The Diamonds of Louis Glick have an inimitable heritage of quality and
beauty. ...
Because no matter how attractive a piece of jewelry may be, it's the diamonds
that make the difference.
Mwana Africa continues move on SouthernEra Diamonds
Mwana is continuing with its plan
to tender BHPB’s SouthernEra holding following the latter not exercising its
right of first refusal to take up the stake.
...Baring said his company is after consolidating its presence in Africa and
is eyeing SouthernEra's properties in the DRC and Angola, where it wants to
control an area that produced the world's fourth-largest diamond, the 890 carat
"Incomparable", recovered by a young girl from rubble in the early 1970s
that reportedly took four years to cut into its polished state... read more at mineweb.net
Before and after 890 carat rough and 407.48 carat Diamond Incomparable
The Incomparable was found in its rough state weighing 890 carats, and was
found in the town of Mbuji Mayi in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly
Zaire) in the 1980s. It was found by a young young girl playing in a pile of
rubble outside her uncle's house. This rubble had been legitimately collected
from old mine dumps from the nearby MIBA Diamond Mine, having been rejected
during the recovery process as being too bulky to be worth scanning for
diamonds. The girl gave the diamond to her uncle, who sold it to some local
African diamond dealers, who in turn sold it to a group of Lebanese buyers
operating out of Kinshasa.
The
Incomparable, with its satelite stones. The stone
directly in front of it is the 15.66-carat kite-shape
It was later purchased in Antwerp by the Senior De Beers Buyer. As a result,
Sir Philip Oppenheimer, then president of the Central Selling Organization and a
De Beers director, sold it to Donald Zale, chairman of the board of the Zale
Corporation, the Dallas-based jewelry store chain. He bought the diamond in
partnership with Marvin Samuels, of the Premier Gems Corporation, and Louis
Glick, both prominent figures in the New York diamond industry. The huge stone
was finally unveiled in November, 1984, which coincided with the Zale
Corporation's 75th anniversary (their Diamond Anniversary). Shortly afterwards
it was put on display at the Natural History wing of the Smithsonian Institute
in Washington DC.
The
Incomparable in the hand of Leo Wins, master diamond cutter.
Prior to its appearance at auction in New York on October 19th, 1988, the
diamond was offered at Christie's in London where it was called "the Golden
Giant." However, when the gem came up for auction again it had been renamed
Incomparable, the largest diamond ever offered to the public for sale. It was
hoped the diamond would fetch $20 million but it was withdrawn from sale when
bidding failed the seller's reserve price (which actually was $20
million). Either way, history had been made: the late Theodore Horovitz of
Geneva, placed a bid for $12 million, the highest price ever bid at auction for
a single stone at that time. Louis Glick is said to still own the stone to this
date.
Mwana Africa continues move on SouthernEra Diamonds
The
Incomparable, with its satelite stones. The stone
The
Incomparable in the hand of Leo Wins, master diamond cutter.
