmaker's Diamond

The Spoonmaker's Diamond (Turkish: Kaşıkçı Elması) is an 86 carat (17.2g) pear-shaped diamond in the Imperial Treasury exhibitions at the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul, Turkey, and its most valuable single exhibit. It is considered the fourth largest diamond of its kind in the world.

Set in silver, surrounded by a double row of 49 old-mine cut diamonds (brilliants), it hangs in a glass case on the wall of the third room in Imperial Treasury section of Topkapı's "Conqueror’s Pavilion".

These surrounding separate brilliants give it "the appearance of a full moon lighting a bright and shining sky amidst the stars" and are considered to have been commissioned either by Ali Pasha or by Sultan Mahmud II – though this, as all other details of the diamond's origins, is doubtful and disputed.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.